Learning Term or Work Term?

I've wrapped up nearly all of the Site Visits for the Summer work-term. There're amazing changes and growth going on at all levels for our students. Whether it's a senior student contemplating Stage Two of their working career or to return for more studies, through the first work-term students who are experiencing a variety of businesses and experiences, there're good things happening.

I often try to stimulate an employer and student to think of the work-term as a learning term, instead. Not in the sense of an Academic term, in class, in labs, tied to the campus. But, as a chance to develop professionally and to identify and build their capabilities. Ultimately, to record and portray their new abilities and confidences in the form of their updated resume.

What supports this sort of thinking about the work-term is that even when a student is not fully challenged, they can still learn from the current experience and then push their envelope, with diplomacy, and see what more can be achieved at that workplace. Who benefits? The student. Who else? The next student. What does it say about our University and the Co-op program? Volumes. It's the initiative that is remembered, after the term is over.