Quality Council Mandate
The CEWIL Quality Council’s mandate is to enhance the education of post-secondary students as they integrate academic and guided work and community experiences within a Work Integrated Learning (WIL) framework. The work of the Quality Council provides accreditation guidelines and clear quality assurance standards that support student success, strengthen student outcomes and encourage flexibility and innovation in higher education.
The Council is comprised of thought leadership and experts from WIL practitioners across the country. Building upon CEWIL’s strong foundation in Co-op Accreditation that has been in operation since 1979 and has established set criteria, processes and standards to ensure quality co-op programming, the Council will create quality guidelines for students, educators, institutions, and employers for all eight WIL definitions recently adopted by CEWIL.
The purpose of the Quality Council is:
- To be the eminent source for quality WIL program accreditation and quality improvement standards in Canada
- To provide accreditation guidelines and clear quality assurance standards that support student success, strengthen student outcomes and encourage flexibility and innovation in higher education
- To develop WIL quality assurance resources that encourage program autonomy and flexibility in order to facilitate agility and responsiveness to the institution and faculty, and promote innovation
- To provide and encourage the adoption of consistent program guidelines and standards for quality work integrated learning opportunities
- To provide and encourage the adoption of consistent program definitions and attributes of WIL
- To act as a collective voice for accountability issues related to WIL
- To serve as a venue to discuss and promote institutional issues for WIL
- To ensure the quality standards for accreditation continue to guide programs and expand accreditation where appropriate for WIL programs with fully established rigorous criteria.