For Laura Jensen, a program involving a Co-op is the only way to go. 

The second-year student has won the Sask Polytech Co-op Student of the Year award for her placement at Nutrien. Jensen is a Business Information Systems (BIS) student and took most of her classes in an online format, and she continued working from home during her internship.

"It was pretty easy to work remotely because of my program, they (Nutrien) sent me all of the equipment that I would need for my work and I have a house and a family here in Moose Jaw, so I was grateful that wouldn't have to move," says Jensen.

She says she got a lot of knowledge out of her co-op experience and a lot of people helped her prepare for the placement. 

"The co-op education team works hard to form relationships with businesses in all the industries and prepare us for our placement interviews, and our instructors and program heads work to connect our program material to the different industry needs in the province." 

She also says employers need to be open to teaching students and sharing their workplace culture. 

Co-op placements provide post-secondary students with on-the-job experience and help expand their employer network. Jensen notes that there was a lot of learning on the job. 

"It's an opportunity to go out and apply your skills in a business or organization where you are solving real problems with the skills you learned during your academic education," says Jensen. 

She now says she wouldn't pursue any other education that didn't involve a co-op or internship as part of the program. "A Co-op experience gives somebody a lot of opportunities. You can see if the career you are training for is one that you will be happy and successful in because you get to try it out. You have the opportunity to apply what you have learned to real-life problems and learn job-specific problems depending on where you are placed."

Jensen is now completing her last academic term in person on the Moose Jaw campus, and she finishes up her program at the end of June.