KITCHENER -- The University of Guelph plans to hire 75 co-op students as the school continues to plan for online courses in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
As part of the new learning plan that will begin this fall, students will experience a hybrid semester that combines remote learning and in-person activities.
To help with this transition, the university plans to pay co-op students between $5,000 and $7,000 to assist faculty in transforming their courses over the summer months.
“We had our academic partners and faculty facing the challenge of delivering their courses online, which is very new, and we saw that they would need some support to do so in the fall,” said Elaine Fenner, director of experiential learning, in a statement.
“It made good sense to partner faculty and co-op students.”
During their placement, students will help to develop best practices and strategies for online learning, creating multimedia assets, and assist in putting course material online.
The initiative is also expected to help replace some of the co-op opportunities that have been lost during the pandemic.
“Because of the general uncertainty and what’s happening with the economy, many of our employers are not able to hire students for the summer,” said Fenner. “That’s our busiest time for co-op students.”
The initiative is partially funded by the federal government’s Student Work Placement program.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also noted during a press conference that the government is doing its part to make jobs available to young people.
He added there are currently 45,000 job postings up on the federal job bank for young people looking for work this summer.
The university first cancelled in-class learning in March, moving online to virtual learning.
Many Ontario universities are planning on having at least some classes delivered in an online or remote format.
