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Work Terms and the Project Course

The Work Term

During each work term the student works for a participating employer and earns a salary as if he or she were a regular employee. The Co-op Education Services Centre organizes the competition for work term employment. (Students may also obtain their own work term jobs outside the competition but this must be approved.) The Co-op Education Services Centre keeps a list of interested employers, available to all students in the program. Employers come to the campus and conduct interviews. Students are placed by the Psychology Department's Programme Coordinator with the aid of the Co-operative Education Services Centre to fit expressed preferences as far as possible. Placements are not guaranteed, but every effort is made to ensure that appropriate employment is made available.

The work term is evaluated in two ways:

Student performance on the job is assessed.
Each student has to write a work report for the work term. The report must contain original work related to the work term placement. The topic must be related to the work experience and will be chosen by the student in consultation with the employer.

All candidates shall complete four academic semesters and shall normally be required to complete two work terms. Courses in scientific methods and social psychological theory are taken during the academic semesters. Experience in work settings is acquired during the two work terms. The entire program takes six consecutive semesters. Students take two courses in each of the fall and winter semesters. In the third semester they go on their first work term. After this, academic terms alternate with work terms. Graduates from the program will have skills necessary to carry out research and find solutions to employer's problems or to go on to a doctoral program.

The Project Course

Students in their last semester will write a report in which they demonstrate the ability to integrate material such as methodological issues and previous research. While on work-terms most students are involved in applications of material they have learned in their courses. However, most work-term projects are problem oriented and sufficiently demanding that students have little opportunity to think about and to integrate the material. This course will provide the "capstone" experience for students in the program. They will have the opportunity to produce a document integrating what they have learned in classes with what they have learned in their work terms. Some reports may include a review, evaluation, and comparison of methods used on two disparate work-terms, e.g., one in education and one in treasury. Other reports may involve an analysis of the problems studied from the perspective of social psychological theory.