Riipen Work-Integrated Platform

The current skills gap leaves post-secondary students unprepared for entry into the workforce attributing to underemployment and a shortage of talent to meet labour market needs. 43% of recent graduates are underemployed in their first job following post-secondary, of these, 67% remain underemployed five years later. Riipen aims to end graduate underemployment by enabling transformative work-integrated learning opportunities with post-secondary students. 

Riipen’s technology platform facilitates the design, connection, management, and reporting of  experiential learning projects that are embedded in courses, or co-curricular, to give students credit-based exposure to the workforce as part of their student journey. 

Riipen is tackling the problem of student unemployment and underemployment following graduation from a post-secondary institution. Graduate underemployment is when students graduate into jobs that they did not require post-secondary education to perform. 

Riipen enables students to get meaningful industry relevant experience as part of the classroom curriculum. This allows students to build their skill set, grow their professional network, and gain exposure to what they might do post graduation.

Riipen serves post-secondary students and organizations from multinational to Small and Medium Enterprise businesses. Post-secondary educators and management have identified the need to collaborate with industry to provide experiential learning opportunities in order to best ready graduates for the workforce. Riipen works with interested institutions to develop embedded curricular opportunities that can credit students. Riipen also works with organizations to develop projects that can be used in the classroom and pair with classes seeking projects of this nature. Riipen nurtures and develops relationships with both industry and institutions to develop meaningful work-integrated learning opportunities.  

After proven successes in Canada and the US, Riipen is currently working with Tecnológico de Monterrey to integrate experiential learning into the curriculum as part of their EdTech Labs Later Stage Accelerator Program. Working closely with university administrators and teaching professionals, we are ensuring that meaningful work-integrated learning is available to all students, by offering a high-calibre learning opportunity, and the local community by giving them the chance to participate in meaningful projects where answers are sought, and introduce them to a population of young highly educated professionals where they could have a direct impact to the local economy.

Riipen is using a cloud-based software that offers a suite of educational technology tools that facilitate work-integrated experiential learning for post-secondary students. We have enabled 45,000 work-integrated learning experiences in both English and French over the past three years. Specifically, the platform enables post-secondary academic institutions, employers, and students to collaborate on online work-integrated experiential learning projects. These projects may be embedded in courses (for credit), or offered as co-curricular opportunities. Examples of courses and projects can be viewed here (app.riipen.com/courses). Riipen also offers a variety of challenges and competitions (case competitions, hackathons, and open challenges). These can be deployed by our partner institutions and student organizations to further enhance experiential education for students at scale. 

The platform, currently available in English and French, includes four features: (1) a marketplace where instructors and employers can find matches for their projects; (2) project management tools and resources (including the world’s largest online work-integrated experiential learning library) to enable students to complete their projects; (3) reporting and data; and (4) a talent pool and related recruitment features. Combined, these features enable students to connect with employers to develop work-relevant skills and enhance their employability.  Riipen’s clients include large companies (e.g. Thales, Google, IBM, Walmart, RBC, Deloitte), as well as SMEs (approximately 80% of the 5,000 companies in our ecosystem) and accredited post-secondary institutions (150 campuses, primarily in Canada and the United States with pilots in Mexico, United Kingdom, and Australia).

Riipen is leading Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) innovation by removing barriers for students to access learning. We saw a gap in the curriculum based model in which students do theory based course-work only, and saw an opportunity to leverage this traditional approach and integrate project based learning as a way for students to gain experience and companies to gain access to amazing new innovative ideas from a strong incoming worker pool.

Riipen's mission is to enable employers of any size and students from any discipline to engage in authentic WIL, enabling skills development that supports better outcomes for young talent.

Riipen is strongly committed to equity and diversity. The platform reduces and eliminates geographical barriers because it is accessible to employers from all regions and sectors, and students from all geographies, backgrounds, and disciplines. Riipen is also highly committed to inclusion of equity-seeking groups including women, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, linguistic minorities (particularly francophone), newcomers, and all other underrepresented groups.

Riipen enhances student employability by working with post-secondary institutions and organizations to provide experiential learning opportunities for students to develop skills and competencies for the work-force while enabling employers to support the development of tomorrow’s talent. Since 2017, Riipen has enabled 45,000 students worldwide to complete 1.5 million hours of work-integrated learning with our network of over 5,000 employers. This valuable experience has contributed a network of over 150 post-secondary institutions working with employers across the globe to reduce the skills gap students face following graduation.

1. The current number of people you’re serving - 25,000 people

2. The number you’ll be serving in one year - 30,000 people

3. The number you’ll be serving in five years - 40,000 people

Over the next one to give years Riipen plans to expand the platform into additional target markets, develop additional platform offerings for post-secondary institutions, students and businesses, and increase awareness about the added benefits of work-integrated experiential learning. 

In year one, out goal is to further expand into the UK market and continue our growth in the US, developing relationships with academic institutions and employers. 

Within the next five years we hope to expand into Latin America, establishing relationships with post-secondary institutions, educators and employers in order provide online global learning opportunities to students across the region. 

Some technology barriers exist with respect to having the capacity to execute experiential learning opportunities, as well as establishing ways to integrate experiential learning into the curriculum. 

Riipen has experience overcoming these challenges in the past and did through training and education to post-secondary institutions and employers with much success. By being flexible and with the ability to guide schools and employers one-on-one to establish an experiential learning experience, we have demonstrated our flexibility and passion. 

Our knowledgable Riipen team works closely with educators and employers to integrate project based work experience into the course curriculum, and identify companies that could match the project outline. Our dedicated onboarding team specializes in helping our platform users feel confident using it and also maximize usage. 

Riipen is currently working with Tecnológico de Monterrey to integrate experiential learning into the curriculum as part of their EdTech Labs Later Stage Accelerator Program. Working closely with university administrators and teaching professionals, we are ensuring that meaningful work-integrated learning is available to all students. 

We are hopeful this opportunity will demonstrate to our market in Latin America and the Caribbean our ability to help with underemployment of youth in these regions and help decrease this gap following the graduation of students from university. Additionally, we hope this will demonstrate Riipen's values of inclusion and break down barriers to experiences like experiential work-integrated learning. 

We have 60 staff members.

Since launching our new platform in February 2017, we have enabled 45,000 students on 150 campuses to do 1.5 million hours of work-integrated learning with our network of over 5,000 employers. Riipen currently works with dozens of universities and colleges across Canada, the US and UK. Our clients include top business schools across Canada (including Schulich, Beedie, Rotman, and Sauder) as well as over 10,000 companies, including,Royal Bank of Canada, IBM, Microsoft, Freedom 55, Walmart. Over 80% of employers in the Riipen network are small and medium sized enterprises that have never before engaged with students on campus.

Riipen's framework for experiential learning, in which students and educators are partnered with off-campus organisations, ensures that the student is in a workplace or simulated workplace. The real-world cases, problems and issues presented by these organizations are authentic examples of the demands of the workforce. Regular milestones linked to feedback, for example, require punctuality and interpersonal skills such as the ability to receive and act in a timely manner on constructive feedback. This emphasis on essential employability skills (such as interpersonal communication), combined with the application of university/college program knowledge, ensures that students enhance their employability through these virtual WIL experiences.

Riipen has partnered with a range of organizations representing key stakeholders in innovative approaches to virtual WIL learning across Canada, including the Digital Technology Supercluster, Information and Communications Technology Council, and Future Skills Centre consortium. We are members of key academic associations, including the Association for Authentic, Experiential and Evidence-Based Learning (AAEEBL), and the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. We also have partnerships with a wide range of employer stakeholders, including tech sector (IBM Skills Academy, Innovate BC), business sector (e.g. Ad Standards, British Columbia Chambers of Commerce, Canadian Marketing Association), not-for-profit sector (Canadian Society of Association Executives), and the trades (BC Food Processors Association, Electro Federation of Canada), and other SWP providers (e.g. Career Edge).

Riipen is a digital technology platform that offers an innovative method for enabling employer-led skills and competencies development for postsecondary students. Riipen's work-integrated experiential learning software enables employers to collaborate with students on real-time, real-world challenges and projects that are embedded directly into coursework. Since launching in 2017, Riipen has enabled 45,000 students at 150+ post-secondary schools, in 4 countries to complete 1.5 million hours of skills-focused applied learning with an ecosystem of over 10,000 employers across North America alone. Riipen’s mission: to help students of all backgrounds and geographies to boost their skills, gain career clarity, and find jobs they love.

Riipen has pricing subscription options for businesses and academic institutions, and work one-on-one with academic institutions to create a custom package to suit their needs and ensure optimized usage, seamless LMS integration and dedicated onboarding for instructors, staff and students. Information on pricing structure can be found here: https://riipen.com/pricing

Our onboarding team at Riipen work closely with educators, administrators and industry to walk them through the platform and assist in creation, matching and execution of successful projects.

Riipen would like to partner with post-secondary institutions and organizations that want to integrated work-integrated learning into courses and work-based learning in order to develop career-ready graduates.