Waterloo Experience (WE) Accelerate: An innovative way to access student talent this winter!

Four co-op students chatting

We know from recent research done with over 74,000 work-term job descriptions that employers across all industries are looking for students with digital skills to help transition the way they do business. That’s why we’re offering our innovative Waterloo Experience (WE) Accelerate program – to give you more ways to connect with our tech-savvy students who can help fill your talent needs!  

WE Accelerate is a robust alternative to a traditional co-op work term for first work-term students. The program combines future-ready, in-demand skill development content (co-created with industry collaborators) with team-based project experience and employability development content.

If you don’t have the capacity to hire a student for a traditional 8- to 16-week work term, this is a great way to harness our students’ bright minds for shorter projects.

This winter, students will be enrolling in WE Accelerate skill streams and accessing skill development content provided by our industry collaborators. Here's a look at what students will be learning:

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Stream Skills students will Typical projects students will complete
Digital bootcamp: web design and marketing

  • Learn basics of web design using platforms like WIX, WordPress.  

  • Improve the UX and UI of websites to make them more responsive and engaging.  

  • Optimize search results (SEO) to improve a company’s visibility to customers.  

  • Identify target audiences through inbound and outbound marketing techniques.  

  • Create content for email and video marketing, blogs and social media campaigns.  

  • Enhance a company’s website to improve customer/client experience.  

  • Use Google analytics to create an SEO strategy to attract new audiences and drive website traffic.  

  • Boost digital marketing efforts by creating engaging content designed for a business’s target audience.  

  • Design and build a social media campaign using a variety of content creation tools.  


 
Data-driven solutions for global challenges   

  • Discover the fundamentals of data analytics. 

  • Analyze and compare real world data to identify trends and patterns.  

  • Create data informed dashboards, visualizations and reports using tools like PowerBI.  

  • Learn how to make recommendations to overcome challenges using data.  

  • Compile and compare internal and external data. 

  • Use multiple data sources to conduct market research or competitor analysis.    

  • Track engagement, analyze customer/client demographics, evaluate campaign performance.  

  • Recommend solutions to organizational challenges using data informed decision making. 


 

Do you have projects that require digital expertise?

We are seeking projects from employers that align with the skills above to help our students apply what they’ve learned. Each project will be assigned a team of approximately six students who will help tackle the problem your organization has provided across a 5-week span from March 2 to April 3, and should involve approximately 120 hours of work per student (approximately 25 hours per week). We also encourage you to explore taking on multiple teams of students to work on the same deliverable. It presents a great opportunity to investigate different avenues to the project you have in mind.

In return, we ask that you guide the students through your project, provide them with feedback and assess their performance at the end of the project to help them keep learning. We also encourage participating employers to provide a small award for each student's work on their projects, if possible.

By taking part in this offering, you’re not only gaining our students’ digital skills and cross-disciplinary creativity on the projects you provide – you’re also investing in student talent to help the next generation of graduates prepare for the future workforce!

Timeline and what to expect

WE Accelerate work term begins January 26
Career programming (part 1) January 26 - 30
  • Complete onboarding and career curriculum (part 1).
  • Approximately 25 hours during this first week, with approximately 10 additional hours of career programming to occur throughout.
  • 1 hour of synchronous content daily, with all other content provided asynchronously.
Skill development programming Beginning February 2
  • Complete skill development content provided by industry collaborator(s).
  • Approximately 100 hours, with varying degrees of synchronous content depending on the stream.
Project experience March 2 - April 3 (exact timing will depend on the stream/project)
  • Complete industry collaborator projects in teams and receive feedback.
  • Approximately 120 hours of project work to be expected across 5 weeks (all projects to be completed by April 3).
  • Please note: the hours to complete your project work will be determined by the project provider, with the expectation you are available.
  • Industry collaborators will complete a Project Evaluation Form and assign individual ratings OR an overall rating for each project team (up to the employers discretion).
  • Project evaluation form deadline (for employers): Friday, April 10.
Career programming (part 2) April 6 - 10
  • Complete career curriculum (part 2) and final summative assignment (due April 10).
  • Approximately 25 hours.

Questions?

If you have questions or a project that can use some digital expertise this winter, connect with your Account Manager to learn more about WE Accelerate and how to take part!

New to hiring?

If you haven't hired with us before, you can contact hire.talent@uwaterloo.ca and a Business Developer will reach out to answer your questions.