An employer’s role as educator

Employers in student work-placement programs are in it for more than just cheap temp help

Perhaps it wouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, but employers involved in student work-placement programs aren’t just interested in getting cheaper temp help.

The top two reasons they get involved include hiring motivated and enthusiastic new employees and contributing to student professional development, according to a survey.

“I found it very pleasing that some were very interested in playing a role of co-educator,” said Rick Reeve, a Saanichton, B.C.-based consultant for World Association of Co-operative Education.

Reeve conducted a survey two years ago of about 400 employers worldwide, with about 70 per cent from Canada. He asked about perspectives on work-integrated learning, a term he uses to refer to a range of programs including co-ops, internships, summer placements and job-shadowing.

Reeve, who has 22 years’ experience as a co-ordinator for co-op programs at the University of Victoria, said there was the occasional employer whose main objective “was just using students as temporary help. But once they were locked into a co-operative program, they changed their mind.”

There are two key elements to a rewarding internship or co-op experience. The first is the role of the direct supervisor, and the second is challenging work. The supervisor “should be there when the student needs to learn something he has never encountered before. And this person should be able to tell quickly if the student is given enough to do.”

Almost as important is the element of challenge in the work, said Reeve. Student duties shouldn’t consist of only menial and repetitive tasks. If an internship position is heavy on such perfunctory tasks, supervisors should allow the student some time to work on her own project. An hour a week or every Friday afternoon will suffice, said Reeve.

“This independent project should have a defined objective, a start and a finish, and the student should have the freedom to determine how to accomplish the task,” said Reeve. No matter how small, such a project would allow the student to say she accomplished something and give her something to leave behind when the term is over. Plus, students can often turn such projects into academic work, Reeve said.

One complaint Reeve has is the unwillingness of many organizations to take on junior students. “Many organizations say they want someone with experience. Well, where would you expect them to get that experience?” said Reeve. To such employers, Reeve emphasizes that students in their first or second years tend to be “more flexible, more willing to take on anything.”

Organizations that participate in work-placement programs gain one major advantage, in that they benefit from a screening system, either informal or formal.

“If you post a job in a newspaper, you may get hundreds of applications that satisfy none of the requirements. But if you hire a student through a co-op or an internship program, you get a selection of applications that are reasonably uniform in their qualifications,” said Reeve. “And this allows you to then concentrate on other criteria.” This could include such considerations as an organization’s male-female ratio, ethnic representation or culture and personality fit in the workforce, he added.

And ultimately, he added, a work-integrated learning program represents “the most perfect interface between industry and academic institutions.”

He cited as an example an engineering department that sends faculty members to the work sites to see first-hand what their students are doing. In doing so, they may encounter new work processes that hadn’t been taught in class.

Or, an employer going to campus for its next round of recruitment may want to take an extra half-day to sit down with faculty members.

“An employer may want to make a presentation and talk about a specific set of skills that none of the students seem to be learning whatsoever. This kind of exchange does make its way into changes in the curriculum.”

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