Focus: Building on undergraduate success to develop graduate student experiential options
Leveraging Waterloo’s global leadership in work-integrated learning (WIL) for graduate students is a major innovation for the University, and a key way to strengthen the University’s commitment to develop talent for a complex future. Working collaboratively, Co-operative and Experiential Education (CEE) and Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs have set a new goal to offer all Waterloo graduate students an opportunity to participate in WIL, either as a part of the graduate program or an additional experience.
A GradWIL curriculum development team is available to work closely with each of the academic programs to ensure there are helpful models for building WIL into graduate level curricula. Using its expertise in WIL pedagogy and student support, CEE will develop meaningful WIL experiences for graduate students, with input from GSPA and each Faculty. CEE will build on connections with existing employers to articulate the value proposition for employers to engage with graduate students.
These collaborative efforts are paying off. The School of Environment, Resources, and Sustainability launched a new internship program and CEE has developed new supports for graduate students in three Engineering and Math programs. A pre-pilot of enhanced co-op with individualized support in the Master of Management Sciences program is building positive graduate student experiences in WIL. To ensure that the GradWIL initiative is aligned with the interests of the graduate community, consultations will continue this fall.
Jump to: DT Goal 3 | Developing Talent Goals