Hi everyone, my name is Amanda,
and today I'm here to start a new playlist in this
channel that is called Experiencing Conestoga
So, just to give you a little bit of background,
I am from Brazil, but I've been in Canada for 2 year now
and I started my journalist program at Conestoga College last semester, last September.
So, it's been a semester and a little bit.
I just started my second semester
and I'm loving it so far.
And my goal here, for this playlist and this new
campaign that we're developing, is to give you advice that I wish I had
when I was applying to Conestoga.
So, this first video is gonna be about co-op
programs. When I was applying to college I didn't know what co-op programs were and I
saw it all the time. Like, I went on the Conestoga website and they said, "oh
that program has optional co-op," or "that program has mandatory co- op."
So, I just figured that it would be easy if I could explain it to you in a friendly
way, so everyone can understand it. So, yeah, let's start it!
A co-op program is
when you have school (you have teachers and everything), but part
of their studies is gonna be in a company.
What does that mean?
It means that you're gonna have an internship, you're gonna work at a company in your
area of study. For example, if you take Marketing with Mandatory Co-op (because
there is marketing that has no co-op at all - so you have to see that before you
actually apply for the program). So let's say you're taking Marketing. You're gonna
have to work at a marketing agency or something related to your field.
Why would you do that? Basically, when you're studying you learn a lot of stuff.
You learn all the theory and everything, but when you're actually working in your
area that you want to work you're gonna learn a lot of skills that is just real
life skills that you wouldn't learn at school, right? Because
it's experience! So, that's basically why. It's really good for your resume, because
you can put, "oh, I worked at that company at that time during my college
experience," which is good for your resume. If you're really good worker
and the company is actually looking for ... and the
company is actually hiring, they're probably gonna contact you to see if you
want to work with them, right? Because you were a good worker. So,
it's just really good for networking and everything. So, yeah. My journalism
program has a co-op term. I have to work for 80 hours during my two years of
program and I'm very excited. I'm currently applying for all the
internships I can and I'm very excited to work.
So, Conestoga has 55 co-op
programs that are from diploma or degree and as I said at the beginning there are
some that are mandatory (you have to complete your co-op to graduate), like my
programs like that. But there are also some programs that the co-op
part is optional, so you can just say, "oh, I want to do co-op," or "I don't wanna do
co-op," and that's totally up to you. The process of co-op is the same for
international and domestic students, so everything is explained to you right now
works for Canadians but also works for international students so you have to
worry about that. The only thing you have to worry about is that you need a co-op
permit. If you have more questions about the co-op permit you can watch a video that
is called "Study and Work webinar - part 2." It's on our channel, I'll put the link in
the description of the video and also somewhere here in the video. So, yeah, if
you have some questions, please go to that video, because we talked about it.
The only thing that is really important to know before you actually apply for a
for a program like that, is that the college is not responsible for finding
you a job or a co-op. What that means is that you are responsible for your resume,
for your cover letter, for actually applying for the jobs, and actually
getting the job. So, you basically have to be a really good student, not in grades
wise but in responsibility, and just doing your stuff, and building a really good
portfolio so you can send it to the companies and they can hire you as an
intern. But, of course, we have a co-op department
at Conestoga College that will help you building your resume, building your cover
letter, telling you what jobs are available out there or not, and we also
have an online portal that is called my career that you can always check and
there are many many opportunities for you out there. That's basically just job
posts that you read and you apply for them. So, that can really help you, it has
been helping me and I'm pretty sure it's gonna help you if you come to Conestoga
College. So, it is totally on you to get the job, but Conestoga College is here
to assist you on that. So, just to finish this video, what do you guys think about
co-op programs? Would you apply for them? Would you not? Just leave all the
questions you have down on the comments below, we're gonna answer them all and
please don't forget to subscribe to the channel if you like it. Please, give it a
thumbs up, if you liked it. Bye bye, thank you so much for watching me!