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Unlock the support you need with co-op students.
As your business grows, you’ll need the right skills to propel success. Co-op students are an affordable way to bring fresh ideas for strategies, technologies, financial plans and policies. Hiring a Waterloo co-op student can help you to fill any talent gaps while reducing your recruitment costs.
Our students can apply their knowledge from the classroom and their experience in industry to your business. The future of work is changing. Hiring co-op students can help you stay up to date with the emerging workforce. Invest in the right talent to help your business succeed now and in the future.
Get started today. Take the next steps:
Why hire Waterloo?
![three people standing next to each other](https://uwaterloo.ca/hire/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/014-team.png?itok=zUO9zawr)
It’s easy to find the talent you need each year.
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Apply to grants, tax credits and other funding programs.
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We’re here to support your hiring needs.
Roles co-op students can fill
Tap into valuable skills of Waterloo co-op students in areas such as:
Fund your next hire
Hiring a co-op student through the subsidies and grants below can be an affordable way of building a sustainable talent strategy!
Student Work Placement Program (SWPP)
Through SWPP, Canadian organizations that offer full-time employment opportunities for full-time Canadian post-secondary students can receive wage subsidies.
Funding will cover up to 50 per cent in wage subsidies (to a max. of $5,000) per co-op student hired for each 12–16-week work term. Students hired from under-represented groups may be eligible to have up to 70 per cent of their wages subsidized. Eligibility is determined on a case-by-case basis at the end of each work term.
Ontario Co-operative Education Tax Credit
Large corporations can claim 25 per cent of expenditures, up to $3,000 per work placement. Small businesses can claim 30 per cent, up to $3,000. Each work placement must be at least 10 weeks and up to 4 months. This tax credit is available for each eligible work placement. Employers may have multiple work placements at the same time and throughout the year.
The tax credit is per eligible work placement and there is no cap. If an organization decides to hire for an eight-month work term, or two students for four-month work terms, both would be considered as two work placements and would be eligible for a total tax credit of up to $6,000.
![Nicole Guenther](/hire/sites/default/files/uploads/resize/nicole-guenther-300x300.png)
Find the right talent today.
Connect with Nicole! 🚀
Nicole is an industry strategist with the University of Waterloo’s Co-operative Education department. She can help guide your recruitment strategy and answer questions about recruiting top co-op talent.
Email: nicole.guenther@uwaterloo.ca
Phone: 226-921-1682
Industry-leading companies hire co-op students
Engineering sustainable food solutions: Waterloo co-op students use AI technology to improve mushroom production
By: Krista Henry (she/her)
Future-ready engineers at startup Mycro Harvest are leveraging Waterloo co-op students to assist their smart farms by using artificial intelligence (AI) to increase food production and help meet future demand.
Waterloo co-op students help AdHawk Microsystems set sights on visionary tech
By: Krista Henry (she/her)
Can technology help unlock connections between the eyes and how the brain processes the world?
Student talent help Arctic Wolf achieve “tech unicorn” status
By: Krista Henry (she/her)
Waterloo co-op students play an integral role in the growth of this cybersecurity company.