Employers are essential partners in sustainable work-integrated learning (WIL) programs. They aim to recruit talented students, and they create recruitment messages (e.g., job advertisements) to achieve this goal. Signaling theory suggests that aligning recruitment messages with WIL students' interests will enhance job attractiveness. This study…

This paper advances the Future Ready Talent Framework (FRTF), a conceptual model of talents that are relevant to stakeholders of work-integrated learning (WIL) programs. The paper is organized into three sections. The first section provides background on the development of the FRTF, including a brief review of talent frameworks and the future of…

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the practice of work-integrated learning (WIL) has been significant, with many active WIL activities pivoting to remote offerings where students engage with the workplace through online platforms from their homes. The pandemic has also caused significant and ongoing disruption to the economy, likely causing…

Student performance evaluations are a traditional method for assessing a student's skills during a work-integrated learning (WIL) experience. While these assessments provide students with feedback on the development of their skills, little documentation of student performance exists after the WIL experience. This paper explores the role of…

This paper describes two classes of advanced data mining methods that can obtain actionable insight from cooperative education data: text mining of job descriptions and graph mining of job interview data. While these methods are not new in general, they have not been widely used in co-operative education research. A technical overview of each…

The COVID-19 pandemic required a quick adaptation in the way work-integrated learning programs are offered. While not suitable for all types or disciplines of WIL, this disruption has led to many WIL experiences occurring remotely, that is, students working for organizations from home. Students' perceptions of their WIL experiences have previously…

This study explored the ways that work-integrated learning (WIL) influences the development of entrepreneurs. Seven alumni from Canada and the United Kingdom, who experienced differing forms of WIL during their degree, participated in qualitative in-depth interviews and provided rich pictures. A "rich picture" is a pictorial…

Work-integrated learning (WIL) experiences rely heavily on the development of relationships between the university, industry and often community organizations. As participation in WIL is increasing, the issue of sustainability becomes paramount, requiring processes and practices for effective collaborations and partnerships. This paper reports on…

Lifelong learning has emerged as an important learning outcome across the Canadian post-secondary education system. However, assessments of lifelong learning have been limited to students' self-reports, particularly questionnaires. In programs that offer work-integrated learning experiences, students' reflections may provide a window to further…