“Alberta’s government is helping students gain hands-on skills by supporting Calgary Economic Development’s new work-integrated learning (WIL) pilot program.
Advanced Education is investing $2.5 million towards the pilot, which will create a one-stop online portal for work-integrated learning opportunities that can be accessed by students at all seven post-secondary institutions in the Calgary region.
Students gain crucial workplace experience from industry experts through work-integrated learning placements while employers gain access to the talent they need to grow their businesses. Job placements through the program can be offered as co-ops, internships, applied research projects or field placements.
“Work-integrated learning opportunities are extremely valuable for our province. They provide students with the chance to apply the skills they learned in the classroom and bolster their resumés with on-the-job experience. Work-integrated learning benefits students, employers and our whole economy.”
Demetrios Nicolaides, Minister of Advanced Education
Calgary Economic Development will develop a one-stop online portal for WIL opportunities in the region, ensuring they align with the eight sectors identified in Alberta’s Recovery Plan and that new programs don’t duplicate existing ones.
Future Skills Centre, a pan-Canadian initiative funded by the Government of Canada’s Future Skills Program, is providing $2.9 million for the pilot.”
“Work-integrated learning is an important tool to build a learning nation, and we saw early potential in this pilot to evolve the approach through a more coordinated, regional and sector-wide approach. This work can immediately contribute to Calgary’s economic transformation and recovery while also providing insights for a more systematic way for employers to collaborate with post-secondary institutions.”
Pedro Barata, executive director, Future Skills Centre
“Work-integrated learning is vital to helping provide Calgarians with pathways to impactful careers in a variety of high-demand and emerging sectors. This collaboration, including all seven of Calgary’s post-secondaries and local employers, is an exciting major step towards ensuring that Calgarians will have opportunities to advance their job skills and enhance Calgary’s talent pool for our future economy.”
Brad Parry, president and CEO, Calgary Economic Development”
Read the full announcement here
