About Access Student Talent
The Greater Kitchener Waterloo Chamber of Commerce (GKWCC) aims to help connect small businesses with our local post-secondary schools – Conestoga College, University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University. Access Student Talent makes it easier for small businesses to learn how to engage with a student for work-integrated opportunities in a variety of low or no cost ways.
Our Goal
Access Student Talent was created to help connect businesses with local post-secondary students. With talent recruitment and retention being a top challenge for many small businesses, we are here to help provide resources and connections.
Work-Integrated Learning
Work-integrated learning is an umbrella term that describes the different opportunities businesses have to work with students. Businesses can work with students in a variety of ways including:
- Co-op work terms
- Field placements
- Capstone projects
- Practicums
- In-class projects
- Part-time project work
- Apprenticeships
- …and many more!
How STUDENTS CAN Help Businesses
In the first year of the Access Student Talent pilot, we learned that there a number of reasons why small businesses do not work with students. We aim to break down those barriers and encourage our small business community to get connected with local student talent. Some of those barriers included a lack of time, financial barriers, not knowing the different ways that businesses can work with students, the type of work to give students, and not knowing how to connect with the post-secondary school.
With up-to-date knowledge and skills, students are a great low or no cost solution to your current talent needs. Students are an untapped source of temporary employment that can infuse creativity and innovation into your business, and help drive productivity. Engaging with students also builds your future talent pipeline and decreases your future recruitment and training costs. Find out more about how your business can work with students today, by connecting with our local post-secondary institutions!
