For the first time in University College of the North (UCN) history, local employers got some recognition for their involvement in the school’s co-operative education program, which combines classroom instruction with practical learning experience.
In total, over 60 employers were nominated to receive awards at The Pas and Thompson campuses for giving UCN students some practical work experience throughout the years.
“With over 77 per cent of UCN programs providing hundreds of student with work experiences each year, that equates to thousands of placements over the years,” said co-op coordinator Krystle Paskaruk. “If you covert that to hours, these employers have easily provided over a million hours of free workplace training to our students here at UCN.”
Thompson’s awards ceremony luncheon took place at the Bill Comaskey Wellness Centre on March 19 and featured employers such as Calm Air, Get It Done Construction, Light of the North Daycare and the School District of Mystery Lake.
Meanwhile, the same kind of ceremony got underway at The Pas campus on Wednesday, which hosted around 156 students and members of the local business community.
According to Paskaruk, these two events were held inhonour of National Co-op and Work-Integrated Learning Week and presented the UCN community with a great opportunity to network with different industry partners.
“UCN has strived to implement many new initiatives with respect to work-integrated learning and education … as a means of developing career paths for northern residents so they recognize UCN as a place where they [can] transition from students to employees to employers.”
Paskaruk went on to say that UCN’s next big networking event is an industry engagement night, which is taking place Nov. 8 in the main foyer of their Thompson campus.
For more information on this event or UCN’s co-op program in general, please contact Paskaruk at [email protected].
