Minutes from October 20, 2008

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New ECO resume builder was launched Sept 2008; a new PDF generator was implemented to speed up the time required for PDFs to be created; o. Alternative  ...
ENGINEERING CO-OP STUDENT ADVISORY COUNCIL (ECSAC) Meeting Agenda October 20th, 6-7 pm Co-op office Boardroom Attendees: CHBE Vivian Liu, Matthew Olleck CIVL Joey Chiu, Jay Sze ELEC Deepansh Chaudhary IGEN Ivan Tang MECH Brittany Hilbrecht, Aidan Moore, Morgan Meents, Elise Ng Unavailable: CIVL Carmen Chun, Ahmed Kafafi IGEN Bradley Hignell MINE Peter Prochotsky, Toma Stamenov Agenda – Circulated Jenny Kagetsu – Director • Welcome and member introductions • Review of last minutes − No comments • Definition & Objective of ECSAC – Handout provided − The Engineering Co-op Student Advisory Council (ECSAC) is a partnership between the Engineering Co-op student discipline representatives and the Engineering Co-op Program. The meetings provide students an opportunity to get involved through discussions, feedback, suggestions and support on improvements/changes to the program, student mentoring, promote awareness of Co-op with other Co-op students, student concerns etc. ECSAC strives to meet twice a term. • ECSAC member biography, photos and contact information − ECSAC members are to email brief bios and photos to Wendy Lock at [email protected] to add to the Engineering Co-op website. − An ECSAC email address ([email protected]) has been set up and made available on the Engineering Co-op website for Engineering Co-op Students to contact ECSAC members with feedback, suggestions and/or issues. All responses and monitoring of email account will be done by an ECSAC member and not the Engineering Co-op office. Policy and procedure responses will be made by ECSAC with consultation from the Co-op Director. Deepansh Chaudhary has volunteered to monitor the account. • Statistical update – Handout provided − Update provided by Jenny (insert pdf of program stats) − The market is changing and the Co-op Program mirrors what is happening in the market. The placements for Winter 2008 are looking solid; Summer 2009 and Fall 2009 may be a challenge. • Changes and improvements since last meeting

Online workshop modules were introduced this year to the new 2nd year Engineering Coop program students. − Communication plan was formalized for 2008/2009. Projects and initiatives have been assigned to task forces made up of members of the program; progress and completion updates are provided to the Director who will report back to the Associate Dean and Dean. − Website changes have been made to better situate information. − Program database o New ECO resume builder was launched Sept 2008; a new PDF generator was implemented to speed up the time required for PDFs to be created; o Alternative MIS – New system Symplicity • UBC Business is now using Symplicity; UBC Career Services will be launching next year; Engineering Co-op conducted a management information system analysis last year and at the time Symplicity did not offer the same level of functionality as ECO. Since the analysis, the company has bought on many co-op programs nationally and made significant improvements in the software which will be advantageous to our program. The UBC Engineering Co-op Program will move over to the Symplicity system in the later half of 2009. EUS meeting update – A meeting was held with two EUS reps, Associate Dean, Co-op Director and Administrative Manager. Items discussed: − Information sessions and the decision to move them to UBC Career Services if they were requested to be performed outside of the programs office hours. − From the 2007 Academic External Co-op review, the Engineering Co-op Program was requested to reduce core office hours. As staff were requested to stay back to assist in the facilitation of employer information sessions, many of which went until 9pm through the week it was decided that this functionality was better serviced through Career Services. Unfortunately, the transition to Career Services had some problems. Career Services has limited resources and was unable to accommodate the increased engineering co-op employer requests and services expected. The Program is hoping to gain funding to create a career services coach/staff member to assist with information sessions for the Coop Program in 2009. A report will be provided on the progress of this request at the next ECSAC meeting. − Student expectations and information from Co-op o Co-op workshops were redesigned over the summer. The redesigned workshops incorporate voice-over powerpoint online modules and two mandatory one-hour workshops. o Junior event (January) – employers and senior students including ECSAC members are invited to attend and provide information to 2nd year students. − Ranking, Round 1 and Round 2 – provides the opportunity for students to apply , meet and rank different companies. Round 1 in the past was 9 weeks but as years went by, it moved to 8, 7, 6 and now 5 weeks. Feedback was provided by industry that 5 weeks was the longest period they were willing to participate in due to the results required from the process. Student feedback was provided on the number of employers who post in round 1 however do not interview in this period. The Co-op Program procedure was explained and it was highlighted that employers do receive a call from the Program every 3 days after they have received applications to their posting to remind them of the Round 1 timeline and encourage them to come in and interview. − How do students hear about Co-op? −





APSC 122 in March each year – Engineering Co-op is invited to provide a presentation to 1st years about Co-op. ECSAC students are invited to speak and share work experience; o Engineering Student Services mail out to 2nd year students each summer – An information card about Co-op is added to the mail out; o New Student brochure mailed out to all 2nd year students in the summer; and o Coordinators are provided 10 minute class time in September to talk about Co-op. Student fees – Handout provided o Where are student fees going? Co-op is funded by student tuition and workshop fees. Currently the Co-op website has information regarding the breakdown of the student fees but none on the workshop fee. ECSAC was asked to provide feedback on the fee handout by Fri, Oct 31st to Wendy Lock at [email protected]. Roles & Responsibilities – Handout provided o ECSAC was asked to provide feedback on the fee handout by Fri, Oct 31st to Wendy Lock at [email protected]. Co-op office will be meeting with Dean Aboulnasr o Dean Aboulnasr is meeting with all Applied Science departments and programs. Coop will be meeting and providing her with information regarding the Program. Morgan Meents and Matthew Olleck are interested in being a part of the presentation with the Dean. o







Student Agenda Items • Morgan Meents – What is Co-op’s strategy regarding mass-emailing students? − Engineering Co-op and Career Services sent out the same information session email four times. − The mass emailing was discussed amongst the co-op staff prior to the ECSAC meeting and all discipline related emails will be sent out from the main email address [email protected] to alleviate the number of emails the students receive. − The Co-op Office will also look at adding a calendar to ECO to assist with lowering the number of emails being sent to students. • Toma Stamenov – Academic requirement for co-op standing − Students are required to complete 5 work terms; The Engineering Co-op Program is accredited and one work term is required to be in Summer, Fall and Winter. For students to graduate with Co-op standing they are required to complete a minimum of four terms with one being in the summer, winter and fall periods. There is flexibility in regard to the timing of co-op work terms for students and off schedule request dates are provided in the Terms & Conditions. New business • Questions from ECSAC members and answered by Jenny Kagetsu − Offer letters – When can students expect to receive them from employers? • The letters are issued by the employers. Some are issued right away but others can take up to the beginning of the work term. This is dependant on the employer. − Can a position be pulled by an employer? • Yes, this can happen due to a company’s fiscal position and is in direct relation to what can happen after graduation. Due to the current economic downturn there have been positions rescinded this term.









What is the purpose of a site visit? • Feedback was provided by an employer – they would like the site visit to be on the student’s work term focus. • The Co-op office is currently working on different questions to be asked each term depending on what level the student is at. Could someone from the Co-op office not have called for an international site visit? Brittany received an email site visit as she was working internationally in Germany. • Prior to the Co-op review, the Co-op office conducted all international telephone site visit calls in the early mornings or late nights depending on the country. Unfortunately due to the recommendation of maintaining regular business hours, we have had to move towards alternative solutions in communicating with students and employers for feedback. What is the point of the Career Development report? • The report requirements in the past were soley technical and were marked by Faculty. As a result of student feedback, the Co-op Program revamped (in consultation with Faculty and ECSAC) the report format 2 years ago to the present format of Experiential report (110) Career Development report (210), Technical report (310, 410) and Oral presentation (411). The career development report allows the student to take ownership on their Co-op career direction, type of jobs and understanding of the industry. MAPS is required for EIT; Is there further information of MAPS that can be provided? • APEGBC-MAPS link and contact information is on the co-op website; The Co-op Program will look at contacting APEGBC to provide a session on MAPS for all students

Next meeting date Nov 24th, 2008 at Engineering Co-op office Boardroom at 6:00pm Meeting Adjourned at 7:00 pm