Competency Category:
Competency Series:

20.4 – Facilitate Experiential Learning Opportunities

Purpose & Context

Educators, as career development professionals (CDPs), support the integration of experiential learning opportunities (e.g. mentoring, job shadowing, work-integrated learning, apprenticeship) within the classroom and educational system. Experiential learning provides students with opportunities to connect academic studies with quality experiences within workplaces or other practical settings. These experiences enhance employability, strengthen personal agency, and foster lifelong learning skills and attitudes.

Effective Performance

Competent career development professionals must be able to:

  • P1. Identify relevant community/industry partners, e.g. employers
  • P2. Explain experiential learning principles, for example:
    • Learning by doing
    • Reflecting on experiences
    • Enhance relevance by connecting classroom knowledge with real-world situations
    • Roles and responsibilities of school representative, students, and community/industry partners
    • Key success factors, e.g. skill development, personal agency, and confidence
    • Enhance employability by contributing to personal portfolios
  • P3. Identify age- and grade-appropriate forms of experiential learning, for example:
    • Mentor/buddy programs
    • Field trips
    • Simulations
    • Volunteering
    • Short-term work experiences
    • Job shadowing
    • Apprenticeships
    • Industry projects
    • Supervised paid in-person or virtual work experience
    • Work-integrated learning
  • P4. Define parameters of experiential learning, for example:
    • Location and duration
    • Contact information for community/industry partner, school representative, and student
    • Pre-requisites, e.g. criminal records check, WHMIS, safe food handling
    • Learning outcomes, objectives, and activities
    • Resource requirements, e.g. financial, technology, equipment, transportation
    • Accommodation requirements
    • Health and safety measures, e.g. health and safety policies and procedures, personal safety equipment, reporting
      accidents or unsafe practices, health and safety insurance
    • Supervision and reporting procedures
  • P5. Prepare for the experiential learning, for example:
    • Collaboratively develop personal learning plans
    • Outline contextual factors, e.g. unionized workplace setting,
    • Develop experiential learning agreement, e.g. informed consent, parent/guardian permission slips
    • Identify performance measure(s)
    • Develop evaluation strategy, e.g. lessons learned, challenges, solutions, recommendations
  • P6. Support student and community/industry partner during experiential learning
  • P7. Evaluate experiential learning outcomes for student and community/industry partner
  • P8. Recognize contribution of community partner, e.g. public acknowledgement
  • P9. Recognize learning, e.g. formal education credits, certificate of completion

Knowledge & Understanding

Competent career development professionals must know and understand:

  • K1. Experiential learning program management and administration, e.g. policies and procedures, roles and
    responsibilities, program coordination
  • K2. Experiential learning principles
  • K3. Benefits of experiential learning
  • K4. Forms of experiential learning
  • K5. Principles of risk assessment

Contextual Variables

Competent career development professionals must be able to perform this competency in the following range of contexts:

Community engagement is critical to provide a range of experiential learning opportunities. The number of community and business resources available in the community will impact the range of experiences available to students

Glossary & Key References

Terms

Industry-specific terms contained in the standard defined here, where applicable.

Job shadowing: training that provides a student with opportunities to learn work activities by observing an experienced worker performing on the job.

Work-integrated learning: a form of curricular experiential education that formally integrates a student’s academic studies with quality experiences within a workplace or practice setting (also known as “co-operative education”)

Information Sources and Resources for Consideration

Community-connected experiential learning. A policy framework for Ontario schools, kindergarten to grade 12. winter 2016 accessed January 24th, 2020 https://ocea.on.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/CCEL-Document.pdf

Co-operative Education and Work-Integrated Learning Canada. https://cewilcanada.ca/

Context Rating Scales

Criticality

Q: What is the consequence of a professional being unable to perform this skill according to the standard?

High probability of risk: VERY CRITICAL

Frequency

Q: How frequent and under what conditions is this skill performed?

Circumstantially, e.g. per project, when a specific event arises

Level of Difficulty

Q: Under routine circumstances, how would you rate the level of difficulty in performing this skill?

Moderate difficulty or complexity

Time Required to Gain Proficiency

Q: What is the average length of time or number of repeated events that are minimally necessary for an individual to become proficient in performing the skill to the standard?

A career development professional requires a minimum of one year of experience as an educator as well as varied opportunities to engage with community and industry stakeholders.

Autonomy

Practitioners typically perform this competency without supervision, and alone and/or as part of a team.

Automation

It is unlikely that this competency will automate.

Requisite Work Aids, Tools, Equipment or Materials

None