University of Toronto Scarborough’s Co-op program makes hiring students easy

By Diana Swift

For healthcare organizations, filling temporary gaps in their workforce with the right student employees can be a fast and seamless process. The University of Toronto Scarborough Co-op program in Arts and Science connects employers with student talent in a few steps in work partnerships that benefit institutions and students alike.

UofT Scarborough’s program simplifies the recruitment of top talent for busy hospital teams and research labs. It supports employers and connects them with the best candidates for the positions to be filled. It also offers flexible timelines and streamlined hiring processes and helps with logistical and administrative details. In addition, it provides advice on funding opportunities for employers.

DATE Lab’s Experience

One partner that has benefitted from working with the Co-op program is the University Health Network’s Dementia Ageing Technology Engagement (DATE) Lab. This is a research facility within the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute that promotes positive aging. “The hiring process has been very smooth in helping us find engaged and enthusiastic students, and we are excited to welcome our next two students for the fall semester,” said Dr. Arlene Astell, PhD, the laboratory’s Director.

In the past term, the lab had three students engaged in activities ranging from data cleaning and analysis to coding video data and drafting methods and results – as well as title and abstract screening. “They’ve also all worked on a project co-creating a multimedia conversation support for people living with dementia,” said Dr. Astell. This has involved finding and sourcing multimedia contents, reviewing co-creation sessions, identifying copyright owners, doing videography, and creating story boards.

“The hiring process has been very smooth in helping us find engaged and enthusiastic students, and we are excited to welcome our next two students for the fall semester”

One recent hire was Natalie Tam, a UofT Scarborough neuroscience student who worked this year as a research assistant in the DATE Lab from May until September, when she returned to her studies. “One of my projects was content analysis on videos in which people with dementia try out different ‘exergames’ like Xbox Kinect and Nintendo Switch Instant Sports,” she said. In another assignment she collected content from online archives for a multimedia scrapbook designed for people with dementia.

“This job allowed me to participate in actual research compared with the ’hard’ knowledge gained from academic learning,” Ms. Tam said. “I developed interpersonal skills as well as organizational and note-taking skills. These skills are transferrable and will definitely help me as I return to my classes.” Most importantly, the DATE Lab experience allowed her to learn about dementia from a human perspective, which aligns with her professional interest in pursuing research in behavioural neuroscience.

Ms.Tam and her student colleagues have collaborated well, Dr. Astell said, working not just on their own primary projects but together as teams and with other members of the DATE Lab or external partners.

Their interest in the wider research process has been evident. “We’ve been able to make a range of opportunities available to them to gain different skills and experience, which the Co-op students have responded to really well,” Dr. Astell said. These have included training in completing a Research Ethics Board submission and using the data extraction platform Covidence for titles, abstracts, and full-text screening.

“We would definitely be interested in rehiring these students in the future,” she said.

As for the logistics of recruiting, Dr. Astell added, “We found the Co-op application and hiring program very accessible and easy to navigate. It makes it very straightforward to post the advert and find suitable candidates.”

Further details on hiring a UofT Scarborough Co-op program student can be found at: utsc.utoronto.ca/hire-coop. Learn more about the hiring process at: How to Hire Our Students | Hire Arts & Science Co-op Students (utoronto.ca) utsc.utoronto.ca/hire-coop/how-hire-our-students

This site also provides an Employer Inquiry Form at: hirecoop.utsc.utoronto.ca/employer-inquiry.