Module 2: Types of WIL in Canada

In this module, you will learn how to:

• Identify the nine WIL types used in Canada
• Understand their key differences, benefits, and common uses by WIL host organizations
• Determine which WIL type or types align with your workplace capacity, supervision structure, and talent goals

Each section includes:

• A clear overview of the WIL type
• A real-world example or use case from a WIL host organization
• A short video and a link to the CEWIL Employer Toolkit

The Different Types of WIL:

1. Community and Industry Research & Projects (CIRPS): Formerly known as Applied Research Projects, this WIL type engages students in applied research that supports organizational and community needs
2. Apprenticeship: A formal model that combines paid work with technical training under the supervision of a certified journeyperson.
3. Co-operative Education (Co-op): A structured model involving alternating terms of academic study and full-time paid work that are directly connected to a student’s academic program.
4. Internship: A supervised and discipline-specific work experience that is intentionally structured, may be full-time or part-time, and paid or unpaid depending on the program and applicable legislation.
5. Practicum or Clinical Placement: A mandatory supervised work experience required for professional licensure or certification in regulated fields.
6. Entrepreneurship: Students develop or launch a business idea with institutional support such as mentorship, space, or funding.
7. Field Placement: A short-term or part-time placement that is embedded in an academic program, often without formal certification or licensure requirements.
8. Service Learning: Integrates academic learning with meaningful community service, where students work on projects identified by community partners.
9. Work Experience: One or more work terms embedded within an academic program that provide relevant workplace exposure without a formal co-operative education structure.

Community and Industry Research & Projects (CIRPS), formerly known as Applied Research Projects, is a structured work-integrated learning (WIL) model that places students in the role of researchers rather than employees. Students work on real challenges identified by community, non-profit, or industry partners, often within academic coursework.

CIRPS allows students to apply course concepts to authentic problems, while organizations receive evidence-based insights, recommendations, and solutions at low cost and low supervision.

Examples include:

• Consulting or feasibility projects
• Community-based research
• Service or product design and testing

Why Choose CIRPS?

According to CEWIL Canada, CIRPS supports employers and community partners by:

1. Addressing long-term challenges that are important but not urgent
2. Producing well-researched, actionable solutions
3. Requiring low time investment in supervision
4. Offering remote or hybrid delivery to fit various operational models

Ideal for small and medium-sized organizations seeking strategic insight or innovation without hosting full WIL placements.

Real-World Example

As part of a Selkirk College CIRPs on rural climate resilience, a student partnered with local leaders to launch emergency preparedness campaigns. Using community-based social marketing, they helped three pilot communities develop evacuation plans and emergency kits, turning academic research into practical community safety outcomes.

Apprenticeship is a formal, long-term model of work-integrated learning (WIL) that combines about 80% paid on-the-job training with 20% technical classroom instruction. It is designed for students pursuing careers in skilled trades, and usually takes 2 to 5 years to complete, depending on the trade.

Apprentices are sponsored by an employer and learn under the direct supervision of a certified journeyperson. The workplace must provide a safe learning environment where apprentices gain hands-on experience while actively contributing to operations.

Why Choose Apprenticeship?

Hiring an apprentice supports long-term talent development while directly benefiting your business:

1. Develop a strong talent pipeline: Train employees with job-specific knowledge and cultural fit.
2. Improve safety and productivity: Employees trained by journeypersons typically demonstrate better performance and lower incident rates.
3. Increase retention: Apprentices who become certified tradespeople tend to stay with employers who invested in their learning.
4. Demonstrate investment in workforce development: Positions your organization as an employer of choice in your industry.
5. Receive financial support: Many provinces offer grants, wage subsidies, and tax incentives for sponsoring employers.

Real-World Example

A small construction company in northern BC sponsored a high school graduate through a Carpentry Apprenticeship. Over four years, the apprentice completed hands-on training and technical instruction through a local college. After earning Red Seal certification, the apprentice stayed on as a site supervisor and later began mentoring new apprentices, creating a cycle of workforce development within the company.

Co-operative Education (Co-op) is a structured work-integrated learning (WIL) model where students alternate between periods of academic study and paid, full-time work terms directly related to their field of study. These work terms integrate classroom learning with real-world application.

Co-op is the only WIL model accredited by CEWIL Canada and includes specific standards such as minimum work hours, employer evaluations, and institutional oversight. Work terms typically last 4, 8, or 12 months and must meet a minimum of 420 hours each term.

Examples of Co-op placements:

• Social media coordinator for a Marketing student
• Software developer for a Computer Science student
• Research assistant for a Health Sciences student

Why Choose Co-op?

Employers benefit by accessing project-ready talent and developing long-term recruitment strategies. According to CEWIL Canada and WIL partners across BC:

1. Fill short-term staffing gaps
2. Increase capacity for ongoing or new projects
3. Build a recruitment pipeline with students who understand your workplace
4. Bring fresh ideas and up-to-date knowledge 
5. Access wage subsidies and government-funded programs

Co-op is especially valuable for employers looking to expand innovation, improve project delivery, and reduce hiring risks.

Real-World Example

One Voice, a small organization focused on process optimization and education, hired four co-op students and two interns during the pandemic. Using 75% wage subsidies, they expanded operational capacity while supporting student development. Co-op students participated in agile workflow practices including daily scrums, sprint reviews, and retrospectives, and were fully integrated into the organizational workflow.

Another employer, Query Technologies, conducted virtual midpoint reviews with UVic co-op students and praised the effectiveness of the process. One of the co-op students was hired full-time.

Internships are structured, discipline-specific work-integrated learning (WIL) placements that offer students full-time work experience, typically 12 to 16 months, either during or after their academic program. These placements can be paid or unpaid and may be for academic credit.

Internships are designed to be intentional and semi-structured, with a strong emphasis on supervision, mentorship, and student development. They allow employers more flexibility than Co-ops while still offering a valuable, skill-building experience to the student.

Examples of internship placements:

• Graphic design intern for a marketing agency
• HR intern supporting recruitment and onboarding
• Research assistant in environmental sciences
• Communications intern in a non-profit organization

Why Choose Internships?

Internships are a powerful way for employers to increase capacity, mentor future professionals, and contribute to skill development in their field. According to CEWIL, internships help host organizations:

1. Fill short-term staffing needs
2. Support day-to-day operations with motivated students
3. Build your long-term talent pipeline
4. Get resource support for existing or new projects
5. Boost your organization's visibility and reputation with students and institutions

Internships offer more flexibility than some other WIL types and can be customized to fit unique roles and timelines.

Real-World Examples

The Victoria Chamber of Commerce created an internship program to support key business projects. By assessing organizational needs and identifying skill gaps, they matched interns with revenue-generating activities—demonstrating a clear link between internship outcomes and business goals.

At RebalanceMD, interns worked alongside a multi-disciplinary team of healthcare professionals. Through hands-on mentorship and feedback, students built professional competencies and gained clarity about their career goals while contributing to patient-focused outcomes.

A Professional Practicum or Clinical Placement is a mandatory, unpaid, supervised work-integrated learning (WIL) experience required for professional licensure or certification in fields such as healthcare, education, therapy, and social work.

Students in these placements are typically in the final stages of their academic program and work under the guidance of a registered or licensed professional (e.g., nurse, teacher, therapist). The focus is on developing regulated, practice-ready skills through hands-on experience, rather than on independent workloads or performance-based outputs.

Common practicum areas:

• Nursing and medical imaging
• Early childhood education
• Social work and psychology
• Kinesiology and therapeutic recreation

Why Choose Professional Practicums?

Employers and professionals benefit by shaping the next generation of licensed practitioners within their profession:

• Mentor future professionals while contributing to the sector’s talent development
• Build leadership capacity by involving your team in student training
• Help meet short-term service demands with supervision support
• Establish long-term partnerships with programs and institutions
• Gain fresh perspectives and support innovation within supervised practice

Real-World Example

At Okanagan College, students in the Therapist Assistant Diploma program complete four clinical practicums under the supervision of occupational, physical, or recreational therapists. Supervisors must meet strict credentialing standards set by national accrediting bodies. Once approved, clinical sites often become long-term partners, offering placements year after year and contributing to student readiness for professional certification.

Entrepreneurship-based work-integrated learning (WIL) allows students to start and grow their own business while receiving mentorship, guidance, and academic credit. These experiences are often supported by campus incubators, accelerators, or entrepreneurship programs and can involve students from any discipline.

Students may:

• Develop a business plan or pitch
• Launch a product or service
• Collaborate with start-ups or local entrepreneurs
• Conduct market research, prototype testing, or early-stage branding

This model supports student innovation and contributes to community business development.

Why Choose Entrepreneurship?

Entrepreneurship WIL experiences offer unique benefits to employers and mentors:

• Access innovative ideas from entrepreneurially minded students
• Mentor or coach emerging talent
• Contribute to early-stage projects and help test or refine business models
• Partner on short-term or research-based initiatives
• Engage students who are self-directed and adaptable 

Employers and mentors can participate in a range of roles:

• Mentor: Offer guidance, answer questions, or coach teams.
• Partner: Work with student entrepreneurs through embedded classroom experiences.
• Supervisor: Bring students into your start-up or scale-up to support business growth.

Real-World Examples

• At Simon Fraser University, the Charles Chang Institute for Entrepreneurship runs an Embedded Mentor program. Mentors-in-Residence participate in interdisciplinary classrooms to support student-led ventures throughout development.
• At the Université de Sherbrooke, the Desjardins Entrepreneurship Accelerator connects students across all faculties with local start-ups for hands-on project collaboration.
• The University of Toronto runs a course called Exploring New Ventures through its Centre for Entrepreneurship, where students apply entrepreneurial concepts in collaboration with local organizations.

Field Placements are short-term, part-time work-integrated learning (WIL) experiences that give students the chance to apply their academic learning in real-world settings—often as part of a course or program requirement. These placements are typically unpaid and offer flexible, hands-on experience without requiring supervision from a licensed professional.

Unlike co-op or practicum placements, field placements are less structured, vary by program, and are ideal for project-based or support-focused roles that don’t fit into more formal WIL models.

Examples of field placement settings:

• Social service and nonprofit agencies
• Public health units
• Marketing and communications offices
• Hospitality, culinary, and tourism businesses
• Event planning, bookkeeping, or administrative roles

Why Choose Field Placement?

Field placements allow organizations to engage with students in ways that align with their capacity and project needs. According to CEWIL and institutional partners:

• Support short-term or resource-light projects
• Tap into student creativity and innovation
• Test and explore emerging roles or functions
• Offer mentorship without long-term commitments
• Build long-term partnerships with academic programs

Ideal for employers that want to support student learning without taking on full-term placements.

Real-World Examples

At Conestoga College, students in the Advertising and Marketing Communications program complete a 5-week, full-time field placement just before graduation. Students apply their skills in content creation, branding, and public relations while receiving feedback from professionals.

Similarly, Langara College’s Social Service Worker students complete part-time placements during the school year, followed by a full-time block placement at a different agency. This dual structure allows students to apply what they have learned across multiple settings.

Service Learning, often called Community Service Learning (CSL), is a form of work-integrated learning (WIL) that integrates meaningful volunteer service with classroom instruction and critical reflection. Students address real community needs while achieving course learning objectives.

These unpaid placements or projects are typically part-time, short-term, and integrated into academic coursework. Projects can be initiated by either the organization or the post-secondary institution (PSI).

Examples include:

• Supporting local nonprofit organizations with event planning or communications
• Assisting with program evaluations or survey analysis
• Designing public engagement campaigns
• Collaborating on fundraising or social media strategy

Why Choose Service Learning?

Service learning allows your organization to collaborate meaningfully with students while advancing your community-focused goals. According to CEWIL, the top ways service learning can support your business objectives include:

• Accessing innovative ideas that enhance impact
• Completing short-term projects with minimal supervision
• Receiving resource support for new or existing initiatives
• Providing leadership development opportunities for your staff
• Forming reciprocal partnerships with local institutions

CSL is particularly useful for nonprofit organizations, public organizations, and small businesses seeking student support without formal hiring or intensive supervision.

Real-World Examples

• iSisters, an Ottawa-based nonprofit organization, partnered with the University of Ottawa graduate students to create a digital campaign for its 20th anniversary. Many students’ recommendations were implemented within weeks.
• At Brock University, neuropsychology students collaborated virtually with seniors to co-create music playlists through the Music and Memory program, helping address isolation and enhance well-being.
• Ontario Tech University students joined the Love Your Lake initiative, to clean and analyze waste patterns along Lake Ontario. Students provided research-informed recommendations to improve environmental sustainability.

Work Experience is a flexible, non-traditional work-integrated learning (WIL) model designed to meet the needs of organizations and post-secondary institutions (PSIs) that do not have access to formal Co-op or Internship programs. It creates opportunities for customized experiential learning where students work full-time on organizational tasks, projects, or problem-solving activities.

This model is typically less prescriptive, can vary in structure, and offers both the employer and student the chance to co-design the learning experience based on needs and capacity.

Examples include:

• Hiring a student to manage a digital content archive over the summer
• Engaging multiple students to support a marketing campaign or business expansion
• Supporting new service design in a nonprofit with limited full-time staff

Why Choose Work Experience?

Work experience is ideal for employers seeking a practical, low-barrier entry into WIL partnerships. According to CEWIL Canada, this model can help:

• Fill short-term staffing needs
• Leverage student support during busy periods or for new projects
• Increase organizational capacity for specific initiatives
• Develop a future talent pipeline with fewer formal requirements
• Create mutually beneficial roles that support student and business development

It is especially effective for small to mid-sized organizations, community-based partners, or employers with limited time for structured supervision.

Real-World Examples

At Brock University, students from the Interactive Arts & Sciences program joined the Canada Summer Games digital media team to create a short animation series. The project used a flexible structure that allowed different students to contribute at various points. This format supported both the Games’ creative timeline and the students’ learning goals, demonstrating the power of a multi-student, project-based Work Experience model.

Another example from UBC’s Work Learn program involved a lab-based student who supported ongoing experiments. The student completed onboarding with a project handover report, trained alongside peers, and met weekly with their supervisor to review progress, clarify goals, and refine tasks.

• Reflect on your organization’s current capacity and staffing needs
• Identify which WIL types align with your goals, timeline, and supervision availability
• Consider what support (e.g., funding, mentorship, institutional partnerships) may help you succeed
• Take next steps in planning or initiating a WIL partnership

Before choosing a WIL type, consider:

• Your project or talent needs: Do you need help on short-term projects, daily operations, innovation initiatives, or research?
• Timeline & availability: Do you have capacity for a 4 to 8 month co-op student, or would a short-term intern or field placement work better?
• Supervision: Can someone on your team offer mentorship and regular feedback? Do you have a licensed professional for a practicum, or a journeyperson for an apprenticeship?
• Work environment: Is your workplace in-person, remote, or hybrid? Can students safely complete tasks within your structure?
• Funding support: Would access to wage subsidies or grants influence your decision? Some models may be more commonly eligible for financial supports.

The checklist is designed for WIL host organizations to assess their needs and outline practical steps for setting up WIL opportunities for students. Download the checklist with the button below.

WIL Readiness Checklist

In this module, you:

• Gained a clear understanding of the nine nationally recognized Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) types in Canada, such as Co-op, Apprenticeship, Internships, Field Placements, and Service Learning, each offering unique structures, supervision requirements, and benefits for employers.
• Used a customizable learning path to explore WIL types that best fit your organization’s size, capacity, and goals, with real-world examples, CEWIL-endorsed videos, and links to national toolkits.
• Completed a reflection activity to assess your organizational readiness and identify the best-fitting WIL models, helping set the foundation for future planning, recruitment, and partnership with post-secondary institutions.

Test your understanding of foundational Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) concepts and the nine types of WIL in Canada

• Covers Modules 1 and 2
• Includes 10 multiple-choice questions
• Worth 20% of your course certificate
• Unlimited attempts

Take Knowledge Check 2