Embedded Work-Integrated Learning

The Government of Alberta, as part of Alberta 2030, became the first province in Canada to commit to offering every undergraduate student access to a work-integrated learning (WIL) opportunity. To deliver on the vision of universal WIL, WIL must reframe the role of learners, educators, and employers.

Calgary’s talent ecosystem includes 45,000 employers and 3000 learning organizations, delivering 30,000 programs. If traditional closed learning resembles a ladder, open learning resembles a dynamic climbing wall. This climbing wall incorporates infinite ways to learn, spanning traditional classrooms, employment, volunteering, arts and culture, sports and recreation, and everything in between. The climbing wall recognizes that employers must play a more active role in the learning journey of Calgarians.

Building on the LearningCITY work from the past five years, the LearningCITY Collective in 2024 is piloting ApprenticeYYC. Apprenticeship learning combines classroom learning with on-the-job training and work experience. Alberta 2030 has defined a key initiative to build, fund, and establish a policy to support the expansion of apprenticeship learning into new fields.

ApprenticeYYC recognizes that an increasingly hybrid work environment has led to underutilized office space and reduced workplace vibrancy. Viewing this as an opportunity, ApprenticeYYC will continue challenging the boundaries between learning and work by embedding classroom learning in the workplace, facilitating increased structured and unstructured interaction between learners and professionals. The first stage of the ApprenticeYYC pilot in 2024-25 will embed senior marketing classes in various Calgary-based marketing agencies and partners.

The Pilot Courses

Course 1: Marketing-Driven Strategy

Since 2011, the Bachelor of Business Administration (Marketing) at Mount Royal University has incorporated the capstone course - Marketing-Driven Strategy. All marketing majors take this course in their graduating year. The course facilitates a student’s transition to a marketing professional. Key elements of this course include:

  • Five competing capstone marketing agencies are formed each semester.

  • Each capstone agency consists of seven to nine students. All students sign non-disclosure agreements before the start of the semester.

  • All five capstone agencies only meet together when being briefed by a client or pitching a client.

  • Capstone agencies meet weekly for three hours in their assigned “head office” (a boardroom). Their professor spends one hour with each agency weekly coaching them.

  • Each capstone agency selects a “Chief Strategy Officer” to manage the agency and be the single point of regular contact with the client.

  • Each semester includes two major client projects approximately six weeks in length.

  • The project scope is tied to a client’s strategic challenge, such as market identification, product/ service design, or channel strategy. Branding is not a core learning outcome of this course.

  • The professor recruits and selects the clients each semester. The brief is developed jointly by the client and the professor.

  • Students track all their time at a billable rate of $100 per hour to show the cost/ value of time.

Course 2: Sports & Entertainment Marketing

The second pilot course is Sports & Entertainment Marketing. The sports and entertainment business has become a persistent and integral part of Calgary’s economy. This has made managing events, venues, artists, and athletes, as well as the accountability of sponsorship and celebrity endorsement, a high priority for skill development. This is a specialized course for students interested in expanding their knowledge of the sports and entertainment industry as a business and economic force. This course provides students with a framework for understanding the scope of the sports and entertainment business across the various leagues, the venues, the sponsors, the media companies, the agencies, the athletes and artists and their relationships to internal and external factors, and the marketing applications that drive this complex and growing multi-billion-dollar industry.

How it Works

Course 1: Marketing-Driven Strategy Partner

This course will pair a capstone agency with a host marketing agency for the semester. As part of this pairing, the capstone agency will be based at the host agency’s office for three hours weekly. As an ApprenticeYYC host, the agency will play the following role:

  • Provide a meeting room for up to nine students for up to three hours each Thursday during the assigned class time for the 14-week semester.

  • Appoint one or more junior staff to act as capstone agency mentors. This role will include mentor coaching. The scope of this role will depend on the individual. This is generally limited to a weekly check-in and to be a sounding board for challenges or opportunities facing their capstone agency.

  • Host agencies have no responsibility for the client project or direct student supervision.

Course 2: Sports & Entertainment Marketing Partner

This class will be delivered in multiple locations central to Calgary’s sports & entertainment sector. The aim is to immerse students in this profession. As an ApprenticeYYC host, our sports & entertainment partners will play the following role:

  • Provide a meeting space for up to 24 students for up to three hours each Tuesday during the assigned class time for the 14-week semester.

  • Appoint one or more junior staff members to act as student mentors. This role will include mentor coaching, and the scope of it will depend on the partner and individual.

  • Partners will have no responsibility for direct student supervision.

Partner Benefits

Benefits to ApprenticeYYC Host Part

  • Opportunity to identify high-potential new graduates.

  • Opportunity to build the host agency’s brand amongst all 400 BBA marketing students.

  • Opportunity to activate underutilized office space in an increasingly hybrid work environment.

Benefits to Students and Profession

  • Accelerating the professional transition of young marketers.

  • Accelerating the professional networks of young marketers.

  • Facilitating opportunities for young marketers to engage in Calgary’s marketing community.

The Schedule

We are seeking ApprenticeYYC partners for the Fall 2024 and Winter 2025 semesters:

Marketing-Driven Strategy

September 12 to December 5 (Thursdays)

  • 1130-230pm

  • 230pm-530pm

January 9 to April 10 (Thursdays)

  • 1130-230pm

  • 230pm-530pm

Sports & Entertainment Marketing

September 10 to December 5 (Tuesdays)

  • 1130-230pm

  • 230pm-530pm

January 10 to April 10 (Tuesdays)

  • 1130-230pm

  • 230pm-530pm

How to Get Involved

We are recruiting ApprenticeYYC partners for the Fall and Winter semesters. If you are interested in discussing your agency participation, please contact:

Dr. David J. Finch

Chair, LearningCITY Collective

Email: dfinch@learningcity.ca