The U of R internship program gives students the opportunity for a 12-16 month work experience between their third and fourth year classes. I am in the process of doing on site visits with the cohort of 5 interns who started their 16 month work terms in May 2011 and the one intern who started a 12 month work term in September 2011. All five return for their last year of classes in September 2012. I suspect that the cultural change from work place to class room (not to mention the loss of a pay check) will a shock to them.
I did an on site visit with two of our interns at the Cooperators yesterday, Chelsea Valois and Erin Dodd. Chelsea and Erin are in the last semester of their 16 month work terms. By all accounts they are having very positive experiences. It was also nice to touch base with U of R grads working at the Cooperators. Chelsea's supervisor is Thomas Wood who was one of the first U of R interns and a student in the very first ActSci class I taught (ACSC116 bass in the Fall 2002 term).
Next week I will visit two more interns at Cooperators, Colin Billet who is finishing a 16 month work term and Jing Lu who is finishing a 12 month work term.
The fifth intern is Emelita Tejeda who is on a 16 month term at the WCB. She gets an on site visit from me every week, due to my role as internal actuary at the WCB!
I have to say Cooperators gave a very positive experiences as well back to 2007-2008, and recently they have awarded the "50 Best Corporate Citizens in Canada". The I-day they have stands them out in terms of striking for employee's work life balance. With the acquisition of CUMIS Life, this I-day benefit has been transferred to Toronto area. Hopefully one day large insurer can adopt that too.
ReplyDeleteWill
ReplyDeleteThe I-day is common in Regina, but very rare in Central Canada. I guess it's one of the lifestyle advantages of working in Regina.
Cheers
PD