Mr. Chair, distinguished committee members, thank you for giving me the opportunity to introduce what we see as the DNA of the Université de Sherbrooke, its co-operative education program.
I would especially like to thank the Hon. Steven Blaney for inviting me. Mr. Blaney obtained a degree in civil engineering from our university in 1988.
In 1966, the Université de Sherbrooke became the first Quebec university, and the second university in Canada, after Waterloo, to make co-operative education its trademark. Fifty-two years later, almost 5,000 students per year gain paid work experience in a company in Canada or elsewhere in the world. Thanks to our co-operative internships, students at our university in certain programs finish their studies with almost two years of experience to their credit.
The total amount of the salaries paid to those students exceeds $36 million per year. The concept of co-operative education was invented in 1906 by Professor Herman Schneider, in the faculty of engineering at the University of Cincinnati.
The concept was founded on the two following observations. First, each profession has characteristics that can only be learned by practical work experience in that profession. Second, most students have to take a part-time job during their studies in order to pay for their needs.
Professor Schneider therefore conceived of a system that would allow students to practice their future careers as they earned income from their work. Under his direction, the engineering program at Cincinnati developed a school year in which periods in the classroom alternated with periods at work. It is important to emphasize that the responsibility to find work in the students' fields of study rests with the university, with the institution.
Co-operative education was therefore born from the collaboration between teaching institutions and the workplace. At the moment, the Université de Sherbrooke offers 48 programs with the co-operative structure. While engineering programs were the first, programs in administration, science, law and arts quickly followed.
The universities and colleges in Canada that offer these programs come together in a national association. It is responsible for granting accreditation in the Canadian co-operative model. At its annual meeting last November, the association broadened its mandate to become Co-operative Education and Work-Integrated Learning Canada, or CEWIL Canada. The name change was necessary because of a number of Canadian initiatives to include other forms of integrated work experiences. The objective is clear: to make sure that those initiatives have standards as rigorous as those in co-operative internships.
This opening up of our association's mandate coincides with an announcement from the Minister of Employment, Workforce, and Labour, Hon. Patricia Hajdu. In fact, last summer, the minister announced a program creating 10,000 new practical internships for students over the next five years. The initiative also seeks to establish lasting partnerships between industry and post-secondary education institutions.
I have to mention that we are contemplating the deployment of this program with some apprehension. In fact, the discussions we have had with our partners reveal a very clear under-representation of Quebec in the consortia that bring together employers and universities. We can already state that access to the funds will be difficult for SMEs in Quebec. So I would like to use this platform provided to me today to ask for your support, so that the funds will be distributed equitably in all regions of the country. I would also venture a suggestion: because of its enormous experience, our association could make its expertise available to those programs in order to ensure their success. I know that communication channels are currently open. The authorities involved just have to accept our offer.
I would now like to briefly mention an initiative of the Université de Sherbrooke that is designed to encourage new Canadians to take their place in co-operative programs and the labour market. National statistics and our own practice demonstrate the major difficulty that graduates from certain cultural communities have in getting into the labour market, even despite a labour shortage. This observation led us, in collaboration with various services and faculties, to develop a program to help international students better understand the labour market in Quebec and Canada. This initiative provides participants with training on the labour market and its history, as well as on its main rules and customs.
The training deals with job interviews, resumés and covering letters. Then, students in the program receive personal coaching from employment counsellors who are specially assigned for the purpose. They help them, prepare them for interviews and provide feedback. With this program, we are wagering that integrating the students will be easier and their performance in the employment process will be better.
By way of conclusion, I would like to leave you with the following message.
The history of co-operative education in Canada proves that it is a productive road to the labour market. Not only do the students who take that road have greater success in their school programs, but their integration into the labour market is also easier. Our internal statistics show that more than 50% of the students who were part of a co-op program find employment with the company for which they have done an internship.
Reciprocally, companies are turning more and more to those programs in order to hire their new employees. The companies have understood that welcoming a co-op intern is a productive way to fill both a temporary need and a staffing requirement over the long term.
Two challenges facing the Canadian economy are the labour shortage and the development of skills. Initiatives like the student work-integrated learning program and Mitacs are intended to meet those challenges. Canada can count on very skilled resources who are ready to do what is necessary to make those initiatives a success. A service like mine and an association like CEWIL Canada have expertise that is recognized around the world and we are ready to put that expertise at Canada's disposal. All that remains is for you to make appropriate use of us.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to introduce you to our expertise. We look forward to being able to participate in the development of our wonderful country.