Hi Jamon,
Since you are a Co-op scholar, I was hoping you could answer a few questions I had about this scholarship!
1. Is the industry training/internship/work placement paid or unpaid? Is the $18,200 per year the payment for this work?
2. What sort of marks do you need to maintain to keep the scholarship? e.g. if you require a pass, do you need an overall average pass or do you have to pass on everything?
3. Do you select when you are available for the internship or do they tell you when, where and how often you will work?
4. How many hours a week and on what days of the week do you do the industry placement?
5. Are you required to work on weekends and holidays? If so, for all/most/very little of the holidays?
6. Do the work hours for the internship remain fixed throughout the scholarship?
7. Is there anything you need to do to 'give back' for receiving this scholarship? e.g. represent the uni at events. If so, how often are these commitments and how long do they take?
8. Is the internship flexible, i.e. can you work it to fit around a pre-exisiting part-time job?
9. I heard the drop out rate is very high for this scholarship, why is that? Is it the academic requirements, extracurricular university demands, internship difficulty???
10. Is the industry placement at the same time every year?
11. Do you get any exclusive 'perks' for being a Co-op scholar?
12. What happens if you dont meet the academic requirements, can't come to a shift with work placement, can't represent the uni for something, etc.? Do you lose the scholarship or get warnings or something?
13. If you miss out on the scholarship, is it still possible to find industry placements? And can you find paid industry placements?
14. Does this scholarship practically guarantee a post-graduate full-time job offer?
Welcome to the forums!! I'd be happy to help - I should take these answers and stick them somewhere obvious because they are good ones! All in my experience/opinion as always
1. Unpaid, the scholarship payments are the compensation ($18200pa for years does roughly equate to the year you spend working)
2. In most disciplines, Credit in
every subject, in some,
Distinction in every subject. But they don't kick you out off of one bad mark - Things happen. But if you are continually getting below credits in courses there may be words.
3. You must complete the internships roughly to the timeline, which is a combo of summer internships and full six-month placements. Specific start/end dates and such - The Coop Office itself is strict, companies are normally chill. I requested to start my ITE2 late due to accomodation issues, my manager was totally cool with it. Once you are there, you are doing what your company requires - It is full time work, expect the usual 9:00-5:00 sort of thing
4. See above -
This is the same as a job, there is nothing different about the conditions/what is expected of you.
5. Weekends no (I wasn't at least), but I suppose it depends on the culture of the company you work for. Again,
this is a job. If employees at this company work weekends, you should too (but I doubt they'll expect this). Holidays are the same as everyone else working - Many companies shut down over Christmas, and you'll have public holidays off, but besides this you are working like everyone else.
6. Depends on company, usually 9:00-5:00 or similar conditions I'd imagine.
7. Coop has occasional mandatory professional development events associated with it - Workshops, presentations, etc. They are infrequent and usually at least a little bit useful. There are optional extras but not much is required - Your 'giving back' is the work you do for your sponsors
8. See above -> A sponsor will
not appreciate being told you can't do Thursdays because you have to go work for your side hustle.
This. Is. A. Job. They'll expect the same commitment out of you as they do their regular employees. That said, I work on weekends too while I'm on placement. Exhausting but doable.
9. It is - Could be any of many reasons. Maintaining a credit isn't easy, lots of people change normally their course anyway (which means ditching your scholarship as well, of course). Many drop out because they get other employment opportunities that clash with Coop, and they choose the other option.
10. There are a couple of summer ones, and then a year where you spend the whole year working (for my program at least, it does differ a bit between programs)
11. Is the $18,200 not good enough?
you do get a mentor (previous Coop) to go to for advice on employment and stuff - Not that useful (sorry Robert if you are reading this, but you aren't an Electrical Engineer so I can't ask you too much specifically! You are super amazing though and really appreciate your advice on career goals in general <3). The professional development activities they mandate are useful. But you aren't cutting to the front of coffee lines at uni, unfortunately
12. See above - Not meeting the academic requirements on occasion is okay, you chat with the Office and they make sure you are all good. When you start doing it repeatedly you raise eyebrows. Not representing the uni is nothing. Missing an internship is a biggie. These placements are you repaying your sponsor companies for their investment in you. Missing the odd day is obviously fine - Like normal employees, you'll get sick, have emergencies, need to take an afternoon to go to the Dentist, whatever. But you can't delay your placements significantly without good reason, or interrupt them. Holidays? Cancel them. Other job? Quit. That's their thinking, placement is priority 1 (and rightfully so).
13. 100% still possible to find placements (though some industries would be tougher than others I would imagine!)
14. The employment rate for Coop Scholars straight out of university is 100% - Yes, failing a huge break in the pattern, the Coop Program guarantees you a job when you graduate