The co-operative education work term: A comparison of expectations and outcomes for international engineering graduates in Canada

The completion of a co-operative education work term allows students to reflect on how their work experience aligned with their initial expectations. Such an opportunity presented itself within a larger, exploratory study examining the perceptions of international engineering graduates (immigrant engineers) on their participation in a university co-op education program as part of an alternative pathway for professional engineering licensing. The pathway combines an eight-month academic term with a four-month, paid work term. Previous research has indicated the potential for co-op education programs to support the integration of women and other underrepresented groups into the engineering profession by developing soft skills largely through positive mentoring and networking experiences. The potential for the co-op placement to offer similar advantages for international engineering graduates was explored in this study. Qualitative data were collected through focus group sessions with students and employers, co-op work term reports, and program documents. Findings indicate the value to international engineering graduates of the cooperative work term in simultaneously developing technical and cultural competencies including mentoring and networking. This study highlights the potential of the co-op work term to contribute human, cultural and social capital essential to the integration of international engineering graduates into the Canadian engineering profession.