International co-op students and interns improve their English through projects and language schools.
I'm from Vancouver, BC, a city that attracts large numbers of international students. Over the years, we've hired international co-op students and took on interns from language schools who were seeking to improve their English. We worked with co-op students from Hong Kong, Ecuador, South Korea, Brazil, China and South Africa. At one point, we had Brazilian and Korean co-op students simulteaneously. I think they learned a lot from each other, since they had to work together closely on a project we'd assigned to them jointly. We've also worked with the language schools (of which there are many in Vancouver) to provide 1-2 days per week of work activities, usually for 8 weeks, designed to help them with their business English and carry out some basic tasks for us. These students came from Germany, Japan, Mexico and Venezuela.
The benefits for the students:
- In some cases, improving their language skills, and particularly learning business English - oral and written.
- For co-ops, getting that much-needed Canadian experience, which is a huge help for those wanting to stay in Canada after they graduate and take on a job in their field.
- Gaining and practising business consulting skills and responding to emails, phone interviews, carrying out and tabulating surveys, writing reports
- Getting coaching and support from an interested and engaged supervisor
The benefits for us:
- Learning how business is approached/carried out in other countries
- Gaining an appreciation of how to work productively with people from other cultures
- With some students, receiving high quality products/services at an economical cost
- Improved skill-set for the worker assigned to supervise the students
- Energy and enthusiasm brought into the workplace