Non-profit looking to connect university students with paid internships in their field

One non-profit research group is looking to get students into internships that fit their career goals.

Mitacs CEO John Hepburn says their organization has connected thousands of undergrad, masters, and PHD students with paid positions in their targeted field.

"We've done a lot of work in Waterloo region over the past two decades," said Hepburn. "The internship industry helps them apply what they learned at university to a real life industry problem."

According to Wilfrid Laurier Unversity, the majority of its 17,000 full-time students are in need of internships.

"I've been looking since about the end of January, beginning of February, and nothing yet so far," said English major Dana McCallum. "I'm trying to find something that's maybe kind of in my field or something that I'd want to go into."

Partnerships with Mitacs range from engineering, to finance, to tech, and have students apply their own expertise toward an assigned project.

"It makes them, in a sense, job ready," said Hepburn. "Most of our students get jobs in the industry using their skills when they graduate."

Interns split their time between school and the assigned company from anywhere between four months to several years.

"We'll do about 21,000 of these this year," said Hepburn. "Probably over 1,000 in Waterloo region."

Through federal funding and industry support, interns earn a starting salary of $10,000 over a four-month partnership.

"A lot of people don't know what's out there or how to find it," said business major Sarah Erophy. "If you have a program like that, it's actually helping you, I think it would be really helpful."