As a small business owner, you want to make sure you hire the best people to round out your team. Hiring a co-op student can be a cost-effective and flexible way to recruit new employees – in fact, having a co-op student on staff is a lot like holding a four-month job interview.
What Does a Co-op Placement Involve?
Co-operative education, or co-op, is based on a co-operative relationship between the university, the student and the employer: students alternate their academic terms with paid work experience in positions related to their studies. Co-op students gain valuable hands-on experience in their field, while employers benefit from students’ energy and fresh ideas.
Some employers seek short-term help on specific projects, while others leverage students’ enthusiasm and flexibility to help out in all areas of business. Others still welcome students to contribute cutting-edge skills like social media prowess, and many employers use the four-month work term as an extended interview for future hiring.
Co-op work terms usually last four or eight months and begin in January, May or September. The process to recruit a co-op student is very similar to the standard recruitment process – you screen applications, conduct interviews and select the best candidate for the job. The salary that you pay a co-op student will depend on his or her past work experience and the job itself.
Reliable Controls: A Case Study of Co-op Success
Drop by Reliable Controls Victoria office and you’ll meet staff hard at work designing and manufacturing components for its internet-enabled building automation systems. You’re also likely to meet a few busy co-op students. Since 1996, the 90-person company has hired more than 40 co-operative education students to help keep projects moving forward.
“Co-op is a core part of our recruitment strategy,” says company founder Roland Laird. “Co-op students are quick learners, adapt well and make significant contributions.” He says the company often hires co-op students for a second work term and many full-time employees are former co-op students.
That’s the case with James Puritch, Reliable’s first ever co-op student. He completed three work terms with the company and made such a good impression that he stayed on full-time. Ten years later, he and colleague Michael Osborne supervise a new generation of co-op students, including University of Victoria software engineering student Morgan McKenzie, who is developing test procedures for the independent labs that test Reliable Controls’ software.
“My hiring approach is to hire attitude not aptitude,” says Osborne. “If the student has the background skills and a positive attitude, then he or she is more likely to adapt to whatever projects we need help with.”
McKenzie quickly embraced the new project, putting together an automated test package that will help the external lab put Reliable Controls’s product through its paces.
The opportunity to work on software development and testing has been a great fit for McKenzie. “I’ve been able to see so many sides of product development,” he says. “I was invited to take part in a dealer’s certification course, which showcased our product’s applications. This has helped me understand the company from a new perspective.”
This welcoming approach has helped Reliable Controls recruit strong new employees while providing co-op students with exceptional learning opportunities. In the end, it’s a good fit for everyone.
Interested in Hiring a Co-op Student?
McKenzie’s placement at Reliable Controls is one of 1,612 that UVic co-op students completed at private BC businesses and not-for-profit organizations over the past year, in sectors as far ranging as arts and culture, business, engineering, science, health care, law and more.
For more about the UVic Co-op Program and employer benefits, please visit www.uvic.ca/hireacoop.
