If you want to create the most opportunities for your future, a degree in engineering from UBC combined with co-op is a surefire winner. An engineering degree has long been recognized as perhaps the most versatile and future-proof undergraduate degree.
When you combine it with co-op, you will graduate with the significant advantage of 16 months of paid, varied and relevant work experience.
You will have gained valuable new skills, boosted your resume, grown your professional network and benefited from firsthand exposure to different kinds of companies and work environments.
Read more about how co-op enables you to launch your career while you’re still a student.
One of the largest co-op programs in the country
Just as being part of co-op helps you stand out to employers, UBC’s co-op program stands out compared to those offered at other universities.
UBC has the second-largest co-op program in Canada, and UBC Applied Science Co-op attracts top-name national and international employers who value the contributions of UBC students and are committed to providing them with interesting, relevant on-the-job experience.
How co-op works
At UBC Engineering, co-op is an optional choice, with more than half our students participating. All prospective co-op students must meet a minimum GPA and complete pre-employment training. Students are then assigned a career advisor who provides specialized support targeted to their engineering discipline.
They can enrol in free professional development workshops on everything from job search strategies to resume writing and interview tips, and they can access a co-op-specific job board that includes positions with local companies as well as organizations across the province, country and world.
Co-op students also have exclusive access to employer and career networking events. These include networking roundtables where students can talk directly with top employers, as well as hiring fairs that include on-the-spot interviews.
To graduate with a co-op credential, students must complete a minimum of four work terms totalling 16 months over the course of their degree, usually starting at the end of their second year of studies.
UBC’s co-op program is flexible and student-focused
Some universities in Canada require co-op students to complete only a 12-month or 16-month work term with a single employer. Others have rigidly scheduled work terms that must happen at specific times over the course of a degree.
UBC Applied Science Co-op adopts a more flexible approach so that students can choose positions of a duration that are best for them. Most engineering co-op students work for multiple employers over their work terms, which enables them to get on-the-job experience with more than employer.
That’s important!
It gives students the opportunity to gain broad exposure to different kinds of work environments. UBC Engineering students have the option of working for small start-ups and large multinationals, taking jobs on construction or mine sites, or working in high-tech research labs or in an office.
“Another advantage of UBC’s co-op program is our flexibility compared to other universities that have more of a rigid timetable for co-op terms,” says Amir Hariri, Senior Manager of Business Development and Industry Engagement at the Faculty of Applied Science.
“It’s not uncommon for our students to sign up for a four-month work term and then after they start the job, decide that they and their employer want to extend their term. We can make that happen. We don’t want to get in the way of great opportunities.”
That was the case for Mariah Newman, who graduated in 2016 and is currently working as a business operations manager at Intel. “Soon into my first co-op placement [at Suncor Energy in Fort McMurray, Alberta], I realized how much I enjoyed the work and asked to extend what was supposed to be a four-month placement to eight and then to 16 months,” she says. “Even though I knew it was an industry I didn’t want to work in, I wanted to extend my co-op because of the experience and opportunities it offered.”
Top companies seek out UBC Engineering students
Being one of Canada’s largest co-op programs has its advantages. It means that we are a top choice for employers from across all industries who want to hire our engineering students for work terms ranging from four to 16 months.
“UBC offers 14 different engineering programs – the most of any university in Canada – and that gives us a lot of touchpoints with different industries and employers,” says Hariri.
Those employers likely include all the companies you’ve heard of and think it would be cool to work for (think Tesla, Amazon, Google, Boeing, Qualcomm, Ledcor, Teck Resources, the Canadian Space Agency) – as well as lots of others that are leaders and innovators in their fields.
Hariri notes that UBC’s reputation is such that even when times are tough for a particular company and they are scaling back on hiring, they still reach out to UBC for co-op students.
“Employers know how solid our co-op students are and that they can count on them,” he says. “What I hear is that employers value the quality of the candidates they find from UBC, the skill set of our students and how our students present themselves during the application process and when they are in their co-op positions.”
Co-op at UBC gives you broad experience and exposure to different industries
“Many students find it rewarding to work for different kinds of organizations,” says Hariri. “At a start-up, for example, you might have a more fluid job description and more opportunities to work in different areas of the business than you would for a larger organization. Students can also work in different industries to gain wide-ranging experience and learn what they like.”
Brendan Chong exemplifies the diversity of work experiences you can have as a co-op student.
The Integrated Engineering student worked for four companies in four different industries over the course of his degree, including a work term on the materials flow team at Tesla’s Gigafactory in Austin, Texas.
Electrical Engineering graduate Pavni Agarwal also worked for four different employers for her co-op terms, including as an undergraduate research assistant, at FortisBC and two separate engineering consulting firms.
“Engineering is such a vast field with so many opportunities, and co-op is a great way to figure out what kind of work you like and don’t like,” she says.
Earn while you learn
These aren’t your typical summer jobs. As you can see from our average monthly wage for UBC Applied Science Co-op students, co-op students are paid well during their work terms.
In fact, the average student will make $65,000 over their work terms!
Gain the experience you need to launch your career
Co-op work terms are incredible opportunities to supercharge your employability as you learn new skills and gain real-world experience.
Geological Engineering student Taylor Chisolm did 16 months of co-op work terms, including an eight-month position at a diamond mine in the Northwest Territories, 200 kilometres from the Arctic Circle.
“These positions enabled me to experience the mining industry first-hand and helped me learn so much about myself, both as an individual and as a professional,” she says. “This experience not only enhanced my technical skills but also gave me confidence in navigating a traditionally male-dominated field.”
Like many students who do co-op, Taylor’s work term led to a full-time job offer before she graduated. The company knew what she was capable of and saw she would be a good fit – and Taylor knew she liked the company and the opportunities it offers to grow her professional career.
The co-op advantage
If you want to make the most of your experience at UBC, engineering co-op is the way to do it. You’ll graduate with an expanded skillset, incredible on-the-job learning opportunities, a large professional network, extra money in your bank account and an impressive resume of career-relevant experience that can help you stand out to prospective employers.
“Choosing where and what to study at university is a big decision,” says Hariri. “University rankings do matter so there is an advantage to choosing a university like UBC with worldwide name recognition. For students, the ranking considerations that are often the most relevant are employability graduation, and UBC is very highly ranked there.”
As we note in our article on why study engineering at UBC, UBC ranks 36 out of 250 universities from around the world for “the most employable graduates.”
“If you are thinking about what gives you the most options in terms of disciplines and employability and connecting with industry through co-op, then UBC Engineering is definitely in the top rankings for all of these categories.”
