The One Where You Send Yourself on Work Placement
Angela Lyrette
We hope you have enjoyed reading our stories as much as we did writing them. On starting this project, we were nervous, we had doubts, and we worried we wouldn’t be welcome. Our industry partners were generous, warm, funny, and reminded us what a great community we have built. We now invite you to re-connect with your industry, bravely invite yourself to a workplace for a visit, ask someone to lunch, and get creative with your curriculum. As an open education resource, we want the next chapter of this book to be your story. To get started, we have even drafted sample introductory emails for you:
Hello {insert name of contact},
I trust this email finds you well. {insert an introduction which identifies how you might know each other or the name of the person who referred you}
Next term, I am working on a {College/University} curriculum development project with the aim of partnering with people in organizations around {insert name of town/city} for the purpose of adding more real-life scenarios, assessments, and activities into the classroom.
I teach {insert course subject} course/s in the {faculty/school/department/discipline}, and I am interested in partnering with a member of your team on this project; my students could learn about {type of organization} and engage in learning activities such as {type of work-integrated or experiential learning}.
I would be happy to send more details if you are interested.
Hello
{insert an introduction which identifies how you might know each other or the name of the person who referred you}
I’m reaching out to you to ask if you would be interested in a curriculum development project. The main goal from the College’s end is to “Explore how employers and industry leaders adapt to economic, technological, and human resource challenges and create work-integrated and experiential learning experiences for learners for future work.” Basically, we are looking to see how things are being done currently so that we can stay up to date with what we teach the students. How this initiative works is we would briefly meet to discuss me coming to your workplace for a morning or an afternoon to observe and shadow. You could then come and visit one of our classes and speak about your company and I could take you for lunch at {on campus eatery or local lunch spot}.
Why you and why am I looking at {insert area of business/interest here}? Well, I teach {topic} in our {name of program and credential} program, {name of course/s} and I am very interested in learning more about {topic} at {your organization}.
What might you get out of this? {Describe what they might gain from this relationship; opportunity to meet current students, give back to the college as an alumni, have students study and solve problems for your organization. Partners who are not current PAC members or OTFT faculty will be encouraged to consider that an opportunity too.
If you are open to this initiative but don’t have the time, I’m also open to shadowing someone you work with as I know you are a busy person!
Thank you for considering this and I look forward to your reply,
Laura Vena’s Tips for Building and Growing Industry Relationships
Angela Lyrette’s Tips for Making the Most of an Industry Site Visit
Nadia Rahavaya’s STAR Business Marketing Project Analysis
Angela Lyrette’s Tips for Effective Guest Speaker Visits
Zainub Ibrahim’s Tips for College Field Trip Experiences
Angela Lyrette’s WIL/EL Out of Class Experience
Happy teaching!
Angela Lyrette & the FICM Team
About the author
Angela Lyrette is a full time Professor and Educational Developer at Algonquin College. Angela holds a Master’s Degree in Education, specializing in workplace and adult learning from the University of Calgary, a Teaching Adult Lifelong Learners Certificate (with Honours) from Algonquin College, and a variety of financial services designations from the Canadian Securities Institute. A self-professed life-long learner, her curiosity and enthusiasm for teaching, learning, and serving the community is evident in her body of work.
