Popular undergrad co-op program ends

A co-op program that placed some 2,000 undergraduate students with about 600 mostly small- and mid-sized companies each year is coming to an end.

The Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) decided to wind down its Experience Awards (previously called Industrial Undergraduate Student Research Awards) as part of a larger effort to consolidate its various partnership grants. Experience’s $8-million annual budget will be rolled into the new Alliance Grant program, which will not support undergrad co-op placements. (See main article)

NSERC’s director of Regional Development in Research Partnerships Jeffery Nerenberg says as a result of Budget 2019, companies now have other alternatives to Experience, notably Employment and Social Development Canada’s new Student Workforce Placement Program (SWPP).

“This (SWPP) program is enormous. They’re talking about supporting 20,000 work placements a year starting this year … we were just dwarfed by that,” he says, adding that the Mitacs program, which is on track to fund 10,000 placements by 2021, will also continue to be available to companies.

Ottawa is investing $631 million over five years in SWPP, an ambitious initiative that aims to provide up to 84,000 post-secondary students experiential learning opportunities by 2024.

On May 7, NSERC sent a letter to companies that have benefited from the program over the past five years notifying them of the change and the availability of the SWPP, which covers up to 50% of the cost of wages up to $5,000, or up to 70% to a maximum of $7,000 for students in under-underrepresented groups and first year students. In comparison, Experience Awards provided up to $4,500 in matching funds.

But at least one industry partner is not happy with change. At a recent Partnership Group for Science and Engineering breakfast in Ottawa, Ross Video CEO David Ross said the end of Experience Awards will have a negative impact on his company’s ability to attract and retain talent in today’s highly competitive market.

“For the past 30 years you could to get a grant to hire a kid into a technology job and (NSERC) would pay about a third of their salary. That was fantastic because it was a way to hire 30% more co-op students and introduce them to your company before they graduate so they know who you are and don’t go work at Google or move to Silicon Valley,” said Ross, adding that it was “like a dating app for matching up Canadian companies” with undergrad students.