CO - University of Victoria · female, the Co-operative Education Program has a male gender skew, due mainly to the Faculty of Engineering Co-op programs (both Engineering Co-op and

Learning in motion.

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CO-OPERATIVE EDUCATION PROGRAM

& ANNUAL REPORT 2014

CAREER SERVICES

Letter from the Executive Director 2014 has been a significant year for Co-op and Career. We’ve made great progress on several research projects, created new initiatives for students with a vigorous focus on engagement, and taken strides in our international and Indigenous outreach.

Over the past year, we have engaged in research that supports our programming and the campus community. We are close to completion of our experiential mapping project, an initiative to take stock of the dynamic range of curricular and co-curricular experiential opportunities offered on campus. To date, we have completed 55 curricular maps representing 674 courses at UVic and two co-curricular maps representing many other types of on-campus opportunities, all of which are posted online. We have also undertaken a project to reconnect with our co-op alumni—since September 2014, we have increased the number of co-op alumni in our database by 124%.

Co-op and Career also expanded our Compass campaign this year to help UVic students access the career resources they need at every stage of student life. We launched Stage 2: Explore your options, which focuses on career exploration and includes highlights of the experiential and hands-on learning opportunities available at UVic, complementing the results of our mapping project.

This year also brought a renewed focus on student engagement, as we introduced several exciting initiatives. In an effort to specialize career support for students, we partnered with the Faculty of Humanities to offer a Success in the Humanities week and hosted a new Business Career Fair. We significantly expanded our mock interview clinic offerings in fall 2014 to host six clinics serving approximately 480 co-op students from different programs. We also launched a popular Co-op student for a day contest, offering students the chance to sample the co-op program through a half-day job shadowing opportunity at a local organization. Another new event, Co-op 180, will showcase the transformative impact of students’ co-op work terms during UVic IdeaFest 2015.

On the international front, we were pleased to accept a Global Best Award this year for our CANEU-COOP Program. We have continued our intercultural competency development research with students in this program, confirming that students develop cultural intelligence as a result of their international experience. In 2014, we also welcomed a new Indigenous coordinator to support Indigenous students in their career development and create more culturally relevant co-op opportunities.

As always, our students continue to have a vital impact in their workplaces, on campus and in the local and global community. We are pleased to share some of their stories throughout this report.

This annual report identifies general trends and developments for Co-op and Career for the 2014 calendar year, as well as placement and program statistics for the May 2013 to April 2014 period. For detailed statistics on individual faculties, please see our customized faculty summaries.

Additionally, we continue to ask co-op students and their supervisors to measure students’ competency development at the beginning, middle and end of each work term, and in 2014 we saw 570 students reflect on their intercultural competency development as a result of working in culturally diverse workplaces. This competency data is also reflected in our report.

We hope you find this information useful, and we look forward to what 2015 will bring!

Dr. Norah McRae

Executive Director University of Victoria Co-operative Education Program and Career Services

Contents

The year in numbers: Statistics for 2013–2014 ............................................................2

Co-op work term placements ...............................................................................................2

Co-op employer data .................................................................................................................4

Co-op student data ......................................................................................................................6

Competency assessment results .........................................................................................7

Career support and service use .........................................................................................11

Event activity and participation ........................................................................................12

New developments ............................................................................................................ 14

Service, event and resource growth ...............................................................................14

Research projects .......................................................................................................................17

Program updates ........................................................................................................................18

Audience outreach .............................................................................................................. 19

Student outreach .......................................................................................................................19

Employer outreach ....................................................................................................................22

Survey results ................................................................................................................................24

Social media outreach ............................................................................................................25

Membership activities .............................................................................................................26

International activities ....................................................................................................... 26

Students of the year ........................................................................................................... 28

Looking towards 2015 ....................................................................................................... 29

This report was produced in January 2015 by the Office of the Director, UVic Co-operative Education Program and Career Services.

Graphic design: UVic Graphic Services

Editorial: Vanessa Stofer, communications officer

Photography: Brad Buie (Office of Research and Office of External Relations); UVic co-op students Tesi Carmona Wagner, Jamie Cook, Cat Lane, Kasey Luft, Gaëlle Madevon, Dennis Pavlina, Tú Pham, Jessica Round, Darcie Scollard, Meghan Thompson and Zhijie Yin; UVic career educators; UVic Photographic Services

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THE YEAR IN NUMBERS:Statistics for 2013–2014

The distribution of co-op placements was generally balanced across each term, ranging from 24.9% to 42.6% per term. This reflects UVic’s commitment to the alternating system of work and study, rather than the majority of placements being summer-based. The distribution of placements by term was similarly balanced for other co-op institutions in BC (46.6% for summer 2013, 25.6% for fall 2013, and 27.8% for spring 2014).

In addition to our co-op placements, Co-op and Career has placed students in Community Service Learning (CSL) placements over the past three years. In 2013/14, 52 CSL placements were made in local community organizations. Cumulatively, 3,027 work-integrated learning opportunities were brokered last year.

Co-op placements are increasing. Overall, the Co-operative Education Program made 2,975 co-op placements in 2013/14, increasing 4.8 per cent over last year (c.f., 2,839 placements in 2012/13).

3,000

2,800

3,500

2,900

Co-op annual total CSL annual total

1,000

500

2,400

1,500

2,500

2,500

2,700

2,000

2,600

03/04 04/05 05/06 06/07 07/08 08/09 09/10 10/11 11/12 12/13 13/14

03/04 04/05 05/06 06/07 07/08 08/09 09/10 10/11 11/12 12/13 13/14

NUMBER OF PLACEMENTS OVER TIME

COMMUNITY SERVICE LEARNING (CSL) PLACEMENTS OVER TIME

2,553 2,654 2,709 2,7062,583

2,8082,646 2,679 2,647

2,839

2,300

PLACEMENTS BY TERM IN 2013/14

Total(2,975)

K1242.6%(1,266)

F1224.9%(740)

S1332.6%(969)

CO-OP WORK TERM PLACEMENTS

2,975

3,000

3,100

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British Columbia remains a popular location for work term placements. In 2013/14, there were 2,108 BC placements, representing 70.9% of total placements.

Over the past few years, a shift has occurred in the location of placements, with a decline in Vancouver Island placements (c.f., 59.4% Vancouver Island placements in 2008/09). During the same time period, the distribution of placements throughout the Lower Mainland and throughout the rest of Canada has been slowly increasing. Over the past five years, the distribution of placements throughout the rest of BC has remained relatively steady while international placements have been increasing.

Of the 2,975 overall placements last year, 1,725 placements (58%) were generated through our online posting system (Co-op and Career portal).Students generated 786 placements (26%), 300 placements (10.1%) were return placements (students returned to a previous employer), and 164 placements (5.5%) were work term challenge placements.

When the two large mandatory co-op programs (Business and Engineering) are removed from the equation, the breakdown changes: 911 placements (75.7%) were generated through online posting, 192 placements (16%) were generated by students, 76 placements (6.3%) were return placements, and 24 placements (2%) were work term challenge placements.

PLACEMENTS BY REGION IN 2013/14

VANCOUVER ISLAND

BRITISH COLUMBIA

REST OF CANADA

INTERNATIONAL

LOWER MAINLAND

OTHER BC44.8%(1,334)

5.9%(177)

8.5%(252)

20.1%(597)

20.7%(615)

Total(2,975)

PLACEMENTS BY REGION OVER TIME

0 %

60 %

50 %

40 %

30 %

20 %

10 %

06/0705/0604/0503/04 11/12

Vancouver Island Lower Mainland Canada InternationalOther BC

07/08 08/09 09/10 10/11

3

70 %

12/13 13/14

METHODS OF PLACEMENT IN 2013/14

OVERALL OVERALL (EXCLUDING BUSINESS AND ENGINEERING)

POSTED JOB

STUDENT FOUND OWN JOB

RETURN JOBS

WORK TERM CHALLENGE

58%(1,725)

75.7%(911)

26.4%(786)

16%(192)

10.1%(300)

6.3%(76)

5.5%(164)

2%(24)

Last year, 1,052 different employer organizations hired UVic co-op students. Of these, 64.6% of employers hired more than one student during the year and 81.7% hired from more than one co-op program area.

NUMBER OF HIRING EMPLOYERS BY YEAR 1,400

500

1000

03/04 04/05 05/06 06/07 07/08 08/09 09/10 10/11 11/12 12/13 13/14

880 841

1,186 1,180 1,199 1,2091,163

1,202

959951

CO-OP EMPLOYER DATA

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1,052

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PLACEMENTS BY EMPLOYER TYPE IN 2013/14

In 2013/14, private sector placements represented 64% of placements. Over the past several years, the percentage of placements by employer type has been settling into a pattern of greater reliance on the private sector than the public sector (c.f., in 2000/01, 39.7% were public sector placements and 60.3% of placements were with the private sector).

Within the public sector, both provincial government and agency placements and federal government and agency placements continue to decrease. Municipal placements have remained stable over the years.

PRIVATE BUSINESS

PUBLIC SECTOR

FEDERAL

PROVINCIAL

MUNICIPAL

FEDERAL AGENCY

PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT

MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT

PROVINCIAL AGENCY

NOT-FOR-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

PRIVATE SECTOR

58.4%(1,736)

8.3%(246)

2.1%(63)

1.6%(48)

5.6%(167)

2.6%(76)

21.5%(639)

PUBLIC PRIVATE

03/04 04/05 05/06 06/07 07/08 08/09 09/10 10/11 11/12 12/13 13/14

PUBLIC VERSUS PRIVATE SECTOR PLACEMENTS OVER TIME70%

50%

30%

10%

51.7% 48.3% 48.8% 51.2% 47.5% 52.5% 44.7% 55.3% 45.6% 54.4% 50.3% 49.7% 47.5% 52.5% 43.8% 56.2% 42.6% 38.2%57.4% 61.8% 36% 64%

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PLACEMENTS BY EMPLOYER TYPE OVER TIME

In 2013/14, the average monthly co-op salary (across all programs for all levels of students) was $2,913—a $44 or 1.5% increase over last year (c.f., $2,869 in 2012/13). The average monthly salary for graduate co-op students was $3,467. The average monthly salary for undergraduate co-op students was $2,841.

0 %

50 %

60 %

40 %

30 %

20 %

10 %

06/0705/0604/0503/04 07/08 08/09 09/10 10/11 11/12 12/13

Federal Provincial NPO Private businessMunicipal

Male 60.9% (1,812)

Female 39.1% (1,163)

Total placements: 2,975

OVERALL

Female 57.9% (1,046)

Male42.1% (761)


OVERALL (excluding Engineering

and Computer Science/Math)


ENGINEERING AND COMPUTER

SCIENCE ONLY

CO-OP STUDENT GENDER BREAKDOWN CO-OP STUDENT DATA

$1,000

$1,500

$2,000

$2,500

$3,000

$500

$0

03/04 04/05 05/06 06/07 07/08 08/09 09/10 10/11 11/12 12/13 13/14

$2,314

AVERAGE MONTHLY CO-OP SALARY OVER TIME

$2,271$2,433 $2,602 $2,703 $2,787

$2,475$2,700 $2,766

$2,869 $2,913

Who are UVic co-op students? Although 55% of UVic students overall are female, the Co-operative Education Program has a male gender skew, due mainly to the Faculty of Engineering Co-op programs (both Engineering Co-op and Computer Science/Math Co-op). Without these programs included in the gender distribution, the overall gender breakdown is closer to the university’s enrolment pattern of 55% female.

13/14

Male90%

(1,051)

Female10% (117)

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10 CORE COMPETENCIES

For 2013/14, close to 8% of all UVic students were international (visa) students. International students made up 13.3% of co-op placements. The data below is drawn from co-op students who have self-disclosed membership in the following equity groups.

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UVic Co-op and Career has identified 10 core competencies that are valued across all academic program areas and employer sectors. Our core competencies align with UVic’s learning outcomes, reflecting the important connection between academic study and the world of work.

All co-op students who completed co-op work terms in 2013/14 set learning objectives related to these core competencies at the beginning of each work term. Each student and his or her workplace supervisor then assessed the student’s competency development at the beginning (learning objectives rating), middle (mid-term rating) and end (final rating) of each work term. The following describes the overall results of these assessments in 2013/14.

PLACEMENTS BY INTERNATIONAL

STUDENTS

PLACEMENTS BY INDIGENOUS

STUDENTS

PLACEMENTS BY STUDENTS WITH

DISABILITIES

PLACEMENTS BY VISIBLE MINORITY

STUDENTS

TOTAL PLACEMENTS

OVERALL CO-OP PROGRAM 395 16 4 51 2,975

OVERALL PERCENTAGE 13.3% 0.5% 0.1% 1.7% 100%

100%

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0%ACCOMPLISHED

DEVELOPING

NO DEMONSTRATED ACHIEVEMENT

BEGINNING

EXEMPLARY

Core competency: Personal management – You understand yourself and are conscious of the implications of your interactions with others.

Core competency: Communication – You’re comfortable using a broad range of communication styles and you choose appropriate, effective ways to communicate to audiences in diverse situations.

COMPETENCY ASSESSMENT RESULTS

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Core competency: Managing information – You’re able to think critically to gather, sort, store and use information to turn data into knowledge.

Core competency: Research and analysis – You use information from a variety of sources to identify options and solve problems.

Core competency: Project and task management – You plan, implement, manage and measure projects and tasks in a timely and directed manner.

Core competency: Teamwork – You work cooperatively and collaboratively with others to achieve collective goals.

Business student Dennis Pavlina completed a co-op work term at RevenueWire in a marketing and communications support position. He coordinated email marketing campaigns, organized networking events, developed marketing collateral and built a database of prospects for a new business initiative. “The opportunity to work in e-commerce where the landscape is constantly changing has exposed me to foundational marketing concepts that I’ll be able to use in future positions,” he says. “I’ll be extremely proud to list this experience on my résumé.”

DENNIS PAVLINA

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Core competency: Commitment to quality – You take pride in your work and strive for excellence to achieve the best possible results.

Core competency: Professional behaviour – You use sound judgment to meet or exceed workplace guidelines, standards and expectations.

Core competency: Social responsibility – You recognize how your beliefs, ethics and actions fit within the context of a greater community.

Core competency: Continuous learning – You acquire and apply new knowledge and skills in all of your experiences.

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Cross-cultural competency: Strategic thinking – You use your knowledge and understanding of different cultures to plan effective intercultural interactions.

Cross-cultural competency: Intercultural knowledge – You have a good understanding of how cultures are similar or different.

INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCIESIn 2013/14, more than 570 co-op students identified their workplaces as intercultural settings, both in Canada and abroad. These students and their employers were asked to assess the students’ four intercultural competencies at the beginning (learning objectives rating), middle (mid-term rating) and end (final rating) of students’ work experiences. Here are the results of these assessments for 2013/14.

Cross-cultural competency: Intercultural motivation – You are curious about new surroundings and cultures and actively seek out learning opportunities.

ACCOMPLISHED

DEVELOPING

NO DEMONSTRATED ACHIEVEMENT

BEGINNING

EXEMPLARY

Music student Lynne Penhale sought help at Career Services’ office in the library with developing her résumé and cover letter. “The career educator, Michelle Floyd, taught me to dive right in and bring out the best qualities I could offer with the most positive and assured language possible and go for the job that seemed out of my reach,” she says. “Despite not getting that specific job, the résumé was easily tailored to a job that I got later on that was more at my level.”

LYNNE PENHALE

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Cross-cultural competency: Appropriate behaviour – You demonstrate flexibility in your interactions and are able to recognize and adapt to cultural nuances in the workplace and beyond.

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This section of the report covers activities from January to December 2014.

UVic students and alumni continued to connect with UVic Co-op and Career through events, workshops, services and career support in 2014.

Students, alumni, employers and community members made significant use of the Co-op and Career job portal in 2014. A total of 16,557 different users were active in the system.

USE OF CAREER DEVELOPMENT SERVICES

USE OF CO-OP AND CAREER PORTAL (learninginmotion.uvic.ca)

SERVICE

PARTICIPANTS

Business students Engineering and Computer Science/Math students

Students in Optional and Professional Programs

Career help appointments and drop-ins259 total visits

(138 unique students)555 total visits

(262 unique students)2,598 total visits

(1,083 unique students)

Other career support activities (programs, courses, workshops, targeted events, etc.) 775 total attendees 2,418 total attendees 5,519 total attendees

STUDENT USE OF CAREER DEVELOPMENT SERVICES

Audience group # of users

Students 12,087

Alumni 1,919

Employers 1,408

Community members 1,143

AUDIENCE BREAKDOWN

Actions taken #

Tutor profiles created 199

Casual work profiles created 160

Applications for co-op positions submitted 22,728

USE BY STUDENTS AND ALUMNI

CAREER SUPPORT AND SERVICE USE

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<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<Event name Date Length Attendees Exhibitors/presenters/

topics Occurrence

Employer information sessions Throughout 2014 1 to 2 hours Varied per session

46 employers, including Deloitte, Teck, Fast Enterprises and Schneider Electric

Arranged upon employer request

Success in the Humanities

Week of January 21–29

Varied by session 75 students

Resources, workshops and employer networking session for humanities students

Annual (new event)

RésumaniaJanuary, March and

SeptemberHalf-day (multiple

booths on campus)227 students Résumé clinic Three times per year

What can you do with your degree? panel sessions

February, March and October

1.5 hours 444 students

Panelists included alumni, co-op employers and department contacts from a wide range of industries

Twice per year (spring and fall)

Employer Appreciation Reception February 25 2 hours 160 employers and

UVic staff

Co-op Employer of the Year, Co-op Students of the Year, UVic President Jamie Cassels, VP Academic and Provost Dr. Reeta Tremblay, Associate VP Academic Planning Dr. Catherine Mateer and Co-op and Career Executive Director Norah McRae

Annual

Business Career Fair May 29 Full-day 165 students

16 exhibitors, including BC Assessment, RBC, Investors Group, Scotiabank and RevenueWire

Annual (new event)

Pathways to Success

Full-day event in November;

workshops October-April

Various sessions 290 graduate students

Resources and workshops for graduate students

One full-day event and ongoing sessions throughout the year

Hi-Tech Co-op and Career Fair

Main fair: February 4-5

--

Mini fair: May 27

Full-day

900 students over two days

--

130 students over two hours

40 exhibitors, including Microsoft, Lafarge Canada, Schneider Electric and Dynastream Innovations/Garmin

--

Eight employers, including Patriot Electric, Go2Mobi and Herold Engineering

Annual

It was a busy year for events, as Co-op and Career hosted a wide range of activities to connect students and alumni with employers in 2014.

EVENT ACTIVITY AND PARTICIPATION

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<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<Event name Date Length Attendees Exhibitors/presenters/topics Occurrence

Gear into Summer March 17 –May 2 Online 5,800 visitsOnline summer job resources, featured job postings and support

Annual

Alumni networking event - California June 26 Full-day 10 alumni Pursuing co-op opportunities in

Silicon Valley Annual

Business Career Café July and November 1 hour39 students,

33 alumni (July session)

Graduating business students held “coffee interviews” with alumni working in interesting career roles

Annual (new event)

Co-op and Career Info Day September 9 Full-day 1,010 students All Co-op and Career programs

and offices Annual

Co-op Photo Contest

Display and voting: September 9

Entries accepted: May–September

Online and displayed at Co-op and Career

Info Day105 photo entries Students’ submitted photos of

their co-op experiences Annual

Co-op and Career Fair September 23-24 Full-day 2,015 students

67 exhibitors, including BC Hydro, AbeBooks, RBC, Pason Systems, Capital Regional District, FAST Enterprises, CPABC and PepsiCo

Annual

Career Corner at the Career Fair September 23-24 Full-day 228 students On-site networking and

career support Annual

Co-op student for a day contest September 2014

Entry booths open outside major

September events

285 student entries

Students entered to win a half-day job shadowing opportunity at one of seven local organizations, including Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Home energy Solutions and Island Health

Annual (new event)

Indigenous student engagement and networking events

September and October

Various sessions75 students, 10 employers, staff

and alumni

Co-op information session, networking opportunity with employers, engagement lunch and career panel

Three fall sessions

Mock interview clinicsSeptember, October

and NovemberFull-day (six clinics) 478 students

Mock interviews with 107 interviewers, including employers, senior students, faculty and staff

Annual (newly expanded event)

Dispute resolution graduate student Meghan Fodor completed two consecutive work terms at the Department of National Defence Maritime Forces Pacific in Esquimalt. As a workforce planning assistant in human resources, she took on such varied projects as event planning, drafting presentations and preparing reports. “I saw how beneficial work experience could be in developing career opportunities, so I jumped at the opportunity to complete co-op at the Master’s level,” she says. “This position really opened my eyes to the career potential of working in human resources.”

MEGHAN FODOR

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Mock interview clinics expand for all co-op students In fall 2014, Co-op and Career launched an expanded series of mock interview clinics, allowing many more co-op students to gain interview experience and practice marketing their competencies in a realistic interview setting. Building on the success of our annual mock interview clinic for business students (and a few small-scale clinics held for other students), we expanded this initiative in 2014 to host six different program-specific clinics serving approximately 480 co-op students. One hundred and seven volunteers—including many current co-op employers—acted as mock interviewers for these clinics, providing each co-op student with meaningful feedback about his or her interview performance and job application. This initiative was sparked by student and co-op coordinator requests for more hands-on interview opportunities across all disciplines, and feedback has been overwhelmingly positive from all audiences. For employers, volunteering as a mock interviewer provides a window into potential future recruitment; Co-op and Career developed new resources for employers to aid the interview process. Students gained interview skills and confidence and alumni, faculty and senior student volunteers enjoyed engaging with the wider UVic community. Currently, six clinics are scheduled for the upcoming spring 2015 term, which will comprise 370 students and more than 90 interviewers. More mock interview clinics will be held in fall 2015.

Co-op student David Jewett answers an employer’s interview question at one of six mock interview clinics held in 2014.

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Co-op student for a day contest raises awareness about co-op opportunitiesTo engage with students in an innovative way, the Student Engagement Committee launched a new Co-op student for a day initiative in 2014—a chance for students to sample the co-op program through a half-day job shadowing opportunity at a local organization. The committee accepted 285 entries online and at Co-op and Career events throughout September 2014, increasing students’ awareness of the co-op program while drawing increased traffic to the event venues. A panel of judges selected seven winning entrants to be paired with our seven respective employer partners for this event—AbeBooks, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, AXYS Analytical, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Home Energy Solutions, Island Health and Recreation Integration Victoria. The seven winning students visited these organizations in November 2014 and were able to tour the workplace, network with current staff and ask questions, opening a potential window for future recruitment.

English co-op student Darcie Scollard graduated in November 2014 and was hired for a provincial government contract after completing two work terms at the BC Ministry of Energy and Mines. She gained experience in web development, logo design, event planning and more, which will serve her well in her new position as a web publisher at the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources. “Since I became a co-op student, a lot of stress around finding a job after graduation has been lifted off my shoulders,” she says. “You really can’t put a price on experiential learning—and the value that working in your field before graduation adds to your academic and professional career.”

DARCIE SCOLLARD

Compass campaign expands in print and onlineCo-op and Career created a “compass” tool in 2013 to help UVic students navigate the career-related support, resources and programs available at every stage of student life. The compass is available as a poster and online and organizes support into three stages: “Stage 1: Discover your direction” (first year), “Stage 2: Explore your options” (second to third year) and “Stage 3: Gear up to graduate” (third to final year). In 2014, we worked to expand the Compass stages’ presence online and created a separate new poster for “Stage 2: Explore your options”, which focuses on career exploration and includes various types of experiential and hands-on learning opportunities available at UVic. The compass posters have been distributed in every first-year English class, through academic advising offices, at our career events, at Co-op and Career offices across campus and on UVic tours for potential new students. Feedback from the compass campaign has been overwhelmingly positive and the posters have proven extremely popular, with over 9,000 copies handed out between September and November 2014 alone.

CONTACT US

Phone: 250-721-8421 Email: [email protected] Web: uvic.ca/coopandcareer

facebook.com/uviccoopandcareer @uviccoopcareer Learning in motion

GAIN EXPERIENCE BEFORE YOU GRADUATE!

STARTING TO THINK ABOUT YOUR FUTURE CAREER?

EXPLORE YOUR OPTIONSuvic.ca/coopandcareer/explore

USE THE EXPLORE YOUR OPTIONS CHECKLIST TO CONNECT YOUR COURSES WITH YOUR CAREER✔

To start exploring potential careers on my own, I can…

Work through the journey kit online resources to research careers and chart my path (uvic.ca/coopandcareer/journeykit)

Check out “What can you do with your degree?” resources for my program (uvic.ca/coopandcareer/degree)

Join the Horizons Program, a free self-paced online program for exploring career possibilities (uvic.ca/coopandcareer/horizons)

To access career support on campus, I can… Meet with a career educator for help with career planning and more (uvic.ca/coopandcareer/advice)

Attend free career workshops on résumés, cover letters and using social media in my work search (uvic.ca/coopandcareer/workshops)

Attend Co-op and Career events like “What can you do with your degree?” sessions, employer info sessions, career fairs and more (uvic.ca/coopandcareer/events)

See Counselling Services about their Career Exploration Program and career counselling (coun.uvic.ca/career)

To gain experience related to what I’m studying, I can… Participate in hands-on learning and co-curricular opportunities available in my program area (uvic.ca/coopandcareer/explore)

Join the co-op program or work experience program to gain paid, relevant work experience before graduation (uvic.ca/coopandcareer/coop)

Check out job postings on the Co-op and Career portal (learninginmotion.uvic.ca)

Look into volunteer opportunities (uvic.ca/coopandcareer/volunteer)

Take part in international work and study opportunities (uvic.ca/coopandcareer/abroad and uvic.ca/international)

To learn about competencies and how to build my career skills, I can…

Work through resources in the competency kit to assess my skills and learn how to market them to employers (uvic.ca/coopandcareer/competencykit)Check out the tool kit for info on résumés, cover letters, interviewing and more (uvic.ca/coopandcareer/toolkit)

CAREER EVENTS INFO uvic.ca/coopandcareer/events

We’ve pulled together a list of hands-on learning and co-curricular opportunities available in your program so you can discover your interests, boost your résumé and explore potential careers during your degree.

CAREER PORTAL learninginmotion.uvic.ca

USE OUR KITS TO BE A HIT!

uvic.ca/coopandcareer/journeykit (career motivators, career options, work search resources, professional development and grad school info)

uvic.ca/coopandcareer/competencykit(assess, develop and describe your competencies: core, program-specific, cross-cultural and professional)

uvic.ca/coopandcareer/toolkit(résumés, cover letters, interviews, portfolios and networking)

CAREER EDUCATOR HELP uvic.ca/coopandcareer/advice

“Hands-on learning” is… “Co-curricular opportunities” are…

… opportunities to engage in experiential education within your academic program—whether it’s in the classroom, research projects, the workplace or the community.

Possibilities include:• Co-op Program and Work Experience Program• Community Service Learning courses• Field schools• Practica• Study abroad or exchange• … and many more!

… ways you can gain experience at UVic outside your academic program —including in the workplace, in academics and in the campus community.

Possibilities include:• Para-professional program positions (orientation leader, peer helper,

Residence Life community advisor, etc.)• Research assistant positions• UVSS clubs• Work Study Program• …and many more!

See opportunities available in your program area at

uvic.ca/coopandcareer/explore

Check out uvic.ca/coopandcareer/compass for an overview of all the programs, services, resources and events we offer.

The Stage 2: Explore your options poster

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Business Co-op and Career Fair added to annual career fair offeringsIn late May 2014, we relaunched an annual Business Co-op and Career Fair to help graduating UVic business students connect with potential employers before their convocation. Students from the Camosun Business program were also invited to attend. Thirteen employers held booths at this event, and many of the recruiters were UVic business alumni. The fair was a success for both students and employers—approximately 165 students attended with 39% of the Business students on campus at that time participating. UVic and Camosun will partner to jointly coordinate the next fair in late May 2015, which will attract an even broader employer and student turnout. The Business Career Fair joins our other major annual career fair offerings: the Co-op and Career Fair in September, which targets the general student population, and the Hi-Tech Co-op and Career Fair in February (and Mini-Hi Tech Fair in May), which target engineering, computer science and math students.

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Success in the Humanities supports humanities studentsIn January 2014, Co-op and Career partnered with the Faculty of Humanities to offer a successful week of specialized career support for humanities students. The event included workshops such as The Human Side of Networking and Co-op: Gaining Relevant Work Experience Before Graduation, as well as a career panel for English students and an employer networking night featuring eight employers that regularly hire humanities co-op students. More than 75 students participated in this event.

Gear Up to Graduate campaign supports graduating studentsStudents approaching graduation have a new set of resources at the fingertips, thanks to Gear Up to Graduate, a campaign launched in February 2014. The campaign, which runs at peak convocation times during the year, pulls together resources, job posting sites, featured postings and a career tune-up checklist for graduating students in one convenient online location. In October 2014, the Business Co-op and Career Office tailored its own campaign for business students, serving the significant portion of business students completing their final semester before graduation and allowing students on exchange to access resources online.

Career Café initiative launched for business studentsIn 2014, the Business Co-op and Career office developed a Career Café initiative to connect graduating business students in a “coffee interview” with alumni working in interesting career roles. This event ran twice in 2014, once in July and again in November. In July, 39 students and 33 alumni participated in several interviews each, resulting in 100 connections. Feedback from students indicated that they found the experience informative, helpful with their career planning and beneficial in increasing their comfort level to approach other alumni.

Physics student Kasey Luft spent a co-op work term with Ballard Power Systems, a Burnaby-based company that produces hydrogen fuel cells. His responsibilities as a failure analysis investigator included running scope meetings, preparing samples, performing analysis and writing reports. “I have learned an incredible amount about fuel cells, how they operate and their failure mechanisms,” he says. “A lot of the analytical equipment used for failure analysis is based on fundamental physics principles, and it’s been interesting to see these principles we learned about in class being used on an everyday basis.”

KASEY LUFT

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Mapping project takes stock of experiential education options on campusUVic’s Office of the Vice-President Academic and Provost tasked Co-op and Career with identifying and mapping the curricular and co-curricular experiential opportunities that exist for students across campus. To facilitate this mapping project, Co-op and Career hired graduate co-op student Renee Vander Meulen from September 2013 to July 2014 and undergraduate co-op student Mikaila Mauro from September to December 2014. We adopted the Association for Experiential Education’s definition of experiential education: “… [A] philosophy that informs many methodologies in which educators purposefully engage with learners in direct experience and focused reflection in order to increase knowledge, develop skills, clarify values, and develop people’s capacity to contribute to their communities.” We then identified several key aspects of experiential education: experience, curriculum integration, student outcomes and reflection.

This project’s primary goal was to better inform students about opportunities for experiential learning available in their programs. Given UVic’s increasing emphasis on dynamic learning as a defining feature, the results of this mapping project will also be valuable for recruitment, differentiation, community engagement and more. To date, we have completed two co-curricular maps and 55 curricular (“hands-on learning”) maps. These 55 curricular maps represent 674 different courses at UVic that constitute experiential learning under our definition with total enrollment of 32,170 students. Our experiential education maps for each program are available online at uvic.ca/coopandcareer/explore under “Gain experience before you graduate!”. Samples of these opportunities will also appear on our popular What can you do with your degree? information sheets for students.

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Co-operativeEducation Program and Career Services

Experiential Education Opportunities

Experiential education helps you prepare for your future career. Learn more at uvic.ca/coopandcareer/explore.

Type Description

Experience education through hands-on learning. Courses in the Anthropology program at UVic provide a diverse range of learning experiences: discussion groups, tutorials, labs, and research papers, for example. The courses listed below highlight experiential education opportunities that provide exceptional or intensive opportunities for hands-on engagement with our curriculum.

Creative Performance/Exhibit

Co-op

Course Based

Field Experience

Research Project

Creative/Design Project

Work Experience

Professional/Technical Skill Development

Field School

Field Placement

Co-op work terms

ANTH 315

ANTH 303

ANTH 397

ANTH 398

ANTH 409

ANTH 397

ANTH 449

ANTH 380

ANTH 343, 344†

ANTH 393, 395†1

ANTH 360

ANTH 454

ANTH 408*

ANTH 499

Work experience work terms

Alternate academic study with paid work terms to gain workplace experience

Interact with expert craftspeople while studying material culture

Experiment with soundscape production and perform for an audience

Present research on mortuary practices creatively, with a website, magazine, etc.

Create collaborative experimental archaeology projects, beads, stained glass, etc.

Produce original ethnographic videos in teams

Conduct field work in a cemetery to record monuments and map them digitally

Undertake field trips to study Northwest Coast archaeology

Gain applied anthropological experience working with an organization (150 hrs)

Participate in an archaeological field project

Gain practical field experience when these courses are offered as a field school

Identify faunal material from archaeological sites

Develop discipline-specific data collection and analysis skills

Research photographs in the BC Archive; projects may address community needs

Research, write, and orally defend a graduating Honours essay

Participate in a modified co-op program requiring one or two work experiences

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* Indicates engagement with Indigenous communities.† Indicates a potential international experience (location varies).1 Variable topic course. Contact department for current offering.

Experience

Anthropology

Lab

Courses listed below may not always be offered as described; see departmental website for current course offerings. Courses may have prerequisites or registration restrictions, as indicated in the Academic Calendar. Consult the Academic Calendar, program planning worksheets, and/or Academic and Departmental Advisers to determine how courses fulfill degree requirements.

NOTE:

RESEARCH PROJECTS

Sample experiential education maps developed during the mapping project

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Type Description

Experience education through hands-on learning. Courses in the Computer Engineering program at UVic provide a diverse range of learning experiences: co-op work terms (including international research opportunities), labs, practical assignments, and research papers, for example. The courses listed below highlight experiential education opportunities that provide exceptional or intensive opportunities for hands-on engagement with our curriculum.

Co-op

Rersearch Project

Co-op work terms

ENGR 110

ENGR 120

CENG 299

CENG 399

CENG 441

CENG 450

CENG 455

CENG 498

CENG 499

MECH 458

CENG 299

ENGR 110

ENGR 120

ENGR 130

CENG 498

MECH 464


Gain design skills with practical projects and by engaging with industry experts

Gain design skills with practical projects and by engaging with industry experts

Develop an electrical and computer engineering design project

Produce a team-based design project; implement a system in hardware/software

Design a fully functional microprocessor

Work in teams to design and implement a pipelined processor on FPGA

Complete a team-based real time design project

Research, write, and orally defend a graduating Honours design/research project

Pursue an independent technical design project

Design a mechatronics system, such as a conveyor belt system

Develop discipline-specific technical communication and presentation skills

Develop discipline-specific writing and presentation skills

Develop further discipline-specific writing and presentation skills

Gain professional skills, such as resume writing and career development

Research, write, and orally defend a graduating Honours design/research project

Design mechanical, electrical, and software components of a mechatronic system

v1.1 - 28 July 2014

Experience

Computer Engineering

Creative/Design Project



NOTE:

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Type Description

Experience education through hands-on learning. Courses in the Commerce program at UVic provide a diverse range of learning experiences: case studies, group work, international exchanges, co-op work terms, client-based work, and research papers, for example. The courses listed below highlight experiential education opportunities that provide exceptional or intensive opportunities for hands-on engagement with our curriculum.

Course Based

Consulting Project

Research Project

Co-op

Field Experience

Study Abroad/Exchange

COM 415

COM 495

ENT 402

IB 418†

Co-op work terms

COM 415

COM 430

COM 480†

ENT 413

IB 218†

COM 204

COM 205

COM 405

COM 470†

COM 460†

COM 470†

COM 480†

COM 499†

Complete a project relating to online business for an existing organization

Conduct marketing projects for existing businesses

Work with a client to develop a business plan

Conduct project-based work for international organizations


Explore course content by engaging with guest speakers

Manage a business’ marketing functions using a computer simulation

Experience overseas cultural immersion, including on-site company visits

Interact with professionals and develop a portfolio demonstrating these skills

Participate in a field trip as part of this introduction to international business

Gain work search skills, such as preparing resumes and interviewing

Gain professional skills, such as public speaking and business etiquette

Gain career skills, such as portfolio development and career planning

Research a business/management topic related to the country of the Exchange

Study overseas for one term in the International Exchange Program




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† Indicates an international experience.

Experience

Commerce



NOTE:

Political science student Jamie Cook completed a work term as a communications writer with the Public Affairs office of Maritime Forces Pacific, where he drafted articles, news releases, media responses and briefing notes and wrote speeches for senior military personnel. “It’s been very rewarding and exciting to see my work published for others to witness, both within and outside the military,” he says. “The co-op program has definitely helped me gain clarity in my future professional aspirations, as I have a better understanding of where my competencies and strengths lie.”

JAMIE COOK

Alumni research project strengthens relations with co-op alumni In September 2014, UVic Co-op and Career hired co-op student Maria Chiarella for a four-month term as an alumni relations research assistant to strengthen our relationships with co-op alumni. Chiarella used LinkedIn to locate UVic co-op alumni, transferred data into our Co-op and Career portal, suggested ways to improve the robustness and accuracy of the information in the database and developed an alumni outreach strategy. Since September 2014, Chiarella has updated more than 1,800 employer contacts in the database, added more than 100 new co-op alumni contacts and updated over 500 contacts to reflect co-op alumni status. Overall, we have increased the number of co-op alumni in the database by 124% (and the number of contacts based in the Silicon Valley, in particular, by 379%). Our staff will use this information to reconnect with co-op graduates and encourage them to continue engaging with us—whether it’s sharing their post-grad career journeys, attending meet-ups, mentoring current students or potentially hiring co-op students of their own.

Intercultural competency development research confirms international experience benefits studentsIn 2014, all students participating in the CANEU-COOP Program were invited to participate in a survey measuring the development of their cultural intelligence (CQ) before and after their international experience. For Canadian CANEU students working in companies in Europe, their employers are also asked to assess their CQ, validating the students’ self-assessments. In September 2014, co-op student Pablo Frederick was hired for a four-month term to work on this research project. Data collected to date indicates that students do indeed develop their CQ as a result of their international experience. We look forward to completion of the analysis, which we hope will show whether there is a difference in CQ development for students who go abroad to study versus those who go abroad to work.

PROGRAM UPDATESCo-curricular record beta test expands to more departmentsThe University of Victoria’s co-curricular record (CCR) project aims to recognize students’ extracurricular activities, such as volunteering, coaching or other leadership roles, in a university-validated document generated in the online Co-op and Career portal. In 2014, the project continued its beta test with students representing a selected group of departments: Alumni Relations, Athletics and Recreation, Co-op and Career, Medieval Studies and Residence Services, as well as International Student Services and Student Recruitment, who joined the project for the 2014–15 academic year. This year, students have created 66 new co-curricular records in the module and identified relevant learning outcomes for each position. UVic staff members then validated the students’ records. The CCR project was spearheaded by Co-op and Career and UVic Student Services in 2012. Since its inception, students have created 208 records to document their co-curricular experiences.

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Indigenous experiential and community learning coordinator increases engagement with Indigenous studentsIn 2014, Lalita Morrison joined the Co-op and Career team as Indigenous experiential and community learning coordinator in a shared position with UVic’s Office of Indigenous Affairs. Morrison is working to develop an Indigenous experiential framework, increase the number of Indigenous students in the co-op program and promote programs and services available to Indigenous students. She is also reaching out to Indigenous communities and organizations to create more culturally relevant co-op opportunities for Indigenous students, and is administering funding granted to UVic’s Office of Indigenous Affairs by the Ministry of Advanced Education to co-sponsor selected placements. She also supports Indigenous students directly through one-on-one meetings, several career and networking events, and the LE,NONET Preparation Seminar—a course that readies students to work in Indigenous communities and allows for a community internship or research apprenticeship.

Career educators offer a wide range of support to students UVic career educators support students and alumni as they explore their career options and search for work opportunities. In 2014, this included offering 98 career workshops at the Learning Commons in McPherson Library, including Résumé Lab, Ace Your Interviews and Using LinkedIn for Your Work Search. In October 2014, Co-op and Career partnered with Alumni Services to launch a fourth workshop, Network to Work, which teaches students to use networking to make connections, find opportunities and advance their careers. In 2014, career educators also provided 3,412 one-on-one career help sessions (drop-ins and appointments) to students and alumni in person and by email, phone and videoconference, and ran two online career programs: Horizons (on career exploration) and Navigator (on the work search process). They gave an increased number of presentations on career development curriculum to a variety of academic classes, course unions and other groups on campus, and facilitated several multi-mini interview (MMI) sessions for students preparing for medical and professional schools.

Career educators were also an important part of many 2014 events: they facilitated workshops at Pathways to Success for graduate students, held a two-day Career Corner event during the fall Co-op and Career Fair and engaged with students at our popular What can you do with your degree? panels, new student orientation, first-year English talks, the University Learning Skills program and many more initiatives.

AUDIENCE OUTREACH

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>AUDIENCE OUTREACHSTUDENT OUTREACH

Alegha Van Hanuse of Island Health (Aboriginal Employment Program) interviews co-op student Tatyana Danylshyn at our mock interview clinic for Indigenous students on October 9, 2014.

Students attend an Ace Your Interviews workshop led by career educator Jeremy Pearce (back) in McPherson Library

Law student Tú Pham spent a co-op work term in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories and returned to work as an articling student there, reviewing evidence, preparing witnesses for trial and presenting the Federal Crown’s case before the court. He is in the final stages of completing the local bar admission course to become a lawyer. “While many of my colleagues have struggled with this course, I have breezed through it with surprising ease due in large part to the vast experience that I gained through the law co-op program,” he says.

TÚ PHAM

Students share co-op experiences through annual photo contest Co-op students submitted 105 photos of their work term experiences to the 2014 Co-op Photo Contest. Photos were displayed at Co-op and Career Info Day in September 2014 and more than 1,000 students had the opportunity to vote for the winners. Cat Lane (recreation and health education) was awarded the top $200 prize for her photo taken while working as an activity instructor at United World College in Wales, UK. All contest entries are posted at uvic.ca/coopandcareer/contest.

Thouvenelle scholarship supports students in 49 community-based work termsIn 2014, UVic Co-op and Career awarded the Thouvenelle scholarship to 49 students who were engaged in co-op work terms related to community development or service learning. This scholarship is awarded based on the nature of the student’s work term and its impact on local community, as well as the students’ academic standing and expected remuneration.

Fall career events see record attendanceTwo major annual events—Co-op and Career Info Day and our What can you do with your degree? panel series—enjoyed record attendance numbers in fall 2014. Several new initiatives likely boosted our attendance this year: our Co-op student for a day sign-up table and a popcorn booth drew attendees to the Student Union Building venue, we promoted our events on new digital signage installed across campus and we held several of our What can you do with your degree? panels during the busy fall period (normally, all of these panels occur in the spring).

Career ambassadors support fellow studentsIn 2014, the Career Ambassador Program (CAP) welcomed 11 student volunteers to its team. Our career ambassadors focus on providing outreach to promote Co-op and Career support to students across campus. This has included volunteering at our events, promoting events with flyers and posters, distributing the Co-op and Career compass publication and staffing hot chocolate and candy stations around campus to raise student interest. Career ambassadors have connected with more than 500 students since the fall.

Co-op research celebrated during IdeaFest 2014In 2014, Co-op and Career celebrated UVic IdeaFest with a series of short profiles focusing on students’ research and creativity during their work terms. Fifty-six student profiles were posted online, providing a snapshot of the vast range of research that co-op students contribute to—from studying the mountain pine beetle in northern BC to researching new policy for lawmakers to implementing a microphone robot that measures acoustic scattering. These research profiles are posted at uvic.ca/coopandcareer/tour and will be updated for IdeaFest 2015.

Cat Lane’s winning entry in the 2014 Co-op Photo Contest

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Recreation and health education co-op student Simon Page spent his summer 2014 work term with the Victoria Jazz Society. He was responsible for recruiting, scheduling and managing volunteers for the society’s summer events lineup, including numerous concerts and two huge festivals: the TD Victoria International Jazz Fest and the Vancouver Island Blues Bash. “I had the opportunity to try on a lot of different hats and do some things I didn’t expect to do,” he says. “I was networking with a lot of great people from a variety of professional backgrounds with all kinds of experience and connections—the benefits of which time will tell!”

SIMON PAGE

Digital signage network on campus creates a new platform for outreachIn June 2014, UVic launched a network of digital displays to broadcast information, video and other content on campus in buildings, hallways, lobbies, eating areas and other public spaces. The network brings together the individual displays on campus (both new and existing) into a centralized content management system, serving as a campus-wide communication tool and creating significant outreach opportunities for departments and faculties on campus. Co-op and Career co-purchased a digital screen to display our content in the Business and Economics building lobby. We have also displayed our content through the central communications stream, which plays on every screen across campus at set intervals. Feedback on the new screens has been very positive, with increased awareness of our programs and services and record attendance numbers for several of our events. There are currently 37 displays on campus, with a projection of 50 by early 2015.

Coffee cards initiative encourages student engagementCo-op and Career launched a coffee card initiative in 2013 to accompany our compass campaign, encouraging all students to seek career support on campus. Students can earn stamps by connecting with our staff, attending events and participating in our programs and workshops, and can redeem their stamped card for a coffee voucher at Career Services. Feedback from students has been positive, and in 2014, we renewed this initiative, updating the cards to simplify the rewards process and encourage increased student participation.

Committee improves curriculum resourcesIn 2014, the Co-op and Career Curriculum Committee continued to work on our online “decision tree” feature, which guides users to content and pages based on their answers to a series of sequential questions that narrow down results. We developed decision trees for our online tool kit (job search resources section) and journey kit (career exploration section) by organizing common questions from students and complementary resources into a branched Q&A format. The committee also began work on improving intercultural competency resources for students in our competency kit (skill development resources section), which will involve integrating modules from our new intercultural competency workshop modules into our publicly accessible online curriculum. Other upcoming priorities for the committee include creating more intercultural content, a new resource on labour market information, more sample résumés and cover letters and more.

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UVic Co-op and Career coffee card

Put your learning in motion…

and get a FREE COFFEE!

See back for details.

STAMP 1STAMP 2

The new Co-op and Career coffee card

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Zhijie Yin (mechanical engineering), an international student from China, returned to UVic to pursue graduate studies after spending a summer exchange here during his undergraduate degree. Through the CANEU-COOP program, he traveled to Nuremberg, Germany for a co-op work term in the production and planning department at MAN Truck & Bus AG, making for a truly intercultural work experience. “As a mechanical engineering student who could only speak a little German, I needed to overcome the fact that that most of my work was in the industrial engineering field in a German context,” he says. “I gained such valuable work experience for my future career through this co-op—I learned how to perform my job professionally in an intercultural and interdisciplinary position.”

ZHIJIE YIN

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EMPLOYER OUTREACHIsland Health named 2014 UVic Co-op Employer of the Year; employers to be recognized at receptionCo-op and Career congratulates Island Health, our Co-op Employer of the Year for 2014. Since 2011, Island Health has hired an impressive 125 co-op students. They also hire UVic graduates who have completed undergraduate or graduate degrees.

Island Health is the largest employer on Vancouver Island and provides public health services to 768,000 Island residents through a network of hospitals, clinics, centres, health units and residential facilities. Island Health Victoria has hired students to work in diverse areas, including occupational safety, health and wellness; summer camps for children with disabilities; hygiene; surgical informatics; policy and business analysis; communications; human resources; biomedical engineering and more. Through their co-op terms, students have applied their learning directly to support client care, benefited from direct experience with a wide range of health professionals and been able to see the impact of their work on clients’ quality of life. We’d like to particularly recognize John Bartle-Clar, Audrey Gibson, Keva Glynn, John Harper, Angeli Mitra and Rod O’Connell of Island Health for their ongoing support of our co-op students’ learning.

Our Employer of the Year will be celebrated as part of our annual Employer Appreciation Reception in February 2015. A video showcasing our Employer of the Year will be made available in early 2015 at youtube.com/uviccoopandcareer under the “Co-op Employers of the Year” playlist.

Co-op and Career forges new Chamber of Commerce partnershipsIn 2014, UVic Co-op and Career and Camosun College Co-operative Education and Student Employment renewed our annual sponsorship agreement with the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce and signed a new agreement with the Saanich Peninsula Chamber of Commerce. UVic Co-op and Career also signed another new sponsorship agreement with Small Business BC. These agreements will continue to strengthen our community engagement with employers in Greater Victoria and provide a new way to reach small businesses across BC, allowing us the opportunity to promote student hiring opportunities, speak about co-op before the BC Finance Minister and meet employers and business owners at several annual events.

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AUCC and CCC reports recommend increased focus and funding for work-integrated educationIn September 2014, the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) released recommendations for the 2015 federal budget in a report titled Higher Education for a Stronger Canada. The report recommends an opportunities strategy for young Canadians as one of three key areas of focus in Budget 2015. AUCC recommends that “… the federal government invest in an integrated package of programs … to offer more career-boosting opportunities for Canadian students”, including a voucher program to encourage small- and medium-sized businesses and nonprofits to hire co-op students, a federal tax credit for co-op (also focused on small- and medium-sized businesses), funding for institutions to develop co-op placements and more. Other areas of recommended focus are enhanced funding for research and innovation and initiatives to support more Indigenous Canadians in post-secondary education. This report is available at aucc.ca (Media room > Publications).

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce (CCC) released a report in October 2014 titled A Battle We Can’t Afford to Lose: Getting Young Canadians from Education to Employment. The report identifies work-integrated learning (WIL) as one of the three key factors affecting young Canadians’ entry into the workforce, along with labour market information and career decision-making; it recommends that government, education providers and businesses “... work together to allow more students to reap the benefits of WIL” and facilitate the transition from education to employment. UVic Co-op and Career Executive Director Dr. Norah McRae provides comment in the report, making a strong case for co-op in the humanities, UVic’s unique law co-op program and co-op as a launch pad for entrepreneurialism. This report is available online at chamber.ca (October 2014 archive).

Co-op job development pursued in Canada, USA and beyondIn 2014, Co-op and Career staff traveled to actively pursue co-op job development opportunities in Vancouver, Calgary, the BC Interior, Ontario, Quebec, Seattle and California. A Business Co-op and Career representative also visited Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing. Our job development trips aim to strengthen organizations’ interest in hiring UVic co-op students and graduates and to create an increasingly diverse offering of robust co-op positions for our students in Canada and around the world.

Co-op development team connects with alumni in Silicon Valley for fifth yearIn late June 2014, Co-op and Career Executive Director Dr. Norah McRae and UVic Engineering and Computer Science/Math Co-op Coordinator Pamela Welgan traveled to the Silicon Valley for an annual job development trip with Dean Dr. Tom Tiedje of UVic Engineering, professor Dr. Rebecca Grant of UVic Gustavson School of Business and representatives from Simon Fraser University’s (SFU) co-op program. The trip was coordinated with the help of field coordinator Erika Wah, who connects with Bay Area companies on behalf of UVic and SFU. The group met with contacts at 15 different companies (including Ericsson, Intel, Sony, UrtheCast, Western Digital and Yahoo) and attended the annual Canadian Universities Networking Event on Canada Day sponsored by the Canadian Consulate, C100 and Digital Moose Lounge.

A core aspect of our California strategy has been to connect with co-op alumni working in the Silicon Valley, raising our profile in the region as a source for co-op student recruitment. A highlight in 2014 was the success of UVic alumnus Lior Malka (PhD 2008), now working at Intel, who secured a grant with UVic computer science professor Bruce Kapron to research and develop a new way to test antivirus software. Malka, a C100 member, has helped secure five co-op placements at Intel since 2009, and hopes to hire UVic students himself to work on his research. Co-op and Career also engages with Alumni Relations and other UVic initiatives, such as Ocean Networks Canada, who are actively raising our profile in the Bay area.

UVic alumnus Lior Malka (left) with engineering co-op student Angus Rittenburg

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Committee explores new ways to engage with employersIn 2014, the Employer Engagement Committee (EEC) completed an updated list of professional associations related to different industries; these associations will be used to update online and print career resources for students. The EEC also researched nine other post-secondary institutions’ websites and employer engagement practices for comparative purposes, reviewed an MBA consulting project report on employer engagement commissioned by UVic, Camosun College and the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce, and delivered proposals for two potential new employer initiatives—“Employer spotlight” and “Employer in residence”.

Employer Advisory Board provides employer insightEach year, Co-op and Career staff members invite employers from a wide range of industries to take part in the Employer Advisory Board. This group met in October 2014; discussion topics included the strengths of the local Greater Victoria economy and the federal government’s employment bridging program. Members also expressed strong interest in our ongoing career support of Indigenous co-op students. Additional meetings are scheduled for 2015.

Employer Advisory Board members include Brian Train of the BC Ministry of Advanced Education, Gerry Salembier of Western Economic Diversification, John Cosgrove of AXYS Analytical, Rod O’Connell of Island Health, Bruce Carter of the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce, Dave Jackson of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Dan Gunn of VIATec, Michael Morrison and Margot Cutcher of CFB Esquimalt, Brian Kingham of Schneider Electric, Nichola Reddington of City of Victoria (Parks, Recreation and Culture), Diana Parker of Eco-Care Technologies and Patricia Jelinski of the United Way of Greater Victoria.

Convocation surveys reveal promising employment trendTwo convocation surveys delivered to graduating students in November 2013 and June 2014 demonstrated a positive employment trend for new UVic grads. Of the 592 students who responded to the survey, 62% had secured employment by graduation and 10% had decided to pursue further education. Of those graduates who had secured employment:

SURVEY RESULTS

82% 26%67%reported that their positions were career-oriented

of students found a position through UVic Career Services or a former co-op employer

had obtained work in an entry-level position

had obtained a salary over $40,000

had found work within Greater Victoria

44%of survey respondents had participated in the co-op program while at UVic

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40% 51%

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Social media campaigns help promote fall eventsIn the fall of 2014, Co-op and Career held two social media contests to help promote our Co-op and Career Info Day and Co-op and Career Fair events. Students were asked to tweet using the hashtags #uviccareerfair and #ccinfoday; staff tracked the hashtags to enter participating students in a daily prize draw during the week of each event. Prizes were donated by local businesses, including recreation centres, restaurants, and tourism venues. Overall, we tracked 100 tweets for the Co-op and Career Fair and 98 tweets for Co-op and Career Info Day.

Social media engagement continues to growIn 2014, we continued to reach out to key audiences through our four primary social media channels:

Twitter (@uviccoopcareer) 2,318 followers (increase of 447 followers since 2013)

YouTube (youtube.com/uviccoopandcareer) 9 new videos since 2013 (including interviews and featurettes for students and employers)

LinkedIn(University of Victoria Co-op and Career group) 920 group members (increase of 199 members since 2013)

SOCIAL MEDIA OUTREACH

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Facebook (facebook.com/uviccoopandcareer) 1,182 likes (increase of 268 likes since 2013)

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>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<UVic’s CANEU-COOP program continues success, wins Global Best AwardUVic Co-op and Career is delighted to announce that our CANEU-COOP exchange program has been named a 2014 Global Best Award winner by the International education business Partnership Network (IPN). Supported by the Conference Board of Canada, the 2014 Global Best Awards celebrate partnerships between educational institutions, private businesses and other stakeholders that enhance youth employability. UVic Co-op and Career and other winners were showcased at the 12th annual IPN conference in Brussels, Belgium in September 2014.

Launched in 2009, the CANEU-COOP program is a partnership between UVic, the University of Waterloo, FH Joanneum University of Applied Sciences in Austria and Baden-Wuerttemberg Co-operative State University in Germany. CANEU-COOP offers UVic and Waterloo students the opportunity to complete co-op work terms in Germany and Austria; FH Joanneum and Baden-Wuerttemberg students can travel to Canada for academic studies. While in Canada, German students are also able to use their engineering and software development skills at CanAssist, an organization at UVic that develops customized technologies to help people with disabilities increase their independence and quality of life. The eight-month program includes one term spent abroad and one term at home. Through an innovative twinning model, students are paired with a “buddy” from their foreign exchange institution to provide support during their work term abroad and create lasting international friendships. To date, more than 150 students have participated in the program, with more scheduled to begin work terms in January 2015.

International coordinator Karima Ramji (centre) accepts the Global Best Award on behalf of CANEU-COOP in Brussels, Belgium. Presenting the award is Diana MacKay, director of education and immigration programs for the Conference Board of Canada.

INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITIES

Career educator John Fagan wins best presenter at CACEE National ConferenceIn May 2014, UVic career educator John Fagan received the Best Presenter award for his workshop at the annual Canadian Association of Career Educators and Employers (CACEE) National Conference in St. John’s, Newfoundland. The conference welcomed hundreds of employers, co-op educators and career services professionals to share ideas around experiential education in workshop format. Fagan’s session, the most highly ranked at the conference, facilitated discussions between career educators from across the country and focused on the integration of career development into professional engineering curriculum. During his session, Fagan presented the course he created in collaboration with UVic professor Dr. Kin F. Li, which inspires engineering students to continue to build on the career management skills gained through their co-op experiences.

MEMBERSHIP ACTIVITIES

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Intercultural curriculum expands for studentsCo-op and Career’s research on cultural intelligence has allowed us to develop curricula in 2014 that now spans throughout our operations. We realized that while intercultural competencies are necessary when we go abroad, they are also important in our home countries as we interact with people from diverse cultures—on campus, in our workplaces or in social settings. To this end, UVic Co-op and Career has developed a framework in 2014 for intercultural competency development based on the cultural intelligence model. We have integrated content on intercultural competency development into the standard Co-op and Career preparatory curriculum, which all co-op students complete before their first work term. Students going on international work terms also experience this curriculum as part of their pre-departure preparation, either online or in person at workshops offered once per term. Co-op and Career has also launched a special workshop series for international students at UVic called “Using your intercultural competencies to succeed in your Canadian job search”.

Jennifer Brown (psychology and biology) worked at the Max-Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, Germany. She learned about the genetics behind mood and anxiety disorders, how to recruit participants for a large-scale scientific study and how to rate and access these participants based on standard diagnostic clinical interviews.

Sasha Gronsdahl (political science) volunteered with Students without Borders (World University Service of Canada) for the nonprofit organization Active Youth Initiative for Social Enhancement in Blantyre, Malawi. She developed promotional material, updated the website, worked on funding proposals and trained other volunteers.

Jessica Round (biochemistry and microbiology) worked for the International Christian Medical Institute in Mukono Town, Uganda, where she taught health administration to students at the International Christian Medical Institute (Uganda Christian University) and volunteered at the Mukono Health Clinic.

Christie Lombardi (chemistry) traveled to Dunedin, New Zealand to work at the University of Otago, where she adapted existing analytical methods for detecting the pesticide chlorpyrifos in soil, water and air to quantify its concentration in honeybees.

Gillian Riz (business) worked for Fundacion ICTUS, a non-governmental organization in Cordoba, Argentina, where she developed a marketing and fundraising campaign.

Graham Branton Fund supports five international work experiencesFive students traveled abroad for work in 2014 thanks to the Graham Branton Co-operative Education Endowment Fund. Established in 1996 in memory of Dr. Branton, the co-op program’s longest-serving director who dedicated 17 years to the development of UVic Co-op, the fund supports students who undertake international work term placements in developing countries—placements that offer fantastic learning opportunities, but often little remuneration. This year’s recipients were:

To date, 94 students have completed endowment work terms in 41 countries. To learn more about the Graham Branton Endowment Fund or to make a gift to support future learning opportunities, please visit uvic.ca/coopandcareer/donate.

Co-op student Jessica Round on her work term in Uganda

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GAËLLE MADEVON (commerce) Co-op Student of the Year – Peter B. Gustavson School of Business Co-op

Recognized for her high academic achievement and excellent work term performance, Gaëlle approaches both her university and work life with resourcefulness and creativity. She spent her first co-op term as a research assistant with UVic’s Department of Psychology and her second with GlobalFest in marketing and communications. For her final co-op term, Gaëlle acted as a corporate communications specialist for Ledcor Industries Inc., where she worked on communications and marketing projects, oversaw logistics for several major media events, and implemented successful social media strategies to increase online engagement. Gaëlle also has a strong interest in community engagement and volunteering—she served as treasurer and marketing assistant for UVic’s UNICEF Club and currently represents western Canada’s JDC West Organizing Committee as VP of Academics, freelances as a social media strategist for technology start-ups, and acts as social media coordinator for W100 Canada’s Top Female Entrepreneur (2012/13), Kelsey Ramsden.

SILVIA PENKOVA (mechanical engineering) Co-op Student of the Year – Engineering, Computer Science and Mathematics/Statistics Co-op

Driven by a passion for continuous learning in her academic and personal endeavours, Silvia Penkova is known for her relentless work ethic and positive attitude. As a former Sea Cadet fascinated by ocean exploration, Silvia spent her first three work terms refitting submarines for the Royal Canadian Navy at Babcock Canada Inc. Her interest in the environment and green technology then led her to pursue a work term in the Industrial Engineering branch of the Department of National Defence. There, she worked on a wastewater treatment plant that allowed process water to be cleaned and returned to city sewage, resulting in less waste. Silvia is interested in materials engineering and is currently working on a research project categorizing the optical properties of Cadmium-Zinc-Telluride semiconductors.

Silvia has also been selected to represent UVic in nominations for the provincial Association of Co-operative Education (ACE) Student of the Year Award and the national Canadian Association for Co-operative Education (CAFCE) Student of the Year Award.

TESI CARMONA WAGNER (biology) Co-op Student of the Year – Optional and Professional Co-op Programs

Tesi Carmona Wagner has always been interested in animal behavior and wellbeing. For her first three work terms, she ventured abroad—she completed two co-op terms in Mexico researching birds in captivity and in the field and one in Germany through a German Academic Exchange Service internship, where she studied urban and rural blackbirds. Although she’d been primarily keen on the study of birds, Tesi rounded out her experience with a final eight-month placement as a research and animal care assistant in UVic’s Neuroscience Lab under Dr. Leigh Ann Swayne, where she managed and studied mouse colonies. Tesi’s natural curiosity and enthusiasm for science and research has made her a standout employee in Dr. Swayne’s lab, where she is still working. She has also undertaken many extracurricular activities related to her degree—she volunteered with the Wild Animal Rehabilitation Centre and Parks Canada and currently helps out at Rocky Point Bird Observatory. Tesi hopes to continue in academia and pursue her Master’s and eventually a PhD.

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Co-op Students of the Year are nominated by their employers and supervisors. A video showcasing their experiences will be made available in early 2015 at youtube.com/uviccoopandcareer under the “Co-op Students of the Year” playlist.

2014 Co-op Students of the Year recognizedEach year, we bestow three Co-op Student of the Year awards to recognize students’ outstanding achievements in all aspects of performance, including academic achievement, workplace performance, and extracurricular, community and co-op involvement. One winning student is selected from each of our three major program areas. Our 2014 Co-op Students of the Year are:

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>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>LOOKING TOWARDS 2015Co-op 180 to highlight co-op students’ transformative learning at IdeaFest 2015As our contribution to UVic IdeaFest in March 2015, Co-op and Career plans to launch Co-op 180, an initiative to showcase the transformative impact of co-op work terms on students’ academic, career and personal lives. Students will share their standout co-op experiences at a panel event moderated by Co-op and Career executive director Dr. Norah McRae, whose recent PhD doctoral research explored the conditions that enable transformative learning during co-operative education work terms. A story series on students’ creativity- and research-based co-op work terms will complement the panel online.

New work term report options to become available for studentsFor students, one of the key components to understanding the impact of their work term is through reflection. Currently, we encourage reflection during and after a student’s work term through competency assessment activities, a work site visit, a work term presentation and/or de-briefing session after the work term ends, and a final co-op work term report submission. As students have indicated an interest in having additional options beyond the traditional written report, the Student Engagement Committee have begun exploring other potential vehicles for reflection, such as videos, photo essays, blogs, workshops or seminars, forum theatre, research posters and career management plans. Each of these options would incorporate one, two or all three key aspects of the student’s experience: academic learning, skill development and self-knowledge. Work term report alternatives are slated to become available for students in 2015.

Co-op and Career website to adopt new look and feelIn 2015, the Co-op and Career website (uvic.ca/coopandcareer) will undergo a major update to become consistent with the UVic homepage and an increasing number of other university departments. The website will adopt a more modern look and feel, simplify navigation, improve our events page structure and consolidate content to make information more accessible for key user groups.

Co-op and Career Faculty Member of the Year award to be created Following on the success of Co-op and Career’s Employer of the Year and Student of the Year awards, we are establishing a nomination process to recognize UVic faculty members who have gone above and beyond to support experiential education right here on campus. Co-op students and Co-op and Career staff were asked to nominate individuals in the fall of 2014; the award for Co-op and Career Faculty Member of the Year will be presented at a faculty and student networking event in early 2015.

New What can you do with your degree? sheets comingIn spring 2015, Co-op and Career will launch a newly updated series of our What can you do with your degree? sheets for each program, which were originally created in 2011. These highly popular sheets will sport a new “infographic” look and feel to align with our Compass campaign and will provide students with an updated list of sample jobs, career resources and links, information on competencies and sample experiential learning opportunities drawn from our experiential mapping project. Sheets will be printed and also available for download online at uvic.ca/coopandcareer/degree.

MEng in Telecommunications and Information Security to launch in 2015UVic is pleased to announce a new Master of Engineering in Telecommunications and Information Security (MTIS) program with an anticipated launch of September 2015. The MTIS program is designed to train engineers for careers in the telecommunications and security industries. The program will allow students to complete an optional Co-op/Internship program—from one to three optional terms, depending on circumstances and job availability—to gain practical and industrial experience after completing all academic terms in the first year. The MTIS program will begin accepting applications in January 2015.

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Find us online at uvic.ca/coopandcareer.

Documents

CO - University of Victoria · female, the Co-operative Education Program has a male gender skew, due mainly to the Faculty of Engineering Co-op programs (both Engineering Co-op and