The Program Committee for the 2005 WACE World Conference on Cooperative Education invites you to submit a proposal for a presentation at the conference in Boston. Private, public and nonprofit employers and educators from the global co-op community, as well others interested in the concept and practice of work-based education, are encouraged to come to Boston to share their ideas in one of several formats designed to promote the dialogue among conference attendees.

Conference Theme: Global Workforce Development: Defining, Developing and Managing

The dynamic nature of the global workplace demands that both students and employers develop greater flexibility and broader skill sets that often must be fostered through experience. Experiential education, through various forms of work-integrated learning (WIL), makes both the classroom and workplace come alive as rich, mutually supporting venues for learning. WIL creates an environment that stimulates the creative application of knowledge to real-world situations and encourages students to expand their educational experience. At the same time, employers benefit from co-op by actively bringing new, diverse points of view into their organizations — cultivating innovation and competencies ideally suited for the ever-evolving global economy.

WACE has expanded its focus to include all forms of experiential learning to better service this growing need. Areas such as service and study-abroad programs have been added to the organization’s portfolio of practice-based educational tools to promote and develop.

Global Workforce Development is a solid and broad foundation from which to approach all the various forms of experiential education. We seek presentations from leaders in higher education, business, human resources, labor and government who are concerned with the development of a workforce prepared with the competencies to be effective participants in the cultural, technical, economic and ethical aspects of an increasingly global society. At the conference, you will have the opportunity to explore new educational theories, research, methods and trends that address this cause.

Some focused topics we seek to explore at this conference include:

• How can work-integrated, experiential learning be the right vehicle for global workforce development?

• How can technology contribute to the development of work-integrated, experiential learning?

• How can university-industry partnerships be enhanced through successful experiential education, including cooperative education, internship programs, study abroad, service learning and so forth?

• How can international practical training assist in developing a global workforce?

Presentation Formats

Proposals should be submitted as either longer, formal presentations or as shorter, paper presentations. Formal presentations may be given as interactive sessions or panel discussions. These sessions will be approximately 60 minutes in length and should be based on research or program development that can be generalized to the larger co-op community. Paper presentations will be limited to 30 minutes in length.

Submission Procedures

In order to be considered as a presenter at the 2005 World Conference, please submit your proposal to the program committee by Sept. 15, 2004, using the following guidelines:

• Prepare your proposal in English. English is the official language of the conference.

• All proposals must be submitted electronically as Microsoft Word files. The files should be titled clearly with the name of the person submitting (followed by the .doc extension). No mailed or faxed submissions will be considered.

• Proposals must include the title of the presentation and the names, titles and organizations of the author(s).

• Proposals must indicate the type of format preferred — formal presentation (60-minute interactive session or panel discussion), or paper presentation (30 minutes).

• The body of the proposal must not be longer than one page (approximately 250 words), and should be typed in Times New Roman 12-point font.

All proposals should be sent to Denis Roy of WACE at droy@waceinc.org. Receipt of the proposal will be confirmed by e-mail. A distinguished panel will evaluate all the proposals and correspond directly with the author(s). Notification of acceptance to present at the 2005 conference will be sent no later than Nov. 15, 2004.