Date and time: March 27 at 2:00–3:00 PM ET

Increasingly, higher education institutions (HEIs) are being measured on their contributions towards advancing the UNs SDGs. Institutionally, there is growing focus on graduating global citizens who can advocate for and operationalize sustainable futures in their professions. Within Waterloo, sustainable futures are a long-term strategic imperative. SDG-related activity is being undertaken by a number of units, which has created a robust ecosystem to visualize pathways to advance the SDGs. With 25,000+ co-op/work integrated learning (WIL) internships completed annually via 7,200+ employer partners across 50+ countries within this ecosystem, the Co-operative & Experiential Education (CEE) unit wanted to develop programming whereby these internships can better contribute to attaining the SDGs in deeper, more meaningful ways. The approach to SDG awareness building and motivation to engage resulted in an activity piloted with international WIL internships (also called ‘work terms’) since Spring 2021. This work has won research (WACE) and education (QS) awards. Starting this Spring (2023), this activity will be offered across all ~10,000 work terms in a given term.

Survey results show that the activity significantly increases both students’ and employer supervisors’ awareness of SDGs and motivation to engage with them. This means that the activity is doing what we set out to do! Students identified the highest benefit being increased knowledge of the SDGs, with many indicating a desire to apply SDGs in their future coursework, engage in campus activities, and seek future SDG-related internships. For the employers, the top outcomes were deeper engagement with their students and developing future SDG best practices for their own organizations. Numbers aside, several students have specially commented on the impact of this activity on their career purpose identification. Several employers have specifically commented on wanting a deeper relationship with Waterloo and hiring interns who are aware of critical global challenges and the role they can play in advancing the SDGs.

We will share the strategy and development of this activity designed to guide the development of graduates who are both employable and able to engage purposefully with the UN’s SDGs. The key driver is to demystify such educational programming so that it can be implemented by any program and at any level without being stalled by prohibitive infrastructure and funding costs.