Riipen is a Canadian for-profit company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. It was founded in 2013 by a group of university students at the University of Victoria who sought to bridge the gap between academic learning and real-world work experience (often called project-based learning).

The Riipen work-based learning platform connects educators, learners, and employers through real-world projects integrated into academic curricula. Riipen works to bridge the gap between education and employment by providing students with practical experience, enhance their employability, and help employers access emerging talent.

The Riipen model recognizes there are many approaches to setting up employer project-based learning programs. Riipen hosts employer programs on its platform and also assists employers who wish to develop their own platform. Regardless of which entity manages the experience, there are key features needed to operate learning experiences properly, such as:

• source the targeted audience of learners or employers
• set the right expectations
• support learners
• connect to employers
• make sure discrete smaller activities happen like signing Nondisclosure Agreements (NDAs), having kickoff or orientation 0meetings, having milestone check ins, getting the right information from employers and utilizing and maximizing the opportunities through feedback and reflection
• helping learners build a portfolio that can help them articulate that experience and the skills that they learned.

Since its inception, the company reports it has facilitated over 272,000 learner experiences, and collaborated with more than 44,000 employers and 700 educational institutions across nine countries. These engagements have resulted in more than 18.4 million hours of applied learning.

The Riipen Academy provides various guides and tutorials for educators, employers, and students.

Examples of Work-based Projects

• Engineering Capstone Projects
  • Students have worked on diverse engineering challenges, such as designing a child's adjustable prosthetic leg, developing a hand prosthesis with multiple approaches, and creating an autonomous security robot.
• Software Development Initiatives
  • In senior capstone courses, student teams have developed software solutions like state-specific websites integrating real estate data and subscription-based data aggregation services for economic forecasting.
• Educational Game Development
  • At Saskatchewan Polytechnic, students have collaborated with organizations to create educational video games.

Funding Sources

Riipen is funded by a combination of private investors and government grant programs which enable Riipen to expand its platform, develop new programs, and increase access to experiential learning opportunities for both students and employers.

Resources

https://www.riipen.com/

https://www.riipen.com/academy