After decades of decreasing long-term job security and ongoing global economic crises, attention on and interest in entrepreneurship have significantly increased among Gen Y and Gen Z students in higher education institutions around the world. The pedagogical potential of work-integrated learning (WIL) and the increased offering of entrepreneurship programs in higher education intersect in a field referred to as entrepreneurial WIL (EWIL). This field, where WIL pedagogy is applied to deliver the learning outcomes of entrepreneurship education, is discussed here. The unique features and associated challenges that EWIL presents, particularly when compared with traditional forms of WIL experiences, are also examined, from the framework of a case study conducted on an internship-based course offered in a Canadian university. This chapter contributes to an understanding of the various factors that should be considered when developing novel EWIL programs in higher education institutions.

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Following the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and other guiding documents, engineering schools in Canada have begun the work of Indigenous reconciliation by helping students develop competencies relevant to engineering study, research, and practice. In our School, a curricular project has been implemented in the undergraduate program: a key element is the Indigenous Community Consultation Project (ICCP) delivered through a required communication course. Through a case study approach, students learn intercultural communication skills in the specific context of preparing to work with Indigenous communities in Canada. In developing and delivering the ICCP, course instructors are also empowered to take part in relevant professional development initiatives and to grow their pedagogical practices. We are now studying the impact of the ICCP on students’ learning and plan to share results in future publications.

Higher-education institutions are seeing an increasing interest in entrepreneurship education across the disciplines, engineering programs included. With a parallel growing emphasis on work-integrated learning opportunities for students, a unique opportunity is presented with an Entrepreneurial Work-Integrated Learning (EWIL) pedagogy, where entrepreneurship education is delivered through the application of work-integrated learning pedagogy. Supervised Entrepreneurial Work-Integrated Learning (sEWIL) is a particular modality of EWIL, where engineering students learn about entrepreneurship through participation in a start-up working environment, where students directly observe and participate in the entrepreneurial working environment. sEWIL offers students an authentic real-world learning environment where tacit entrepreneurial knowledge is acquired, knowledge that cannot be taught through in-class traditional teaching practices. Through purposeful reflection, engineering students are confronted with the question of their professional and personal identities and their compatibility to the start-up working environment, whether as entrepreneurs or as working engineering professionals. The sEWIL pedagogy is presented and discussed through a work-integrated learning quality framework.