Complement your studies with valuable work experience and career readiness supports. Get paid or earn course credit – plus essential, in-demand employment skills and experience in your field – with a variety of work integrated learning experiences. These opportunities allow you to network within your chosen field and develop valuable work experience while also putting theory into practice.
Work Integrated Learning Funding
The Work Integrated Learning fund is here to help you enhance your classes with innovative ideas. From guest speakers to field trips and community projects, this initiative is all about enriching educational experiences across all disciplines.
Work Integrated Learning Opportunities
Use the search below for work integrated learning opportunities by academic department.
Applied Marketing Management
ADMS 3220 3.00
Students analyze marketing problems and develop solutions to real-world situations. Course components include: situation analysis, segmentation, targeting, positioning, marketing strategies, evaluation and control.
Applied Public Policy Analysis
PPAS 4200 6.00
An applied analysis of specific areas of public policy chosen to reflect current public debates. Students apply their knowledge of policy analysis in the context of case studies and/or real world projects with community partners.
Bachelor of Social Work Practicum
Placement Course
SOWK 4000 6.00 & SOWK 4001 6.00
The School of Social Work seeks to prepare students to be critical practitioners and agents of change. As part of this preparation and as a requirement for graduation, each student completes a field practicum. The practicum is intended to support the integration of theory and practice, preparing students to function as professional social workers. As such, the field practicum becomes the culminating experience of each student’s education at the School.
Black Canadian Studies Practicum
Placement Course
HUMA 4305 6.00
This course provides students with practical experience analyzing issues through the lens of Black Canadian Studies with placement in the offices of elected officials.
CCY Work-Focused Placement Course
Placement Course
CCY 4900 6.00
This course provides hands-on, Work-Focused EE opportunities to fourth-year Children, Childhood & Youth students. Students complete part-time, supervised placements with non-profit or community organizations to gain relevant work experience in exchange for academic credit.
Communications Field Experience: Corporate and Cultural Industries
Placement Course
CMDS 4140 6.00
Take your studies out of the classroom and apply the skills you’ve learned in a real work situation! Available to all fourth year Communication & Media Studies, this course allows students to apply for an unpaid position within an organization and work part-time for academic credit. Students recieve hands-on experience, opportunities to network with people working in the communications sector, and insight into different career pathways.
Criminology Placement Course
Placement Course
CRIM 4667 6.00 (Crosslisted to SOSC 4667 6.00)
The purpose of this course is to provide students with an opportunity to develop their knowledge of criminological issues and approaches in a practical context. The course begins with in-class workplace-related skills training followed by placement in a government, community, or non-governmental organization working with people in conflict with the law, victims of crime, or in crime prevention. Application required.
Cross-Campus Capstone Classroom (C4)
Interdisciplinary Capstone Project
Come together and join upper-level students from across York to work together in multi-disciplinary teams to solve real-world challenges. Challenges are posed by organizations from both the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors.
Digital Authoring Practicum
Placement Course
WRIT 4001 6.00
This practicum allows fourth year students in PRWR to design and implement online writing and marketing campaigns for community organizations. Community service learning is central to this course. Students are matched with individuals and organizations that need digital help. Students write blogs, build websites, execute social media campaigns, write and design material appealing to multiple audiences using a variety of technologies. Students critically reflect on issues related to online communication.
Doing Culture: Narratives of Cultural Production
Placement Course
CLTR 3150 6.00 (Crosslisted to HUMA 3207 6.00)
Offers students opportunities to engage with the local cultural sector in order to better understand the relevancy of cultural organizations in a multicultural city. The course explores cultural relationships, combining theoretical and experiential components in a blended learning environment where students hone transferable skills and develop professional contacts.
Emergency Management: Field Experience
Placement Course
DEMS 3705 3.0
Apply theories of emergency management and gain work experience through a part-time placement opportunity with a variety of organizations within the private, public and NGO sectors. Students will complete 12 hours of placement per week over 11 weeks (132 hours).
Engaging Health in the Community
Placement Course
SOSC 4144 6.00
This course applies academic knowledge of health, health advocacy, and health care systems to experience in community settings through classroom study and the application of social science research methods in student placements in health-related organizations and agencies.
English Honour Thesis/Work Placement
Independent Study
EN 4099 6.00
Provides an opportunity for sustained research under the direction of a member of the department on topics not covered in the English curriculum. The research may take the form of either a thesis or a work placement.
Foreign Language and Digital Media: Developing Skills for Online, Spanish-English Publications
Capstone Course
SP 4990 3.00
In this capstone course, students engage in high-impact Community Focused Experiential Education. Activities focus on writing, researching, editing and publishing works for an online university undergraduate magazine.
HREQ Work-Focused Placement Course
Placement Course
HREQ 4460 6.0
This work-focused, course-based placement provides HREQ majors with an intensive experiential education opportunity in their fourth year in exchange for academic credit. Participants will apply their skills and knowledge in the area of human rights and equity as they work with community organizations, government agencies, non-profit agencies, or other relevant groups.
IBM Learning Space
Students in certain LA&PS undergrad, graduate and master’s programs have the opportunity to study at our state-of-the-art Learning Space in IBM Canada’s headquarters – a high-profile and dynamic environment populated by academic researchers, entrepreneurs, start-ups and developers.
International Development Placement Course
Placement Course
SOSC 4605 6.00
This course allows students to combine learning about the workings of development non- governmental organizations, through a hands-on experience with an NGO and more conventional academic activities in the classroom. The unpaid work placement will be fulfilled with an NGO involved in international and/or local development within the Greater Toronto Area.
International Refugee Protection Regime II
PPAS 4112 3.00
Students will conduct independent research on international asylum and refugee issues and will have an opportunity to consult with an organization working with refugees.
Italian for Professional Purposes
Placement Course
IT 4500 6.00
This course offers a unique opportunity for the students of Italian to develop advanced language competency, with a focus on formal registers of Italian for professional purposes. In addition to earning academic credits, students will gain hands-on work experience, while using Italian in a variety of course-based placements in profit and non-profit organizations in the GTA.
LA&PS Co-op Program
Test-drive a career and get hands-on experience in your chosen field! The LA&PS Co-op Program offers paid, short-term employment for up to 20 months. As a Co-op student, you will complete two work terms, rotating between study and work terms. Regardless of the academic program you are pursuing, co-ops provide an opportunity to gain valuable paid work experience and explore different career paths!
Labour Studies Work Placement
Placement Course
SOSC 4240 6.00
The purpose of the course is to provide students with first-hand experience regarding the different ways organizations pursue workplace improvements and broader social and political change for all working people. The course has both seminar (in-class) and placement (cooperative learning) components. The placement component of the course involves work directed by a supervisor (usually a staff person or leader of a union, community-based or social justice organization).
Marketing Live Client Learning
ADMS 4211 3.00
Work on real-life projects with companies and non-for-profit organizations, and participate in national case competitions through the Marketing Live Client Learning course.
Master of Social Work Practicum
Placement Course
SOWK 5310 6.00 & SOWK 5350 6.00
The School of Social Work seeks to prepare students to be critical practitioners and agents of change. As part of this preparation and as a requirement for graduation, each student completes a field practicum. The practicum is intended to support the integration of theory and practice, preparing students to function as professional social workers. As such, the field practicum becomes the culminating experience of each student’s education at the School.
Organizational Writing Practicum
Placement Course
WRIT 4003 6.00
This practicum offers students direct experience applying rhetorical theories and concepts to writing for businesses/organizations requiring new or improved documents, newsletters, promotional literature, etc. Students develop client relationships with the York community (internal and/or external) while performing needs assessments, developing proposals, planning, producing, editing and publishing materials, and managing delivery in both print and digital media.
Practicum in Public Administration
Placement Course
PPAS 4995 6.00
Public policy and administration students in their fourth year may register for this placement course, which combines volunteer work experience in an agency with an academic analysis of that experience. Enrolment is by permission only and permission will be granted only in September depending on the number of placements available and the competitiveness of the student pool.
Practicum in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
Placement Course
TESL 3300 6.00
The course provides an experiential education opportunity to put theory into practice, integrating blended online and in-class instruction alongside placement at a variety of English as a Second Language (ESL) instruction settings. Students complete 50 practicum hours (30 hours observation and 20 hours practice teaching).
Program Evaluation I & II
PPAS 4310 3.00 & 4320 3.00
Provides students with a variety of methodological tools and case study practice necessary to effectively carry out the evaluation studies of government programs and public policies. Students will have an opportunity to undertake assessments, put research designs into practice for formative evaluations, summative evaluations and needs studies.
Public History
Placement Course
HIST 4840 6.00
This course examines the forms, goals, and practices of making history in museums, archives, historic sites, and other institutions of public history. It enables students to learn the meaning and methods in the production of memory and introduces them to the practical skills for the public presentation of historical knowledge. The course combines analytical study with a part-time placement in a public-history site.
Research Seminar in Economics
Research Seminar
ECON 4089 3.00
This course assists students in developing strong analytical, quantitative, and communication skills through independent research and by working in collaboration with a partner organization. It familiarizes students with some of the major issues and research approaches in economics through discussions and presentations of various topics.
Social Economy Practicum
Placement Course
SOSC 4046 6.00
Take your studies out of the classroom and apply the skills you’ve learned in an real work situation! Typically taken in fourth year, the Social Economy Practicum course allows you to apply for an unpaid position within an organization and work part-time for course credit. Students receive hands-on experience, opportunities to network with people working in your chosen field, and insight into different career pathways.
Sociology Field Placement
Placement Course
SOCI 4100 6.00
This course places sociology students in not-for-profit, government, and community organizations in order to gain experience and skills in workplaces that respond to social inequalities. In addition, the students will meet regularly in a seminar setting to reflect upon their experience, and connect it to their sociological training.
The Professional Anthropologist: The Anthropologist as Practitioner
Placement Course
ANTH 4130 6.00
This course combines analytical study with a part-time placement in a non-governmental partner agency. Students will complete around 176 hours of placement over 8 months.
Urban Field Experience
Placement Course
SOSC 4710 6.00
This course involves students in work with an organization engaged in some aspect of urban development or administration. Students commit one day a week (or the equivalent) to projects defined by a public or private agency in or near Toronto. Each student’s work is supervised by a staff member of the agency and is monitored by the course director.
Work/Study Program
The Work/Study Program at York is an excellent way for undergraduate students to gain a paid, work-integratred learning experience on campus.