Co-op program

Two co-op students working on a cabin's solar panel — As part of their co-op placement, Kristian Storgard and Michael Addy helped install a solar panel system for an off-grid cabin on a remote BC island.

Co-operative Education is a special form of education offering alternating study and work terms while earning your degree. All UVic engineering programs have a mandatory co-op component.

Benefits of co-op

Co-op work terms enable students to sample different career areas and clarify career goals. Judge your own aptitudes and talents while earning a good salary to help offset the cost of your education. Establish contacts and references to improve your job prospects after graduation.

The best part of the co-op program is students graduate with a BEng degree plus up to two years worth of relevent work experience!

What to expect and schedule

All of our students are normally required to complete four co-op work terms in order to graduate. Work terms are typically 16 weeks long and must be a minimum of 12 weeks.

A typical academic schedule with work terms looks something like this:

Year	Fall (Sept.-Dec.)	Spring (Jan.-Apr.)	Summer (May-Aug.)
1	Classes (term 1A)	Classes (term 1B)	Work term 1 - junior (optional)
2	Classes (term 2A)	Work term 2 - junior	Classes (term 2B)
3	Work term 3 - intermediate	Classes (term 3A)	Work term 4 - intermediate
4	Classes (term 3B)	Work term 5 - senior	Classes (term 4A)
5	Work term 6 - senior	Classes (term 4B)	GRADUATION

While on a co-op work term, our students perform a variety of duties. At the junior level (years one and two of the program), students perform entry level work such as general research tasks, gathering market analysis information, programming, drafting, or assisting engineers in daily tasks.

Students on an intermediate-level work term can perform more challenging tasks including the design of mechanical and electrical systems, coding and testing of software systems, hardware assembly and testing.

Senior students completing senior work terms function as junior engineers and assist in design work, and provide support in areas like quality evaluations and failure analysis, CAD/CAM, software testing, and manufacturing problems.