A Placement Agreement Form must be completed between the Placement Site and the University before a student begins their placement. The following Standard Placement Agreement Form must be read, completed, and signed by a legal signing authority of the placement site, as well as the Chair/Director of the academic unit. Please note that the Letter to Placement Employers Form only requires a signature from the partner organization.
Prior to participating in their placements, students must also complete a Student Declaration form and a Protection of Confidential Information Agreement form, both of which may be found here.
All paperwork (partner-facing and student-facing) must be submitted to the appropriate University contact overseeing the student placement process. Upon receiving the necessary paperwork, please upload only the completed Placement Agreement to the Sharepoint site that is administered by the Office of the Vice-Provost, Students.
External Organizational Forms:
Each partner organization may have separate sets of forms to complete, as related to the requirements of the placement (e.g.,confidentiality, safety and training, etc.). Prior to signing any external documentation, students must submit forms for vetting to the University contact overseeing the placement process, who in turn must consult with the Coordinator, Student Placements to ensure its appropriateness.
General Guidelines for Experiential Learning:
- Ontario Workplace Safety and Insurance Act
- Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB)
- Guidelines for Workplace Insurance for Postsecondary Students of Publicly Assisted Institutions on Unpaid Work Placements
- Ontario Ministry of Labour – Unpaid Internships
Important Additional Information for Experiential Learning (EL) Activities in Courses:
Safety:
- Please consult the Framework of Off-Campus Safety and the Safety in Field and Research policies should an EL activity require a student to engage off-campus.
- Prior to an off-campus EL activity, instructors are asked to complete the EHS Off-Campus Safety/Risk Assessment form for off-campus field experiences and submit it to their Chair/Director (with the exception of internship courses).
- The University's general liability insurance will apply to students when participating in course-related field experiences off-campus.
- Students may wish to explore options to address the need for using public transit to access sites. Course instructors may want to consider options that allow students to travel during off-hours when transit is less busy. Students should be encouraged to discuss these options with their instructor. Students who are driving themselves with personal vehicles to sites for any course-related experiences should be explicitly made aware that, in the event of accident/injury, liability would be assumed by their personal insurance.
- Students who are concerned about their ability to access an excursion should contact their instructor for options.
- If an instructor is driving students to the site(s), the instructor’s personal vehicle insurance would also be responsible for any coverage in the event of accident/injury. It is important to note that it would be possible for passengers of the vehicle to sue the driver in such an event.
- Due to government laws, U of T cannot put forth a waiver for any travel components with personal vehicles (i.e. an instructor, or student driver, who is driving a vehicle with passengers cannot have the passengers sign a waiver in which they agree not to sue the driver for any accident/injury).
- We recommend consulting with a representative from the U of T Risk Management and Insurance Department regarding travel and vehicle insurance-related inquiries.
- Students participating in lab-based placements or placements involving hazardous materials must complete a Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS) course. Students must consult their academic unit for further details on training availability.
- Safety Abroad: Students completing placements outside of Canada are required to review the information on the U of T Safety Abroad website and consult with staff regarding policies and procedures surrounding health and safety.
- Some partner organizations will request that students sign Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) or Confidentiality Agreements (CAs) to restrict the usage of sensitive information. Students must provide these forms prior to the University contact overseeing their placement, who will in turn, forward the documentation to the Coordinator, Student Placements for vetting. For more information on these agreements, as well as the subject of Intellectual Property (IP) rights, review these Guidelines, made available through the Experiential Learning Hub website.
Please contact an Experiential Learning Officer if there are any questions regarding the paperwork associated with an experiential learning activity.