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Hi everyone, my name is Abbey Macfadyen I am entering my fourth year of the business and I am enrolled in the co-op program here at UPEI. Today I wanted to shed light on a very important issue As this is a third-year course the majority of us approach the finish line of our time spent getting a university degree, and now comes the search for a job. I’m sure we all can relate to the stress that comes with finding a job. The hours spent writing resumes, cover letters, the nervous shakes you get before a big job interview. Well, even tho we have spent at least 4 years studying a subject hoping that at the end we will be able to use our expertise in the workforce, the reality is that the majority of university graduates are unemployed for lengthy periods of time. Why is this you may be thinking to yourselves, why wouldn’t I be able to find a job after spending that much time studying for it. Well, I am going to tell you that 61% of all full-time “entry-level” jobs require 2+ years of relevant work experience. Employers expect students to have this experience prior to applying for their entry-level jobs but the majority of us don’t have any relevant experience. However, if Co-op programs were mandatory at university then we wouldn’t have to worry about all this stress. For those of you who aren’t familiar with co-op it is essentially a program that helps students seek work experience while studying in their respective programs. They combine classroom studies with practical work experience outside of the university environment and assist students with writing resumes and attending job interviews. Graduating with the words co-operative education attached to your degree comes with many pros. First of all you get to test drive potential career paths to find aspects of the field that you may like or dislike and other areas that you may want to explore. You get an insight into your future. If there’s something about the field of study that you’ve chosen that you don’t like, Co-op allows you to catch it early on. It gives you a chance to reconsider. The second perk of the co-op program is how all students get compensated for their hard work. Employers pay their co-op students anywhere from $14 an hour too $20 dollars an hour. So during the 14-16 week work term students can make enough money to cover all cost associated with the program and will have money left over to devote to other expenses or recreational activities. But the most important thing students get from the co-op program is the relevant work experience and professional experience that employers require when hiring at the entry-level. Co-op students are more likely to have a job set up for when they graduate over those who are not in the program. However, I know many students first thoughts about the co-op program because I had the same thought process when I was given my first presentation on it. When they talked about how you are required to take a semester off of school to do a work term first thought was there was no way I was going to do that 4 years here is enough. However, here I am today set to graduate a semester early because I planned my courses in a strategic way to do so. My next thought was how much I was already paying for tuition and the many fees UPEI dings us with. I didn’t really have any more money to devote to paying another fee. However, once I realized how well they employers pay their students and how much money I could make through the work terms it was better to pay that fee because I ended up making enough to pay all cost and then some. The co-op program is beneficial to all students because you get to test out those potential careers, paths, you get compensation for the work your doing, and when you graduate you will be able to apply for any entry-level job and you will be more successful in it. If you take anything away from this today what I want to get across to everyone is that the co-op program does not add any time onto your degree if you plan right, and the money you can make outweighs all the cost associated. This program should be mandatory for all university students to ensure they are prepared for what post-graduate life is going to throw at them.