Are you Ready for COOP?

Workplace health and safety considerations; workplace safety is crucial for your safety and the safety of the employees. Consider your choice of placement wisely. Your COOP teacher as well as your site supervisor(s) will provide you with all the information necessary in order to ensure that you have the knowledge and understanding of all safety related rules at any specific job site. It will be your responsibility to ensure that you understand and follow them completely.

Attendance and Punctuality; If you're a student who has a tendency to miss a lot of school days and/or being late, stop it. Studies show that behaviours adopted early in life are hard to change. Your chances of success at a job placement (or any future career for that matter) are greatly reduced. It’s crucial that you understand the expectations when it comes at attendance and punctuality. Your COOP placement might be your very first referral for a job, make sure it's a positive one.

Issues relating to confidentiality and the right to privacy; Confidentiality at the workplace is essential. Information at the workplace is private and should never be discussed outside of your placement. As a student, you should be able to recognize what is confidential and what is general knowledge. Depending on the type of placement you acquire, confidentiality may play an important role. Make sure you understand the difference between these two terms.

Work ethics and the responsible use of information technology; Hacking, copying, or sharing information via instagram, facebook or other social media. What many don’t know is the privacy issues and security threats/leaks the use of these medium can generate. You must understand that it’s not only dangerous but also illegal to discuss or share information that is work related through the use of these media.

Appropriate methods of dealing with and reporting concerns or problems at the placement; Every student reacts differently under stress. For most, stress is a part of life and they have found ways to cope with the situation. For some however, stress causes them to panic, become irritant and may even respond negatively and/or vocaly to specific situation. If you feel the stress of a placement gradually building up inside of you, come see your COOP teacher as soon as possible.

Denial of workplace environment; Choose your choice of placement with a lot of care and judgement. For example, a student applied for a co-op placement in the field of construction but refuses to wear safety boots as he/she finds them hot and uncomfortable. Or again, a student want’s a placement with the Ministry of Natural Resources but starts panicking at the sight of a tick afraid of getting lyme disease. Make sure you have realistic view of what the placement or the work might be.