Learn how to hire a co-op student and meet work term requirements.
Co-op Work Term Requirements
To qualify as a co-op work term, the position you’re hiring for must be:
- At least 420 hours in length, or 12 weeks at 35 hours per week
- Full-time work
- Paid an appropriate salary for the industry and level of responsibility
- Supervised by a professional who is keen to mentor a student
- Challenging and provides the student with career-related tasks
- Hired as an employee rather than an independent contractor
Hiring Process
It only takes a few steps to hire a co-op student.
Sign into Symplicity, our online recruitment portal, to create and post your co-op position, free of charge.
If you have any questions, please contact arts.co-op@ubc.ca.
Tips:
- Your posting must include expected pay or pay range, as required under BC's Pay Transparency Act as of November 1, 2023.
- To attract the right candidates, include plenty of detail about your organization, job responsibilities, and skills required.
We’ll email you a package of shortlisted applicants for you to review.
You can reach out to students directly to schedule interviews, making sure to also let us know which students you've shortlisted. If you need additional support, we can also help arrange these interviews on your behalf.
Select a candidate and we’ll assist with making the offer.
Available Disciplines
Our undergraduate and graduate students come from a variety of academic disciplines in the most diverse faculty at UBC.
Average Student Salaries
It's up to co-op employers to determine their student salaries and to ensure that they are at or above minimum wage for the jurisdiction where the student is working.
To help attract candidates, we encourage employers to offer salaries that are competitive for the industry, role, experience and skills required, and degree level.
For reference, below are average Arts Co-op student salaries. If you'd like advice on a competitive salary for your specific co-op opportunity, please contact us.
Average Monthly Salaries by Sector 2023/24*:
| Sector | Undergraduate Co-op | Graduate Co-op |
|---|---|---|
| Public | $3,397 | $4,213 |
| Non-Profit | $3,122 | $3,897 |
| Private Business | $3,845 | $4,440 |
* Based on 35 hours per week
Co-op Journey
Hiring and working with a co-op student follows these three stages.
Co-op students are available for four or eight-month paid work terms beginning in September, January, and May each year. We start posting jobs four months before the planned start date.
During the first month, your co-op student will need to set learning objectives for the work term. We encourage you to establish these together in order to set realistic and challenging goals.
About mid-way through the term, we will schedule a site visit with you and the student in order to discuss the student’s learning, progress, and performance thus far.
Our goal is to make sure the work term is a mutually beneficial experience for both you and your student.
Throughout the term your student will submit several co-op assignments back to the Arts Co-op Office. These are designed to help them reflect on their learning and develop their professional network. It's up to the student to discuss and share copies of these assignments with you to ensure nothing confidential is submitted.
At the end of each four-month term we ask that the student and the supervisor complete online evaluations.