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Achieve personal goals, excel in your chosen field and contribute to community and society with the help of ������Ƶ Co-op and Career Services.

We guide and support you as you develop competencies—knowledge, skills and attributes—that lead to successful and rewarding careers. 

Co-op Program

������Ƶ Co-op includes all ������Ƶ faculties, with students participating in 13 co-op program areas from 51 academic departments and schools. Co-op exists for almost every program, except for those that already offer practica, internships or other work-integrated education.

Career Services

Our Career Services team serves students and alumni through one-on-one meetings, online career programs, in-person workshops and a variety of events throughout the year.

Community-Engaged Learning

Our Community-Engaged Learning team facilitates reciprocal, mutually beneficial partnerships between community, faculty and students. Students gain meaningful hands-on experience that supports the community and strengthens their academic experience.

Annual report

Each year, we put together a report that covers everything from the number of co-op placements to student's career outcomes. View the annual report.

Leadership

Karima Ramji is the executive director of the Co-operative Education Program and Career Services at ������Ƶ.  

Karima is an award‑winning leader in international education and work‑integrated learning with more than 25 years of experience advancing global, Indigenous, and inclusive co‑op education in Canada. As Associate Director of Co‑operative Education and Career Services at the ������Ƶ, she led the development of nationally and internationally recognized international WIL programs, including four CBIE award winning programs.   

Department structure: 

• Director’s office
  • Co-operative Education Program
  • Career Services 
  • International student support team 
  • Indigenous student support team 

Publications and research

������Ƶ Co-op and Career staff regularly contribute to academic papers and give presentations on the team's unique contributions to work-integrated learning.

See a list of research publications, presentations and more.

Awards and recognition

The Co-op and Career team is regularly recognized for its innovative and inclusive initiatives and programming.

Recent awards include:

• (Karima Ramji, Executive Director)
• (Andrea Giles, Former Executive Director)
• (Sarah McQuillan, International Co-op and Career Coordinator)
• (Niels Melis-De Lamper, Accessibility & Inclusion Co-op & Career Coordinator)
• (International, Indigenous & Accessibility (IIA) team award)
• for Impact on Philosophy, Pedagogy and/or Practice of WIL (IIA team award)
• November 2024 ������Ƶ Campus Kudos (Co-operative Education and Career Services Team)
• March 2025 ������Ƶ Campus Kudos (IIA team award)
• (Meg Thompson, Curriculum Coordinator)
• 2021 CEWIL Canada Graham R. Branton Research Award for Impact on Scholarly Research in WIL (Karima Ramji, IIA Associate Director)
• 2020 CBIE Panorama Award to recognize innovation and excellence in design, planning, implementation and management of high-quality endeavours in international education: CANEU-COOP Program (IIA program award)
• 2019 Canadian Bureau of International Education (CBIE) Panorama Award: Indigenous International Work Integrated Learning (WIL) Exchange (program award)
• 2019 British Columbia Council for International Education (BCCIE) Award for Outstanding Program in International Education: Indigenous International WIL Exchange (program award)

Finalist status

• (IIA program)
• 2025 UCA Award for Contribution to Development of Co-op Education at (Karima Ramji, IIA Associate Director)
• 2024 Emerging Career Practitioner of the Year Award Finalist, BC Career Development Association, (Selina Jorgensen, Former Career Educator)

History

Co-op

In 1975, Dr. Howard Petch became ������Ƶ President and Vice-Chancellor and brought with him an experimental new program that Waterloo had practiced since 1957: co-operative education.

������Ƶ Co-op opened its doors in 1976, pioneering the first co-operative education program in western Canada with 58 placements in its first year. It was initially offered in the departments of chemistry and physics with the support of key players Dr. Alex McAuley, Dr. Harry Dosso and Dr. Graham Branton.

“The popularity of the program quickly led to an increase in the number of students in physics,” recalls Dosso, “and an unexpected but welcomed increase in the number of female students.” Dr. Branton became co-op director in 1979 and dedicated the next 17 years to advancing the program.

• by 1980, the program had expanded to include computer science/mathematics, creative writing, geography, physical education and public administration
• between 1980 and 1985, co-op began to place 30 per cent of students outside BC and established international exchange programs in the U.K. and Australia
• by 1987–88, annual placements neared 1,000 for students in 13 program areas, and ������Ƶ had established itself as one of Canada’s forerunners in co-operative education
• since its inception in 1976, our co-op students have completed more than 100,000 work term placements

Career Services

Since the late 1960s, ������Ƶ housed a federal program called the Canada Employment Centre on campus, but when this program lost funding, the university created the Student Employment Centre (SEC). SEC, which opened in 1991, was the first iteration of Career Services.

SEC offered students:

• job search support
• summer and career job postings
• employer information files
• a job search library
• on-campus recruitment by school districts, government, companies and other organizations

In 1993–94, SEC moved to its current location, the Campus Services Building, and developed a target program for recent graduates. The department hired reception and clerical staff and increased services for employers and students. The unit changed its name to Career Services in 2002 to better reflect its focus on career development.

COWIL Statistical Database

Since 1986, ������Ƶ has led a project that collects statistical data from public post-secondaries that run approved co-operative education programs. In 2019, the Ministry of Advanced Education provided a grant to ������Ƶ to upgrade the database to include other forms of work-integrated learning. 

A new database was launched in 2024 as the British Columbia Co-operative Education and Work-Integrated Learning (COWIL) Statistical Database.

The database serves as a centralized repository for data from public post-secondary institutions, supporting accountability and facilitating the tracking and reporting of student work experiences.