Waterloo Experience (WE) Accelerate: Spring 2025 work term

The program's first week (May 26-31) will feature onboarding and career programming through a one-hour synchronous session daily, followed by asynchronous activities totalling 25 hours for the entire week. An additional 10 hours of career programming will occur throughout the skills and project experience portion. In the program's final week (August 5-11), you will reflect on the career program conducted earlier and complete your summative assignment. This will total approximately 25 hours for the entire week.

What you'll learn:

• How to explore different career paths, industries and job roles that can be applied in later work terms or on your career journey.

• Essential professional skills such as communication, teamwork, time management, problem-solving and leadership.

• Effective job search strategies, including résumé writing, cover letter preparation, networking techniques and interview skills for future work terms.

• How to reflect on their career goals, strengths, areas for improvement and experiences gained throughout the program.

The Azure and Azure AI content will be supplemented with responsible AI in action content and material from our colleagues at Microsoft about Design Thinking. 

What you'll learn:

• Develop an understanding of Microsoft Azure fundamentals and AI concepts and the ability to deploy and manage cloud resources effectively.
• Build an understanding of the business implications and applications of AI technology and insight into AI ethics, governance and compliance.
• Ability to approach challenges creatively and empathetically using design thinking principles.

There will be an introductory session at the start of skills development and a project information session during the last week of skills training. Attendance at these events is mandatory. There will be additional live sessions, group meetings and office hours starting during the skills training phase of the program. If for some reason you are unable to attend the live sessions you must communicate with your Team Lead. Recordings will be available for some sessions. These will be ongoing throughout the project experience section of the program. To successfully complete the program, it is mandatory to sign up for a proctored examination for the AI-900 and AZ-900 certifications. 

As part of the project experience, you must meet with your team members and project mentor/employer regularly. It is also mandatory that you attend a final presentation session in the last week of the project (August 5 - 11) with your group. These will be scheduled, and timing shared with you as early as possible during the term.  

What you'll learn:

• Develop communication and presentation skills through participation in sessions and learn to articulate ideas, insights and project outcomes effectively.
• Practice time management skills by scheduling and attending mandatory sessions and meetings.
• Apply theoretical knowledge and skills acquired during synchronous sessions to real-world projects and challenges.
• Gain practical experience and insights relevant to future career opportunities.

Projects in this stream are provided in combination by Avanade and a third-party provider. Project teams will use their Azure and AI skills to complete deliverables in tandem with industry partners or propose solutions to important global issues. 

An industry mentor/client will assess your final project deliverable, resulting in your final overall evaluation. At the discretion of your industry mentor/client, the evaluation may be team-based or an individual evaluation.

What you'll learn: 

• Gain practical experience in applying technical knowledge to address complex challenges.
• Analyze project requirements, identify innovative solutions to address industry challenges or global issues, while enhancing your critical thinking skills by evaluating different approaches and making informed decisions.
• Plan, organize and execute project activities to meet deadlines and deliver high-quality outcomes.
• Acquire experience and skills relevant to future career opportunities in technology, innovation, and project management.

The program's first week (May 26 - 31) will feature onboarding and career programming through a daily one-hour synchronous session, followed by asynchronous activities totalling 25 hours for the entire week. An additional 10 hours of career programming will occur throughout the skills and project experience portion. In the program's final week (August 5 -11), you’ll reflect on the career program conducted earlier and complete your summative assignment. This will total approximately 25 hours for the entire week.

What you'll learn:

• How to explore different career paths, industries and job roles that can be applied in later work terms or on your career journey.
• Essential professional skills such as communication, teamwork, time management, problem-solving and leadership.
• Effective job search strategies, including résumé writing, cover letter preparation, networking techniques and interview skills for future work terms.
• How to reflect on their career goals, strengths, areas for improvement and experiences gained throughout the program.

Students in this stream will develop the skills needed to create accessible online courses, learning assets and training materials within the D2L Brightspace platform. Students will also investigate foundational principles and legal requirements of web accessibility to design AODA and WCAG compliant educational and training materials.

What you'll learn:

• Apply universal design for learning principles in diverse educational contexts
• Implement foundational principles and meet legal standards for web accessibility
• Navigate and use the Brightspace learning management system effectively

There will be an introductory session at the start of Skills Development and a showcase session during the last week of skills training. There will be weekly live sessions during skills training, days to be announced. Synchronous discussions and workshops will be scheduled for no more than 5 hours weekly. Live session attendance is mandatory. If for some reason you are unable to attend the live sessions, you must communicate with your Team Lead. Recordings will be available for some sessions.  Students will also need to find time each week to meet with their team lead and work together with their group members to complete several team-based activities.

What you'll learn:

• Develop communication and presentation skills through participation in sessions and learn to articulate ideas, insights and project outcomes effectively.
• Practice time management skills by scheduling and attending mandatory sessions and meetings.
• Apply theoretical knowledge and skills acquired during synchronous sessions to real-world projects and challenges.
• Gain practical experience and insights relevant to future career opportunities.

Synchronous discussions and workshops will be scheduled for no more than five hours weekly, and all discussions and workshops will be recorded for asynchronous viewing.

Students will also need to work together with their teams to complete several team-based activities. Most of the time commitment associated with Creating accessible digital learning environments will be asynchronous in nature.

To pass the skills development portion of this stream, you need to do the following:

• Complete apply your skills tasks
• Showcase your work in a final presentation
• Pass the two included quizzes

You’ll apply your Accessible Digital Learning Environments skills to work on recommendations and improvements to documents, tools and media in education or training material.

What you'll learn:

• Enhanced understanding of accessibility, education and/or training methodologies.
• Hands-on experience improving documents, tools and media in educational or training material alignment with accessibility standards.
• Ability to formulate actionable recommendations based on findings.
• Improved communication skills through interaction with partners and presenting findings effectively.
• Enhanced problem-solving skills by addressing real-world challenges in a professional setting.

The program's first week (May 26 -31) will feature onboarding and career programming through a daily one-hour synchronous session, followed by asynchronous activities totalling 25 hours for the entire week. An additional 10 hours of career programming will occur throughout the skills and project experience portion. In the program's final week (August 5 -11), you’ll reflect on the career program conducted earlier and complete your summative assignment. This will total approximately 25 hours for the entire week.

What you'll learn:

• How to explore different career paths, industries and job roles that can be applied in later work terms or on your career journey.
• Essential professional skills such as communication, teamwork, time management, problem-solving and leadership.
• Effective job search strategies, including résumé writing, cover letter preparation, networking techniques and interview skills for future work terms.
• How to reflect on their career goals, strengths, areas for improvement and experiences gained throughout the program.

Students in this stream will learn about the UN SDGs and sustainability alongside techniques and tools for data analysis and visualization. Students will interpret their analytical results, focusing on insights that can drive decision-making and impact.

What you'll learn:

• Use sustainability as a guiding framework to inform decisions and recommendations
• Identify, sort, categorize, clean, compare, aggregate and translate data effectively
• Analyze and evaluate the quality of data sets and sources (data literacy)
• Use data analysis tools proficiently, including Excel and PowerBI (among others)

There will be an introductory session at the start of Skills Development and a showcase session during the last week of skills training. There will be weekly live sessions during skills training, days to be announced. Synchronous discussions and workshops will be scheduled for no more than 5 hours weekly. Live session attendance is mandatory. If for some reason you are unable to attend the live sessions, you must communicate with your Team Lead. Recordings will be available for some sessions.  Students will also need to find time each week to meet with their team lead and work together with their group members to complete several team-based activities.

What you'll learn:

• Develop communication and presentation skills through participation in sessions and learn to articulate ideas, insights and project outcomes effectively.
• Practice time management skills by scheduling and attending mandatory sessions and meetings.
• Apply theoretical knowledge and skills acquired during synchronous sessions to real-world projects and challenges.
• Gain practical experience and insights relevant to future career opportunities.

Synchronous discussions and workshops will be scheduled for no more than five hours weekly, and all discussions and workshops will be recorded for asynchronous viewing.

Students will also need to work together with their teams to complete several team-based activities. Most of the time commitment associated with Data Driven Solutions will be asynchronous in nature.

To pass the skills development portion of this stream, you need to do the following:

• Carbon footprint assignment
• LinkedIn Learning: Prepare for the Power BI Data Analyst Associate (PL-300) Certification
• PowerBI assessment

You’ll apply your Data driven solution skills to apply their learned skills in data analytics and visualization towards meaningful, real-world problems either aligned with the UN SDGs or specific to an industry/community partner challenge or need.

What you'll learn:

• Enhanced understanding of the acquisition, organization, vetting and analysis of data.
• Ability to formulate actionable recommendations based on analytical findings.
• Improved communication skills through interaction with employer partners and presenting findings effectively.
• Enhanced problem-solving skills by addressing real-world challenges in a professional setting.

The program's first week (May 26 - 31) will feature onboarding and career programming through a daily one-hour synchronous session, followed by asynchronous activities totalling 25 hours for the entire week. An additional 10 hours of career programming will occur throughout the skills and project experience portion. In the program's final week (August 5 - 11), you’ll reflect on the career program conducted earlier and complete your summative assignment. This will total approximately 25 hours for the entire week.

What you'll learn:

• How to explore different career paths, industries and job roles that can be applied in later work terms or on your career journey.

• Essential professional skills such as communication, teamwork, time management, problem-solving and leadership.

• Effective job search strategies, including résumé writing, cover letter preparation, networking techniques and interview skills for future work terms.

• How to reflect on their career goals, strengths, areas for improvement and experiences gained throughout the program.

Students in this stream will begin by learning about a marketing philosophy known as Inbound and how this applies to a company's digital presence, both in terms of its website and its social media activity.

What you'll learn:

• How to attract, engage, and delight customers by putting themselves in their target audience's shoes and creating opportunities for two-way conversations.
• About the importance of consistent digital branding across all channels and how to follow or even build a brand guide.
• How to create and design websites in WordPress, WIX Studio, Squarespace among other platforms, and ensure that those websites are responsive, user-friendly, and accessible.
• How to apply content marketing, video marketing and email marketing to a website to keep it current and attract repeat visits.
• About search engine optimization and how to use data to both measure and boost the performance of a website.

There will be an introductory session at the start of Skills Development and a showcase session during the last week of skills training. There will be weekly live sessions during skills training, days to be announced. Synchronous discussions and workshops will be scheduled for no more than 5 hours weekly. Live session attendance is mandatory. If for some reason you are unable to attend the live sessions, you must communicate with your Team Lead. Recordings will be available for some sessions.  Students will also need to find time each week to meet with their team lead and work together with their group members to complete several team-based activities.

What you'll learn:

• Develop communication and presentation skills through participation in sessions and learn to articulate ideas, insights and project outcomes effectively.
• Practice time management skills by scheduling and attending mandatory sessions and meetings.
• Apply theoretical knowledge and skills acquired during synchronous sessions to real-world projects and challenges.
• Gain practical experience and insights relevant to future career opportunities.

Synchronous discussions and workshops will be scheduled for no more than five hours weekly, and all discussions and workshops will be recorded for asynchronous viewing.

Students will also need to work together with their teams to complete several team-based activities. Most of the time commitment associated with Digital Bootcamp will be asynchronous in nature.

To pass the skills development portion of this stream, you need to do the following:

1. Submit proof of earning the following

• Hubspot certificates
• Inbound Email Marketing
• Content Marketing

2. Submit proof of having completed the following online courses

• LinkedIn’s User Experience for Web Design course
• Google’s Analytics for Beginners course

3. Pass the 7 included quizzes with a grade of at least 70% each after three attempts

You’ll apply your Digital Bootcamp skills to work on improving a company's digital presence through things like a better user experience (UX) or improved search engine optimization (SEO). Projects are provided by one of Co-operative and Experiential Education’s employer partners.

What you'll learn:

• Enhanced understanding of digital marketing techniques and methodologies.
• Hands-on experience in utilizing digital tools and platforms for analysis and improvement.
• Ability to formulate actionable recommendations based on analytical findings.
• Improved communication skills through interaction with employer partners and presenting findings effectively.
• Enhanced problem-solving skills by addressing real-world challenges in a professional setting.

The program's first week (May 26 - 31) will feature onboarding and career programming through a daily one-hour synchronous session, followed by asynchronous activities totalling 25 hours for the entire week. An additional 10 hours of career programming will occur throughout the skills and project experience portion. In the program's final week (August 5 - 11), you’ll reflect on the career program conducted earlier and complete your summative assignment. This will total approximately 25 hours for the entire week.

What you'll learn:

• How to explore different career paths, industries and job roles that can be applied in later work terms or on your career journey.

• Essential professional skills such as communication, teamwork, time management, problem-solving and leadership.

• Effective job search strategies, including résumé writing, cover letter preparation, networking techniques and interview skills for future work terms.

• How to reflect on their career goals, strengths, areas for improvement and experiences gained throughout the program.

The skills training for the Sustainable Urban Design stream will take you through each step of the engineering design process. You and your design team will learn how to select a problem, conduct research, propose a solution, incorporate feedback from a client, and share your work through both a research presentation and a written policy brief.  

You’ll receive hands-on support from the expert educators in the Engineering Ideas Clinic and instruction from the Future Cities Institute as you work alongside your design team to solve problems for real clients.  

What you'll learn: 

• Investigate complex issues related to sustainability in an urban environment 

• Formulate an engineering design problem and develop a list of suitable design requirements 

• Generate and evaluate feasible solutions that address your chosen problem 

• Address design safety, regulatory, sustainability, and professional ethics requirements 

• Communicate your proposed design accurately and effectively including by oral presentation, written reports and with instructors, faculty advisors, peers, and project sponsors from Halton Region 

• Develop your teamwork skills by working as part of a multi-disciplinary team 

• Identify gaps in your knowledge and skills, and obtain information and/or training to address your educational needs 

The Sustainable Urban Design stream is an in-person experience with daily synchronous instruction from Tuesdays to Fridays, offered by the Engineering Ideas Clinic. Attending sessions in the Ideas Clinic is mandatory, and you should only opt into the Sustainable Urban Design stream if you’ll be able to come to campus daily during your WE Accelerate term.  

If you’re unable to attend an in-person day at the Ideas Clinic because of illness or other extenuating circumstances, you must communicate with your assigned fellow about your absence as soon as possible. 

You must also meet with your team members and project mentor/partner regularly. Finally, it’s mandatory that you participate in your group’s final research presentation in the last week of the project experience (July 28 – August 1). Exact scheduling and timing re: your group’s presentation will be shared as early as possible during the term. You can expect team meetings and your presentation to take place within the Ideas Clinic. 

Because the Sustainable Urban Design stream is an in-person experience from Tuesdays to Fridays with synchronous instruction and project support, you can expect to spend an average of seven daily hours learning and working in the Ideas Clinic. Both your skills development and your project experience will take place within the Ideas Clinic over the months of June and July, meaning you can expect to spend roughly 220 hours completing the skills and project experience components of this WE Accelerate stream.  

In the Sustainable Urban Design stream, your skills curriculum assessment is connected to successful completion of the project experience. You must successfully deliver a group research presentation and write a policy brief for your external partner to pass this stream’s skills curriculum component. 

Projects in this stream are developed in consultation with representatives from Halton Region, the Turkstra Chair in Urban Engineering, and the Douglas Wright Engineer-in-Residence. Project teams will identify and frame real-world problems affecting sustainability in the urban environment with input from Halton Region staff, and teams will use the design process to generate solutions to these problems. Teams will also be able to ask questions and receive feedback from Halton Region staff during a weekly “office hours” session. 

You’ll deliver a research presentation and a written policy brief to University of Waterloo instructors, students participating in the Sustainability and Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship, and your WE Accelerate peers. You’ll also receive feedback from your external project partner, resulting in your final overall team-based evaluation. 

The Sustainable Urban Design stream is an in-person experience with daily synchronous instruction from Tuesdays to Fridays, offered by the Engineering Ideas Clinic.  

Attending sessions in the Ideas Clinic is mandatory, and you should only opt into the Sustainable Urban Design stream if you’ll be able to come to campus daily during your WE Accelerate term.