CACEE Toronto 2011

You'd think I only Blog when I'm at a conference...

I also tweet, under the same hash-tag...

There were lot's of thought-provoking chats today, in Toronto, at CACEE both in the meetings and in the networking sessions.

For example...

• from Janet Ecker, former Revenue Minister, now President of TFSA, there has been a Centre of Excellence created for financial services. Check out: www.explorefinancialservices.com for career guidance suggestions.

• on the subject of engaging sudents...how about these thought provokers? Grab them in first year and by figuring out What and How, we can influence expectations. Try co-hosting career sessions with Employers...build cred. And as everyone seemed to agree on, find the influencers in the cohort.

• working with International students, put Education in a bigger perspective for them. Show them that studying, while all-consuming otherwise, is just part of life in Canada and working will introduce a whole, new social network. For their resumes, it is important to show all extracurriculars (and development of these is strongly encouraged), since this will present encourage a greater familiarity for the reader...perhaps the so-called "Canadian experience". Like all students, the candidate needs to "stand out".

• Paul Smith, executive with CACEE, reports that oil & gas hiring potentials are very high. The oil patch is not finding all the talent they need and they're looking far afield. In a private conversation with Suncor, they report that they are recruiting heavily in Ontario to send talent to Alberta.
• He went on to add that the average "spend" for a hire, at the grad level is about $3,900. That's everything up to the point where the candidate signs. That's a significant investment and one that the University needs to make sure is accomplished well, in partnership with the employer.
• There is a strong trend, which may be fulfilled again this coming year, to reduce the number of schools that recruiters target. The number was down about 50% last year. What has come up in place of that effort is the use of Social Media, particularly LinkedIn for posting and ultimately finding talent.

• The legal impact of using social media for recruiting was addressed by a lawyer from Heenan Blaikie. One element that was emphasized very strongly was that information from social media about an individual should not and cannot be used if it would contravene hiring legislation, even though it appears in a public space. Otherwise, you may have to prove that you did not and could not have used it, which is very difficult to prove.

• Lauren Friese, from TalentEgg, shared a good deal of information about the recruiting space. Shockingly, only 19% of students indicate that they'll be searching for post-graduate employment in September of their final year. The shock? Employers expect that this is when they will be looking, since it is the first occasion to encounter students, live and in-person. What has been learned from this and should give us pause to reflect is that employers are responding by being active in their promotion of opportunities 24X7X365. Oh, and even more shocking is that 1/3 of students "know" that recruiting begins in September!

• Most students aren't in attendance or actively engaged in on-campus recruiting events because they don't have time in their schedules. This is quite reasonable...but means that other "events" need to take the place of the info-session or similar activity.

Overall, it was a great event...well-staged by the organizers and it was great to encounter colleagues from across the country, including making some new contacts.

Work and Learning Exchange, Oz and Texas

Judy Kay, Victoria University...Expanding Horizons

Has an arrangement with UT El Paso, whereby there is good deal of overlap in research and ultimately in exchange of students, where there is a work component.

There are a lot of complexities, given the cultural differences between the two student bodies (high Hispanic representation in Texas). In terms of looking at learning outcomes, the influence on the work-study supervisors was very interesting as well.

There was a strong overlap in the philosophies of the two universities and the teams were well matched.

The students were hired by their home institutions and deployed at the other. There has to be a 1:1 ratio and the learning and skillsets needed to be aligned. Visas were an issue (for the Mexican citizens). The detailed employment arrangements were very different between the two schools (benefits and leave). The currency impact was a factor for some of the students also.

Next steps...more reflective practice, more guidelines for supervisors. Determining how to source the students and how to prepare them. Parties need to be prepared for frank negotiations on difficult items.

judie.kay@vu.edu.au

Assessing Co-op and WIE...metrics

Assessing Co-operative & Work-integrated Education: Models, Methods, & Metrics

(Moderator, Dr DiNardo, Drexel; Bach, Drexel; Fondacarro, Waterloo; Hilpert, Reutlingen)

Drexel ties Co-op learning outcomes to overall institutional learning outcomes. They consider the learning that comes from application of the curriculum in meaningful situations. Internally, they look for means and ways to inform curricular improvements. By working with employers and collaborating on reinforcing for students whey Learning Objectives are important, they can drive the learning that is desired and that may continue from the perspective of life-long learning.

Drexel Core Intellectual and Practical Skills, which number approx. 6, are common and overlap with Faculty, Students, and Employers...Communications, Ethical Reasoning, and Creative and Critical Thinking.

At Waterloo, they're looking at Employer Evaluations of Work-terms as indications of learning. There is a strong focus on assessing competencies (OCAVP...UDLES). As well, the CEAB has 12 requirements for engineers. The independance of the employer in providing the feedback on the learning outcomes makes this more valid. They've subjectively grouped things into six characteristics of life-long learning, communications, professionalism, teamwork, etc. There seems to be a very slight trending upwards through work-terms, in terms of progression. They used "word mapping" to assess the qualitative responses.

ESB (Reutlingen) has joint-degree arrangements with many other institutions around the world,
conducting studies in two countries. There are two practika, Sem. 3 and 6 (diff countries). There is a voluntary internship in the 2nd summer, after the 4th semester. Most students acquire, at minimum, two languages. 20 to 28 weeks is the duration, with compensation from 400 to 2500 Euros.

There are two prep classes before each WT and grades are ultimately assigned on the WTR (with verbal presentation to prof and students) and a submitted "employment reference letter".

There is a strong demand by employers for these students, so now the students are evaluating the employers. Employers can be delisted if they fail to keep up their scores with the students. There is absolutely no sharing of this information with the students or the employers. If there are issues, the faculty address the concerns with the employer. They have given some thought to providing awards to those employers who perform well. This would be a public act and would obviously influence the other stakeholders.

Ethics and Values for Co-op Students in the Workplace

Ethics and Values: The need for student awareness of workplace value systems

K. Zegwaard and M. Campbell

This derives from some changes that have taken place at the primary and secondary educational institution levels. "Values are deeply held beliefs about what is important and desirable, expressed through the ways we think and act." (New Zealand, MoE 2007).

Relative to Co-op, students are socialized to the new (?) workplace values. It can be conscious or unconscious. They are obviously expected to adhere to these. Compare to Kohlberg's stages of moral development.

Recommended principle values: integrity, respect, self-motivation, self-confidence, and responsibility. There were many "sub values".

More work is required to identify the values that are best represented in the workplace.

Nonetheless, the learning of the appreciation of ethics is what is necessary. What should students do if their values conflict? What if the workplace value system is flawed? What if there is a disconnect with the stated and actual values in the workplace?

Students need to be able to recognize their own values. The need to be able to recognize the workplace values. they need to be able to reflect on and navigate the workplace ethical issues.

Collaborative Networks in the U.K.

L. Ward, University of Huddersfield; Developing and Engaging in Collaborative Networks to support Student Employability

Working from an organization that we would describe at Guelph as Teaching Support Services. Formerly associated with ASET, where the 3rd year of study is taken in industry of a 4 year degree.

There is an increasing variety of networks, locally, nationally, and internationally that they are
building. All are very non-traditional and developed at the personal level.

Their blog is:

http://theinstituteblog.co.uk

Handling Student Conduct Issues

Handling Student Conduct Issues During Co-operative Education - Best Practices

(Betka...Moderator; Barton, Stockman-Baer, and Gambescia)

The intent of this presentation is to offer means to address student conduct issues.

The First Response Philosophy says that the student should first exhaust the immediate means of resolution between the parties involved. Good organizational practice holds that those closest to, most invested in, and most familiar with a problem are in the best position to solve the problem. Fundamental precepts include: students must have an avenue for communicating a concern, they must receive due process, fair treatment (without bias), be reviewed with care in a timely way, and then be communicated to, explaining the rationale for any decision made by the employer and the Co-op office, and the office and the employers must be open to suggestions for quality improvements of any policy, procedure or practice.

The student should expect that policies and procedures are developed from well thought out rationale, are clearly stated, accessible (including for review), and promulgated with support to gain understanding. And of course, fairly enforced. A given student may be subject to policies from any of the following authorities: government, university, college, degree program, profession, and the employer. The university should have procedures to identify, review, adjudicate, and remediate any transgression.

Assessment of the student's performance is one of the most important responsibilities we have (as Faculty Advisor, as Co-op Coordinator, as employer's supervisor). Is there a mechanism to assess a student's understanding of the expectations they are held to? We should ask ourselves the following questions. Where are these expectations presented? Are they accessibe? How are they presented? How are they reinforced?

Supervisors should consider the following questions. What did you observe? How do you characterize this performance? What are the risks if this continues? How can the student remediate, if at all?

In the U.S., the number one reason for students being dismissed from a workplace is that they...(drumroll)...don't show up!!

In a formal review, determine the following. What were the defined expectations? Who is making the assessment of the student? Were appropriate assessment procedures followed? What was documented? Are there extenuating circumstances? Note that there are a gradation of concerns that a student may hold, from seeking clarification, to making a complaint, to a formal grievance, and potentially an appeal of a grievance settlement.

A helpful adage to consider is that, if you have seen one student issue...you have seen one, discrete student issue. No two are the same.

And it would be very beneficial to encourage students to seek out their employer's codes of conduct and policies with regard to performance.

Keynote from J&J, at WACE Thursday

Keynote Presentation: Maximizing the Benefits of co-operative Education at J&J

Dominic J. Caruso, VP Finance and CFO

Mr. Caruso is a former Co-op student (accounting at Drexel). He seemed to have chosen Co-op to verify his career choice for himself. Through good mentors at work and good advising through the Co-op office, he gained a better understanding of the variety and complexity of the business and the profession.

There are 114,000 employees at J&J. Engineering is fairly big at J&J...perhaps there's room for some BMEs?

Co-op students are more valuable and are engaged more deeply than interns (summer students). They bring more experience to the Co-op role and that experience is valued at the time of full-time hiring, being preferred as they stand-out. In fact, their retention rate is higher because they are making an informed decision about J&J. Significantly, they see higher performance and faster promotion rates for Co-op students.

There are seven, top-tier schools that they use (Drexel, Rutgers, etc.). They are looking for talent in Commerce, IT, engineering, etc. 40% of the 1500 new hires were Co-op students. They have noticed that there has been a decline in the number of acceptances for Co-op offerings recently. One theme from focus groups is that students are pursuing internships rather than Co-op. There is a perceived benefit to get through the Bachelor's degree and get onto Master's level study, faster.

Johnson & Johnson are very willing to work with Faculty to improve curriculum. But, they're not too sure what "real world experience" means.

In response to a question from P. Jarvie (UW), Mr. Caruso replied that J&J values students who have had multiple opportunities and experiences and therefore the more familiar model of Co-op is recognized as beneficial. They're quite satisifed when a student chooses J&J after seeing other experiences.