A. Work Experience Program
B. Co-op Placement
Co-op placement provides our students with the following benefits:
- They will be exposed to a real work setting where they can apply their knowledge and skills and further refine their capabilities and work experience;
- They have a great opportunity to experience the company culture and develop their communication skills in a business environment;
- They are exposed to the potential employment opportunities from the company from which they obtain their co-op education and
- Their supervisors of the co-op placement may provide a positive reference for future employment after they complete the co-op placement successfully. They may be referred to other employers in the same field as well.
The following are the general description for each of the service:
A. Work Experience Program
Work Experience Program (WEP) is a new initiative at Metro College that places a graduate with a internship. Graduates may feel excited because it is a paid internship even though the compensation is a bit humble. To get selected for the internship, a graduate must apply for the service at the time when or a bit earlier before he/she graduates from his/her program and the graduate must be recommended for the service by the career service coordinator and the lead instructor/project instructor. The next step is that the applicants will go through a screening process. The top performers will move to the next step: attending job interviews. After the graduate passes the interview, he/she will start the 12 week internship. The duties of an internship position are closely related to the field of their study.
B. Co-op Placement
This service is similar to the work experience program. Graduates who succeed in a co-op interview will work for an employer for three months (13 weeks). The only difference is that such a co-op placement does not usually provide a compensation for the work done by the co-op student. However, the graduate still needs to be recommended to the service by the career service coordinator and his/her lead/project instructor. This service is complementary to the Work Experience Program. At his/her request, a graduate can switch to the co-op placement service in case he/she does not pass the screening for the WEP service.
Please note that either of these two services does not guarantee an internship or a co-op placement to an approved graduate because it is the employer that decides to hire him/her for an internship or a co-op placement. Therefore whether a graduate can get such opportunity depends largely on his/her ability to convince the employer that he/she is competent in the work duties.