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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 microcredentials in evidencing student competence in a particular skill through two studies conducted at the University of Waterloo. First, students and employers were surveyed to investigate their perceptions of microcredentials. Second, semi-structured interviews were conducted with students who had the opportunity to earn a microcredential based on their performance in their co-operative education (co-op) work term and in the professional development courses that accompany their work term. Findings suggest that awareness of microcredentials remains limited. In terms of their value, there is evidence consistent with Bourdieu's theory of capital. Microcredentials appear to signal value to employers and students through the credential itself. However, aligning with human capital theory, microcredentials appear most valuable when they demonstrate both knowledge acquisition and competency. Finally, the value of obtaining a microcredential appears to motivate students to exert greater effort towards content mastery.

Purpose: This study aims to explore the relationship between the number of co-operative (co-op) education work terms that students completed and the importance they attach to employer and job attributes (i.e. work values). Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected from a large cross-sectional survey of co-op students (N = 2,097) from one Canadian university. Findings: Of the 19 work values measured, only six were related to work experience. Whereas work experience was related to several of the least important work values, such as geographic location, it was unrelated to many of the most important work values, such as work-life balance. Further, evidence suggests that changes in work values occur when work experience is first introduced in the curriculum (e.g. first co-op work term), not at subsequent work experiences. Research limitations/implications: The findings extend the understanding of how work-integrated learning (WIL) prepares students to make decisions about their careers in the future of work and provide insights to address the challenge of scaling WIL. However, the study draws on cross-sectional data from one single Canadian university and does not explore potentially confounding factors including time itself or critical events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Practical implications: WIL educators may leverage these findings to improve their understanding of how students' work values evolve as they complete WIL experiences. They may also use insights from the study to align students' needs and employers' understandings of those needs. Originality/value: This study is the first to explore how work values might change throughout a WIL program, particularly among Gen Z students whose work values seem divergent from those of previous generations.

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 representation of a situation, including what happened, who was involved, how the participant perceived the situation. During the interviews, participants reflected on how WIL impacted their career and they created rich pictures to depict their perception of an entrepreneur and what influenced them to become an entrepreneur. Several important themes emerged and included seizing opportunities, thinking "outside the box," being resilient during difficult times, and the importance of networks. The influence of WIL was important for all participants and provided the framework of support that enabled the participants to manage difficult times and turn disruption into opportunity.

The global push towards widening participation for equity cohorts, including students with disabilities, is promising, but it is yet to translate into improved employment experiences. In this commentary, we highlight what higher education institutions must now do to drive meaningful change and better support students with disabilities' workforce transitions. In doing so, we advocate for a much-needed change towards inclusive work-integrated learning practices that enable students with disabilities to leverage these opportunities to trial career pathways, build networks, and develop their future career goals. Necessary in this is the adoption of co-designed work-integrated learning, that brings together students with disabilities, industry and community, and academics to ensure non-ableist inclusive practices and a culture which understands the strength in diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging research suggests that students from equity-deserving groups (EDGs) may experience barriers within work-integrated learning (WIL) that other students may not face, and such barriers may negatively impact students’ participation in WIL. Guided by a social justice lens, this study used interviews of co-operative education (co-op) students (n = 30) from EDGs to explore barriers that such students experienced in one Canadian co-op program. Analyses of qualitative data showed that these students experienced non-structural barriers (those that are less explicit, such as internalized discrimination) and structural barriers (those related to policy and practice, both within their co-op program and their host organizations). While some barriers were specific to a given EDG, others were common across EDGs. These findings provide a fuller picture of the kinds of barriers experienced by WIL students within and across EDGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a cross-sectional survey of co-operative education students, this study explored relationships between students' gender, work experience, time spent on tasks with supervisors, and self-reported learning. Inexperienced men spent 50% more time on tasks with supervisors than inexperienced women. Work experience (completing at least one co-operative education work term) significantly reduced this gender-based gap. Further, time on tasks with supervisors was positively associated with self-reported learning among women, especially inexperienced women, but not for men. The findings are interpreted using the literature on gender roles at work and students' experiential learning outcomes. Early career women may be socialized into gender roles that limit access to supervisors' time. Work experience may help such women develop human capital such as confidence and social skills that closes gender-based gaps in learning opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a two-year-long longitudinal dataset that follows co-operative education (co-op) students’ employment situations, this paper examines how unemployment in the first scheduled co-op work term is associated with un(der)employment in subsequent work terms. Drawing from unemployment scarring theory, the paper also investigates the role of a work-readiness intervention in reversing the potentially negative consequences of unemployment in the first scheduled co-op work term. The results suggest that unemployment in the first co-op work term is associated with underemployment in a subsequent work term. Compared to those who were employed in their first scheduled work term, students who were initially unemployed were just as likely to be employed in their second work term, but they got jobs later, were in jobs with lower seniority, and were paid less than expected. By the third scheduled work term, employment and underemployment were similar between all groups, except that initially employed students continued to earn more, suggesting an earnings penalty for initial unemployment that is consistent with unemployment scarring theory. Critically, participation in a work-readiness intervention reversed this narrative. Intervention participants did better than their unemployed peers in subsequent work terms, and their employment situation was more like that of the initially employed students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]