Connecting leaders. Building capacity. Driving change.
June 20, 2022

The Business + Higher Education Roundtable launches free, online mentorship course to tackle one of the biggest barriers to creating quality WIL

 The Business + Higher Education Roundtable (BHER) is committed to helping Canada’s companies explore, invest in, and create quality work-integrated learning (WIL) opportunities for every post-secondary student. As part of that commitment, we are excited to launch Mentoring Post-Secondary Students, a free, online course that helps employers address their biggest student mentorship challenges.

BHER spoke with over 600 workplace supervisors, business and community leaders, and academic professionals about WIL. We heard that providing strong mentorship was a critical need but also a significant barrier to creating new WIL placements or taking on more WIL students. The impacts of COVID-19 and remote placements only exacerbated the challenges.

To help, BHER created an immersive mentorship training course. Mentoring Post-Secondary Students provides workplace supervisors across sectors with the core skills they need to create a positive WIL experience, whether in person or in remote or virtual settings. 

Participants work their way through real, on-the-job scenarios that address the challenges of coaching and mentoring post-secondary students. They receive constructive feedback as they progress through each activity and learn best practices along the way. 

“Building tools like our mentorship course for employers reflects BHER’s commitment to developing practical, user-informed solutions to their biggest challenges,” said Dr. Valerie Walker, Chief Executive Officer of BHER. “Building tools like this also reflects BHER’s commitment to creating a WIL ecosystem that provides post-secondary students with quality real-world work experiences.”

The short, 45-minute course is the latest tool to be added to our WIL Hub, a “one-stop shop” for WIL tools and resources, made possible through generous support from the Government of Canada. 

Enroll in Mentoring Post-Secondary Students today on our WIL Hub.

Media Contact: 
Tina Romito, Senior Manager, Communications
tina.romito@bher.ca - 613-695-3511


About the Business + Higher Education Roundtable: The Business + Higher Education Roundtable (BHER) is a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization bringing together some of Canada’s largest companies and leading post-secondary institutions. Since 2015, BHER has worked to harness the strengths of Canada’s business and post-secondary education sectors to build opportunities for young Canadians, boost innovation and drive collaboration. Learn more at www.bher.ca.