WINTER 2019 AVENUES 35 EDUCATION Announcing: Nortrax is proud to be your Wirtgen Equipment Dealer in Ontario! Nortrax has added Wirtgen products to compliment their John Deere equipment line-up. Nortrax and the Wirtgen Group are here for all your equipment needs with solutions from a single source. We Stand Ready to remain Close to our Customers. Call Nortrax at (905) 670-1655 for more information. Because the course is strongly rooted in prac- tical “real-world’ issues, they also participate in two full-day off-site field investigations. “It runs the full gamut from looking for the resource themselves, the geological basis, through technical reports and site plans, permissions from municipalities under zoning bylaws, management of pits and quarries and then through to progres- sive rehabilitation with an after-use in mind, whether it’s agriculture or natural environ- ment,” says Caston, who teaches the course together with occasional guest lecturers. Currently, the course is in its fourth year. The Ontario Aggregate Resources Corpo- ration (TOARC), which gave input into its creation, provided funding for its first three- year run (2015 to 2017) and has renewed the funding for an additional three years, up to 2020. Interest in the program, however, has been slow to pick up. “Out of a cohort of 100 students in third year, up to 10 might take it,” says Woudsma. In an effort to increase uptake, the elective course will be switched from its existing fall term to the spring term, which has fewer elective courses and there- fore more opportunity for larger classes. That means that undergraduate students participate in five four-month work terms during their course of studies, typically beginning in May, September or January. Some placements can even be eight months long. In order to participate, students must be in at least the first half of their third year in the program. This way employers can expect them to demon- strate good writing and analytical skills, as well as technical skills such as mapping. In terms of aggregates, these co-op students can work on approvals, policy or specific research projects. “It’s a good way to engage with young minds and to trial future employees,” says Woudsma. “From the firm’s standpoint, you really are experimenting with a student for 12 weeks to see how they work out. A lot of employers are super impressed by the students and hire them afterwards.” • Anyone interested in hiring senior undergrad- uate students from the University of Waterloo for a four-month co-op work term is invited to contact Rachel Jenson, faculty relations manager of the Co-operative Education Depart- ment at rjenson@uwaterloo.ca or 519-888- 4567, ext. 32999. CO-OP OPPORTUNITIES The planning course is not the only way students at the university can learn about aggregates and, ultimately, pursue it as a career. There is also a strong emphasis on experiential learning through co-op place- ments in the field. “They may not neces- sarily be doing a co-op now in the aggre- gates industry but we’re hoping to grow that,” says Woudsma. “We’re trying to work with the aggregates industry to identify co-op opportunities so we can say to the students, ‘Here’s an industry that’s looking to fill positions.’ We’re trying to link the course to the co-op opportunities and [that way] get them interested in working in the aggregates industry.” The university has long put a special emphasis on co-operative education; in fact, it runs the largest co-op program in North America today, in everything from engineering to STEM subjects to the arts. “Eighty per cent of undergraduate programs are full co-op,” says Woudsma. With up to 30,000 placements each year across Canada and the world, it’s not a trivial undertaking, he adds. “It’s a big part of the identity of the University of Waterloo. Within the School of Planning, we are a full co-op program.”