Why Hire a Co-op Student?
Benefits of hiring a co-op student
With the largest co-op program in Western Canada, UBC offers you access to co-op students from across almost every discipline.
Whether you identify a critical project that requires assistance, or are in need of additional staff support, co-op students offer diverse skills, fresh perspective, and are motivated to contribute and learn within your workplace.
Flexible Terms
Hire for 4, 8 or 12 months at time, starting in January, May/June, or September of any given year.
Top Talent
Students are pre-screened and progress through Career Readiness Curriculum and receive designated coaching and support throughout their time in the Interdisciplinary Co-op Program.
Diverse Student Talent
UBCO’s co-op program includes multiple disciplines and subjects, including arts, fine arts, management, media studies, sustainability, science, and health and exercise sciences.
Cost Effective
Experiences are paid at an appropriate salary to the industry and level of responsibility.
Hiring Incentives
Co-op specific grants can subsidize the cost of training and integrating co-op students into positions, through off setting of the student’s wages.
Flexible Location
Co-op students are flexible, can relocate, and are willing to work in remote, hybrid and in-person arrangements.
About UBC Okanagan co-op students
The Interdisciplinary Co-op Education Program includes a diverse talent pool, with students concentrating their academic studies in a variety of degree programs including:
- Bachelor of Arts
- Bachelor of Fine Arts
- Bachelor of Health and Exercise Sciences
- Bachelor of Management
- Bachelor of Media Studies
- Bachelor of Sciences
- Bachelor of Sustainability (starting May 2025)
All students enrolled in co-op complete a comprehensive Career Readiness curriculum prior to beginning their work term experiences.
This training is designed to prepare students for their upcoming job search, interview process, and support their integration into their future co-op workplaces.
Positions Eligible for co-op
For a position to qualify as a co-op work term experience, the role must provide:
An identified workplace supervisor to the co-op student employee providing regular support, constructive feedback and reflection helping the student grow personally and professionally while engaging and effectively contributing within the workplace/role.
The nature of the co-op work experience should be aligned with the student’s academic pursuits and/or provide an opportunity to further develop capabilities and experience that will advance the student’s personal and career development.
A Co-op work experience should provide a challenging, relevant and instructive experience.
The assessment of students’ performance during a UBC co-op work experience is based on evaluation from the workplace supervisor and on reflection assignments submitted by the student.
Additionally, the Co-op Coordinators maintain contact with the student and employer to monitor progress on an on-going basis.
Co-op work experiences must be paid employment opportunities, and at an appropriate salary for the industry and level of responsibility.
Co-op work experiences must be a minimum of 420 hours and 12 weeks in length.
Positions typically start in January, May and September of each year.
Co-op students are hired as employees of your organization, and are not permitted to be hired as independent contractors.
All co-op employers must adhere to applicable employment standards, as such BC organizations must adhere to the BC Employment Standards Act.
The UBC Okanagan Interdisciplinary Co-op Education Program reserves the right to deny participation to any employer contravening such law.
Employers located outside BC must adhere to their regional and federal employment laws.
Work terms and deadlines
The UBC academic cycle provides the flexibility for you to hire for 4, 8 or 12 months at a time. Co-op students engage in work experiences year-round and are available to begin these work experiences starting in January, May and September each year.
Employers can begin recruiting at any time. We encourage beginning the process as early in the term as possible to access a larger pool of available student candidates.
We recommend the following timing to recruit based on the starting date as follows:
| To hire for | Post job during |
| May | January – April |
| September | May – August |
| January | September – December |
How to recruit a student
The Co-op Program Office offers personalized, tailored support to make the recruitment process easy for employers.
Hiring a co-op student only takes a few steps:
We encourage employers to self-post positions on the UBC Interdisciplinary Co-op Job Board.
POST DIRECTLY TO THE JOB BOARD
Employers can also email us their job description, and we’ll post the opportunity on their behalf.
You can select your preference on receiving the applications, including having them grouped as a package.
Upon review, please contact coop.ok@ubc.ca if you would like assistance with scheduling interviews. When you contact us, please make sure to include:
- Names of shortlisted candidates
- Preferred interview dates and times
- Length of interview
- Interview location & Interview method (phone, zoom, in-person, etc.)
- Interviewer name(s)
Once a hiring decision has been reached, we can assist with making the offer. If you’d like to be in contact with the candidate(s) directly, please send an email to the student and CC coop.ok@ubc.ca so that we can continue to lend our support.
We also encourage reaching out to the students who were shortlisted and interviewed to let them know the role has now been filled. If you are able to provide them any feedback on their application process, it would be greatly appreciated.
Ready to hire a co-op student?
Get your opportunity up and ready to receive applications or reach out to our team for assistance in getting your position on the job board.
Sign-up to our Interdisciplinary Co-op Employer Newsletter!
Looking to stay connected with the UBCO Co-op Program? Sign up to our newsletter and receive updates about upcoming events, mentorship opportunities, co-op program hiring, and other opportunities to connect with students across campus.