Introducing Riipen’s Career Connected Campus. Explore the latest news, insights, inspiring stories, and platform updates.

Career readiness can now be built across the whole degree.

Riipen's Career Connected Campus is how we think about career readiness, helping colleges and universities deliver experiences that start early, build year over year, and reach students across majors and years.

Each experience prepares students for the next, so readiness builds over time and students are ready to make the most of internships and other high-stakes opportunities when they come.

A scaffolded path from learning

to work.

Students are looking for more meaningful connections between their education and future careers throughout their academic journey, not just near graduation.

Career Connected Campus helps institutions create that progression, moving students from early exploration to deeper employer-connected learning before they enter the workforce.

Stronger outcomes start with earlier preparation.

When students build readiness earlier, institutions are better positioned to support retention, strengthen employment outcomes, and show the value of the degree by articulating what graduates are ready to do.

Because every student deserves a meaningful pathway between education and employment.

Shaping futures: Work-based learning news & insights.

Exploring the latest stories, trends, and ideas

shaping the future of experiential learning.

Riipen Co-Founder and CEO Dana Stephenson recently appeared before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance to share how work-integrated learning can support Canada’s productivity, AI adoption, and talent challenges. His message was clear: when SMEs can access learner talent, they gain the capacity to modernize and grow, while students and emerging workers gain paid opportunities to apply their skills, build confidence, and move forward in the labor market.

Read Dana's post.

New research from Strada Education Foundation reinforces the value of paid work-based learning for students. Based on surveys of more than 56,000 students, the report links paid work-based learning to stronger early-career outcomes, including higher earnings and a greater likelihood of securing college-level employment. It also highlights uneven participation across student groups and institution types, underscoring the need to expand access to meaningful work-based learning opportunities.

Explore the report.

Build in-demand tech skills today at no cost.

IBM SkillsBuild offers free online courses in AI, data science, web development, project management, and other high-demand digital fields, open to anyone ready to start learning.

Self-paced courses to support skill development in today’s digital economy.

Journeys in motion.

Stories from across the ecosystem, shaped by real-world

experience and applied learning.

A class project turned into paid client work for Jane Pham, an international student at Bow Valley College. Through Riipen, Jane applied her digital marketing skills to a real project with OnLocation Ltd., gaining Canadian client experience, strengthening her portfolio, and building confidence for her next career step. What began as a capstone project became a paid part-time contract.

Read Jane's story.

Scaling work-based learning takes more than one policy, program, or partnership. Dr. Mara Woody, Riipen’s Director, Strategic Partnerships, explores how convening, financial policy, statutory policy, trust, and infrastructure can work together to create systems that better connect education, employers, and learner opportunity. The piece examines what it takes to move from isolated efforts to work-based learning systems built to last.

Read the article.

Move real work forward with student talent.

Riipen helps employers turn business priorities into student-ready projects that move real work forward.

Enhancing your experience:
Platform updates.

Discover some of our latest improvements and enhancements designed to help you get the most out of Riipen.

Access portal reporting in one place.

Portal reporting now has a dedicated home. A new Reporting tab gives portal admins direct access to portal-level data, with options to filter across key dimensions, drill into underlying records, and export what they need without switching between disconnected views.

Stay on top of every team’s progress.

Employers can now receive a recurring digest email with key team activity across their matches, including milestone progress, final deliverable status, and feedback. The digest can be managed in notification settings, helping employers stay informed without needing to check each match manually.

Keep application deadlines under control.

Educators can now set a global application expiry deadline at the experience level, creating a clear cap on when applications can expire. Newly created applications are automatically capped to that date, and employers are blocked from extending existing applications past it, helping protect the timeline across the entire experience.

318K+

work-based learning experiences

53K+

vetted network of employers

760+

 postsecondary institutions

20.9M+

hours of applied learning