Engineering Internship Program

Overview of the Engineering Internship Program

Our optional internship program allows you to gain experiential learning by spending 12-16 months working in an engineering setting in industry or elsewhere following third year. Students are generally well paid for these internships.

The Engineering Internship Program is a three-way relationship among employers, students, and the University, providing benefits to all participants.

  • Employers benefit from highly motivated and knowledgeable students who are capable of performing regular engineering duties, special projects and peak-load assignments.
  • Students gain valuable work experience and exposure to the workplace.
  • UOIT and its engineering programs further their common objectives of providing market-driven education and preparing students to be productive engineers, as well as thinkers, doers and leaders.

How the Engineering Internship Program Works

Students who have completed three years of their academic program with a minimum 2.3 cumulative GPA can choose to participate in the Engineering Internship Program. Students enter a 12-16 month internship in an industrial or other engineering setting, beginning at the end of the third year, and then return to university to complete their final year of studies.

Students interested in the Engineering Internship Program must register in the course Engineering Internship Program (ENGR 0998U) prior to fourth year. The fee charged for this course is available through the University Registrar's Office.

UOIT and its Engineering Faculty attract a number internship opportunities, but can not guarantee a placement for every candidate, so students are strongly encouraged to find their own placements. The placements may be local or abroad. All internship positions must be approved by the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science to ensure a meaningful engineering experience. Internship students are paid prevailing wages by the employer.

The following details are required from the employer for each internship position:

  • position title;
  • expected duties to be performed and the workplace expectations;
  • skill set to be utilized in the workplace;
  • reporting structure and process for the internship position; and
  • wages to be paid during the internship period.

The recruitment process for the Engineering Internship Program

Students can meet with prospective internship employers from September to March in their third year of study. Companies are requested to submit their job postings during this time. Companies are also invited to present information sessions to prospective internship candidates. Primary recruitment activity, including posting job opportunities, interviewing and making offers of employment, normally concludes by the end of February, but may carry on to early April. UOIT’s Career and Employment Services Office will assist employers and students during the recruitment process.

Monitoring and evaluation

Throughout the internship period, an internship coordinator from the Faculty acts as a liaison. At the end of the internship, a performance evaluation is requested from the employer. In the middle of the internship, a performance check may be carried out with the employer. Within two weeks of the conclusion of the internship, the student is required to submit a placement report to the Internship Office and a duplicate copy to the employer (approximately 3,000 words), detailing the internship experience, for evaluation by the program Faculty. Guidelines for internship work-term reports are available from the Work-Term Report Guidelines (Also available in Microsoft Word Format: Work-Term Report Guidelines).

The Engineering Internship course is graded either a pass or fail. The grade is not included in a student's grade point average. A passed grade has no numerical value and a failure is graded as an 'F'. Participation in and successful completion of the Engineering Internship Program appears in the student's academic transcript.

Also see the PEO Pre-Graduation Experience Form.

Responsibilities of the employer

The student and the employer benefit by participating in the Engineering Internship Program. The employer gains an energetic, enthusiastic and creative person as well as a potential career employee. The student invests an academic year to acquire significant engineering experience and gain insight into the engineering workplace. Consequently, the employer is expected to provide a job that:

  • involves a significant engineering challenge;
  • gives the student an opportunity to enhance his or her communication and interpersonal skills;
  • occurs in a supportive and constructive work environment; and
  • is guided or supervised by a professional engineer at some level (this supervision is essential if for validation purposes, should the placement count towards the professional experience component necessary for professional engineering licensure).
The employer is also expected to:
  1. ensure that an appropriate supervisor meets with the intern after he or she arrives on site and explains the job description and workplace expectations;
  2. provide the intern with an orientation to the workplace (through appropriate tours, personnel meetings, assigned readings, etc.); and
  3. arrange a suitable time for regular meetings between the supervisor and the intern, to allow for mentoring and discussions of the intern's progress throughout the internship.

Upon completion of the internship and within two weeks of receiving the intern's final report, the employer will be asked to complete a questionnaire about the intern's performance and final report, which will be submitted to the Director of the Engineering Internship Program at UOIT. The questionnaire will ask about the effectiveness of the intern's performance during the internship period, and the thoroughness and accuracy of the intern's report.

Benefits of the Engineering Internship Program

Benefits for employers of Engineering Internship students

There are numerous potential benefits to employers of engineering internship students, including the following:

  • Students complete three years of academic study, thereby obtaining a solid base of theory and technical skills, before they begin an internship placement.
  • Students are available on a year-round basis.
  • The work term is 12-16 months, providing ample time for internship students to be productive, and reducing employer training costs.
  • Students are available for specific long-term projects or for a series of short-term tasks, depending on employer needs.
  • Companies that hire students as part of an internship program may be eligible for financial assistance. Some possible sources of support include the Ontario Co-operative Education Tax Credit and certain Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Awards. Information on these programs is available from UOIT's Career and Employment Services Office.
  • Internship students can be assessed by employers for their ability, professionalism and aptitude as potential career employees. Studies have shown that company participation in internship programs reduces costs of employee recruitment and greatly improves the success of such efforts.
  • Employers assist UOIT in producing highly productive engineers and potential future leaders by complementing and enhancing a student's academic study through meaningful work experience.

Benefits for Engineering Internship students

The potential benefits to students of participating in the Engineering Internship Program are immense, and include the following:

  • gain meaningful engineering experience to complement academic studies;
  • develop a professional attitude that is reflected in the performance of responsibilities and tasks, and learn about the importance of professionalism in the real world;
  • assess a future employer;
  • obtain more interesting and satisfying jobs because of the internship experience;
  • stand out from other graduates in the eyes of employers;
  • earn money while gaining valuable experience;
  • obtain up to one year of credit towards the four years of engineering experience required for licensing by a professional engineering association in Canada (e.g., Professional Engineers Ontario), provided the experience obtained is deemed acceptable by that association; and
  • use the activities carried out during an internship term as the basis of a fourth-year thesis.

Participating engineering programs

The Engineering Internship Program is offered for all engineering programs.

For more information or to hire an intern please contact:

Hired Career Services
Tel: 905.721.3034
Email: internship@uoit.ca
Web: hired.mycampus.ca/

For program-specific questions, please contact:

Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science
Tel: 905.721.3268
Email: engineering@uoit.ca