{"id":25554,"date":"2024-07-03T09:00:32","date_gmt":"2024-07-03T16:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/?p=25554"},"modified":"2024-06-28T10:56:25","modified_gmt":"2024-06-28T17:56:25","slug":"open-space-co-op-work-term-placements-an-important-part-of-college-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2024\/07\/03\/open-space-co-op-work-term-placements-an-important-part-of-college-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Space<\/em>: Co-op work term placements an important part of college education"},"content":{"rendered":"

While there are many reasons people choose to pursue post-secondary education, one prominent reason for enrolling is to build a career. Education is a powerful step forward to qualify for many job positions in all different fields and industries, however, I believe education alone often isn\u2019t enough to develop the appropriate workplace skills and land your first entry-level position in your chosen field.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where co-op work placements come in.<\/p>\n

Co-op work placements are temporary paid jobs where students can work for a semester in a job related to their chosen field of study. Students are expected to complete a study course alongside the work term, reporting to their co-op field instructor, in order to earn academic credits. Many programs at Camosun, such as Business Administration and Civil Engineering Technology, have the option for students to complete a co-op work term\u2014sometimes even several.<\/p>\n

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This story originally appeared in our July 3, 2024 issue.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The benefits of these work placements are countless. Co-ops allow students to build hard and soft skills, become more familiar with a specific work environment, and allow for a low-stakes way to try out a certain job related to their field of study.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Through co-ops, students get to make connections with people in the industry of their choice, and there\u2019s lots of opportunity for mentorship relations with these people\u2014some who might even hire them again after they\u2019ve graduated.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to this, Young Canada Works (YCW) government funding for these positions has helped more positions open up, making co-ops easier to find for students and allowing employers to be able to more easily afford paying the student\u2019s wage.<\/p>\n

However, only recently\u2014due to the work of the Co-operative Education and Career Services department at Camosun and their collaboration with teachers\u2014has this opportunity been available to Visual Arts students. As a Visual Arts student myself, I\u2019m incredibly grateful for this new development at Camosun, as I\u2019m currently working a co-op work term at the Maritime Museum of British Columbia, and it has been instrumental in my confidence, leadership building, and the application of my skills.<\/p>\n

As Visual Arts is a very hands-on, technical area of study, it would be well supplemented with job experience, and the wide range of skills that students bring to the workplace are incredibly valuable. These skills that Visual Arts students develop are flexible for use in many different workplaces, such as graphic design and photography transferring to marketing and advertising. Experience in art installation and exhibition design proves useful for art galleries, and a critical visual eye from many critique classes lends well to interpretation work at museums.<\/p>\n

Sadly, out of all the students I know at Camosun, in Visual Arts and in other areas of study, I don\u2019t know a single one who has done a co-op. I firmly believe that every single one of them would benefit from completing a co-op, as there isn\u2019t a single classmate I know that isn\u2019t hard-working, dedicated, and extremely skilled.<\/p>\n

I hope that many, many more co-op job opportunities continue to open up for a wide range of industries and fields, and that co-ops continue to be supported by the government and post-secondary institutions.<\/p>\n

Nothing can beat the connections-building, skill-developing, and overall extraordinary learning experience of completing a co-op work placement\u2014I don\u2019t know what I would do if I hadn\u2019t found mine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While there are many reasons people choose to pursue post-secondary education, one prominent reason for enrolling is to build a career. Education is a powerful step forward to qualify for many job positions in all different fields and industries, however, I believe education alone often isn\u2019t enough to develop the appropriate workplace skills and land […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25586,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,314],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-views","category-july-3-2024"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25554"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25588,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25554\/revisions\/25588"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}