Co-op students essential to product development process at healthcare start-up

Acquiring innovative talents is a necessity in these unforeseen times and every company needs people that think outside-the-box to grow their business.

University of Waterloo co-op students play an integral role in operations at healthcare technology start-up AceAge.

“We wouldn’t have been successful in our product development process without co-op students,” says Wes van Ooyen, chief product officer with the organization.

AceAge creates innovative products that ease the aging process and improve health outcomes. One of the company’s products, Karie, is a state-of-the-art home health appliance that organizes and delivers medication to patients.

In recent years, co-op students have supported the development and maintenance of all aspects of Karie, including mechanical design, quality, firmware and software development, QA, manufacturing and operations. AceAge continues to hire students from Waterloo because “they bring great value, youthful spirit, and a different dynamic to the team.”

“Hiring co-op students is with effort, but the effort required is small in comparison to the benefits and value students bring.”

- Wes van Ooyen, chief product officer at AceAge

The correct processes must be in place for organizations to fully benefit from hiring students. AceAge hires new students every four months, and van Ooyen shared a few tips for easing the transition between students and tips for maximizing their value:

• Easing the transition between co-op students each term:

  • Have students create and maintain a training guide by documenting all their processes and projects.

  • Provide a time overlap between students so current hires can train incoming students.

• Maximizing the value co-op students can provide:

  • Set clear expectations with students right from the start.

  • Assign students a mix of projects to work on throughout the term as well as weekly ongoing tasks.

  • Keep students informed of changing priorities, especially in start-ups where that is a norm, “Waterloo students are adaptable and well-prepared to help with tasks that pop-up. If you have projects to complete, there is no way you can find an option that is more economical than hiring co-op students,” says van Ooyen.

Organizations can see an immediate and long-term return on investment, and there are also wage subsidies and tax credits that subsidize the cost of hiring students.