What began as a cheeky upstart 60 years ago is now recognized as the pre-eminent institution in co-op education. Waterloo’s co-op and career action programs have never been stronger than they are today.
The 2016 fall term saw co-op enrolment top 20,000 full-time undergraduate students. That’s an 18 per cent increase since 2012. Even with more students, we saw an overall increase in co-op employment with 97.7 per cent of our students securing work terms this past fiscal year. Three significant changes have likely played a role in our improved results: new functionality in WaterlooWorks (launched in winter 2017), employer recruitment plans that focus on programs with historically lower employment rates and robust new metrics being developed in employment relations.
Our students realize the power of co-op. The 2017 Incoming Student Survey showed that 71% of incoming undergraduate co-op students would not have accepted their offer without co-op. That’s because data indicates that our co-op grads earn more and have a higher employment rate in jobs related to the skills they acquired at Waterloo compared to graduates from other Ontario universities.
Those results don’t happen without the hard work and dedication of our staff and faculty partners. Last year, our team processed over a million co-op job applications and helped facilitate over 67,000 interviews. Our active employer base now sits at over 6,900 organizations across the globe who hire our students.
The Centre for Career Action continues to be an important resource for all Waterloo students, in both the co-op and regular streams. In 2016/17, more than 5,400 students accessed drop-in career or co-op consultation services. On the digital side, there were over 18,900 online workshops completed.
Despite our success, we refuse to rest on our laurels. Co-op continues to evolve with flexible work terms, a co-op research certificate and first work-term success initiatives being rolled out in fall 2018. We’ve also taken our expertise in co-op and launched the EDGE certificate – which helps non co-op students develop their professional skills, explore career options and learn how to market themselves to employers.
In response to a strategic priority in the experiential education theme in the University’s strategic plan, the new role of associate provost, co-operative and experiential education (CEE) was created with a mandate to strengthen work-integrated learning offerings for students across the University. The new portfolio combines Co-op, the Centre for Career Action, WatPD, WatCACE, EDGE and a cross-portfolio unit of CEE Services under a single umbrella. This allows Waterloo to leverage its collective strength for all students.
I am thrilled with what’s been accomplished, but I am even more excited about where we’re going. On a personal note, I have decided to retire in early 2018, so the next chapter of our success will continue without me. It has been a privilege and a pleasure to work with such a dedicated and talented team of staff, faculty, employers and most of all – students.
I hope you enjoy the report.
Peggy Jarvie
Associate Provost, Co-operative and Experiential Education
