Co-op or a field placement? What’s the difference, anyway?

 

Last Monday morning, during Tim Tuck’s “Coffee Chat” session (Tim is Mohawk’s PR program coordinator), I brought up the topic of co-ops.

Tim was quick to correct me: “you mean field placements, right?”

And so the coffee chat turned to the difference between a post-secondary program’s field placement or its co-op, respectively.

Do you know the difference?

If not, you’re not alone. Because honestly, I didn’t know either. Until I was promptly corrected by our fearless leader that is.

Studyincanada.com, which guides international students looking for comprehensive information about studying in Canada, defines a co-op placement as: “a program where students get the chance to work in an industry related to their field.”

By contrast, cewilcanada.ca, an organization that partners with post-secondary institutions, community members, employers, government, and students to champion work-integrated learning (WIL), says field placements provide “students with an intensive part-time/short term hands-on practical experience in a setting relevant to their subject of study.”

These are great, apt definitions.

But what, if anything, is the difference between the two?  

In short, whether you’re taking on a co-op or a field placement, you’re completing an integral part of your program, involving critical real-world work experience. The difference is that one is paid and one is not.

In other words, can you say M-O-N-E-Y?

As Tim Tuck put it, “field placements are without payment – not that an employer can’t choose to pay you – but when you’re pitching yourself to the company, the expectation is that you won’t receive a wage.”

So there you have it.

As you prepare to take on your new career in the workforce, you can hold your head up high knowing the key difference between the two terms.

Not that I didn’t know.

I was just pretending.

To be clever.

Really.

For help securing your work placement, watch this: