| St. Thomas University Co-op Programme by Kathy Wishart, BA '86, BEd '87 |
| Have you considered that, as a St. Thomas University alumnus, you possess valuable information and experience that would be helpful to our BA Co-op students? Students enrolled in this programme focus on three key career-related areas: career exploration, personal and professional development, and career development through work experience. You can help your future fellow-alumni get a handle on all three of these areas in a couple of important ways. Here’s what’s needed. A perennial need is for paid work placements for our students. Generally, the work placements occur over the summer months, and are approximately thirteen weeks in duration. Within the work placements, students are paired with mentors, and have a set list of performance and learning objectives that they, with the mentor’s support, strive to achieve within the work term. These work placements are critical to the co-op students professional and personal development. They provide an avenue for exploring careers, being exposed to professional work cultures, gaining first-hand work experience, and developing the needed employability skills for today’s labour market. Your career story is also important to co-op students. Co-op students can benefit greatly from learning how you initiated your career path. From finding out more about your career field, to getting advice on how to proceed with their own career development, you can help. This can be achieved simply through a short informational interview between you and the student, a morning of job shadowing, an informal guest speaking engagement, or an e-mail outlining your experience and best advice. This year there are 18 students who require your help. Their career interests range from teaching, to policing, to banking, to human resources work, and beyond. Regardless of where you live or what your career field is, the program coordinator would like to hear from you. Any information, assistance, and job opportunities or leads are welcome. Please contact, Kathy Wishart by phone at (506) 452-0529 or by email at wishart@stu.ca. |