1 Combining Workplace Training with Postsecondary Education: The Spectrum of Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) Opportunities from Apprenticeship to Experiential Learning by Peggy Sattler (Academica), Richard Dominic Wiggers (Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario) and Christine Arnold (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education) This issue of the Canadian Apprenticeship Journal is devoted to the growing recognition by employers that apprentices also need to acquire Essential Skills—reading, writing, numeracy, etc.—in order to optimize their chances of becoming successful journeypersons and tradespersons. Colleges and universities have similar concerns about the basic skills of incoming students. Most already offer remedial programs for their students, with a recent survey of university faculty reporting that they are most concerned about writing skills (70%) and critical thinking (50%). 1 This article, meanwhile, demonstrates the extent to which many of the more traditional academic programs offered at colleges and universities are increasingly recognizing the importance of workplace experiences in preparing more well-rounded and employment-ready postsecondary graduates. In many ways it can be argued that the centuries-old apprenticeship model—integrating workplace training with at least some grounding in classroom learning—has become the prototype for many other increasingly popular postsecondary options such as co-op education and experiential learning. Much of the public financing of postsecondary education (PSE) is founded on the belief that society as a whole benefits when the knowledge and skills gained by students in colleges and universities are transferred to productive activities in the workplace and the broader community. Recent economic change and a rapidly changing labour market are also forcing a rethink of many college and university curricula, including the traditional ways in which work experience has been integrated with postsecondary study. New pedagogical approaches that combine workplace-based experiential learning and classroom-based cognitive learning offer promising instructional alternatives to deliver the skills needed in an increasingly knowledge-based economy. 2 Many believe that PSE students should be given more opportunities to exchange the theoretical knowledge they are gaining in college and university courses with the practical experiences of the workplace. Indeed, since 1995 there has been a “distinct shift in emphasis in Ontario’s PSE system away from liberal education towards a vocational, technical education,” 3 with an increased emphasis 1 Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations, 2011. 2 H. Schuetze and R. Sweet, “Integrating School and Workplace Learning in Canada: An Introduction to Alternation Education Concepts” in H. Schuetze and R. Sweet (eds.) Integrating School and Workplace Learning in Canada: Principles and Practices of Alternation Education and Training (Montreal and Kingston: McGill Queen’s University Press, 2003). 3 D. Fisher and others, “The Political Economy of Post-Secondary Education: A Comparison of British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec,” Higher Education 57 (5) (2009): 549–566.