The current economic climate will undoubtedly present unique challenges for both employers and students. However, Waterloo has always been a leader in finding innovative ways to provide our students with skill-enhancing work experiences, and our network of 7,000+ employers with top talent for their organizations.
To support both our students and employers, we’ve developed a number of flexible pathways to help co-op work terms continue in light of COVID-19.
For students, this includes flexibility in the number of required work terms, changes to our existing work term requirements, additional resources to help students find work, and tips on working remotely as a co-op student. For more information on the flexible pathways in place for students, visit our Spring 2020 work term and Fall 2020 work term webpages.
For employers, this means increased flexibility around hiring deadlines, interview methods, work term lengths, funding opportunities and increased support for helping students transition to working remotely. For more information on the flexible pathways in place for employers, visit our 2020 work term updates webpage.
Already in our Spring 2020 work term, we’ve seen an incredible amount of support from our co-op employers and resilience from our co-op students as we adapted to this “new normal.” Despite these trying times, 78% of our Canadian employer base have already hired a student for the spring 2020 work term. Our aim is to build on that number as economies begin the process of reopening.