Special Week Celebrates Co-op Education Opportunities
UPEI will celebrate Co-operative Education Week March 19and#150;23 as part of a national celebration for all post-secondary institutions in Canada. The goal is to let high school and university students know that they can travel the province, the country, and the world through co-op programs. Since 1996, UPEI students have completed more than 1,000 work placements locally, nationally, and internationally and earned more than $5 million in salaries. Currently, Business Administration, Computer Science, and Physics students are working as far away as the United States, Scotland, Ireland, Thailand, Australia, and New Zealand.
Fourth-year Business Co-op student Megan Killorn is someone who knows the program first-hand. The 21-year-old native of Cornwall has just spent seven months in Dublin, Ireland, doing back-to-back co-op placements at the Allied Irish Bank and the Bank of New York Funds Management (Ireland) Limited, working in rates management and investment fund administration.
"I hadn't had much training in capital markets or investment, but my courses from the business school really helped," she says. "I was able to apply what I learned in the classroom to a real life job situation. Working at one of the biggest banks in Ireland was great because I got to experience a different culture while working for a big corporate company. Plus I love the Irish culture. The longer I was there, the more I realized how different my home culture was, and yet how similar."
Tom O'Donoghue of the Allied Irish Bank Global Treasury agrees that the experience is good for both parties. "The work placement is a great idea as it gives students a chance to experience an office environment and helps them form some opinions on the direction they want to take in their later careers. Our team looks after market data so it gives some broad insights into various financial products and how to use various tools to dig deeper and help improve their understanding."
O'Donoghue and his team were so impressed with the results of Megan's work term that they hired another UPEI student for the winter semester. Graeme McKillop, a third-year Business Co-op student from Summerside arrived in Dublin on January 10 to start his work term with the AIB group.
After graduating from Bluefield Megan had planned to go into international business at Carleton, but decided to complete her first year at UPEI. She soon discovered that the program far exceeded her expectations. "It is a lot more comprehensive than other programs. And the co-op program is great. Financial assistance is always available through UPEI and PEI Business Development. In my case, they paid for half my travel, visa, and travel insurance. It helps to be outgoing," she adds. "But I've never talked to a student who has gone abroad to work or study who hasn't said that it was the experience of a lifetime."
She learned recently that she had received an Export Development Canada International Business Scholarship, which is a nationwide scholarship for academic excellence and potential contribution to building Canada's international trade competency. "This is great news," says Megan, who hopes to go on to graduate school to study international business. "We're lucky to live in an age where there are so many opportunities!"
More information about Co-operative Education is available at http://www.upei.ca/co-op/
