By Ruth Ormiston, Gustavson External Relations co-op student
Thanks to a partnership between Mitacs and the Gustavson School of Business, UVic’s Business co-op students were able to work with local businesses in 2020 and help them adapt to the new economic demands brought on by the pandemic.
Mitacs is a national, research-focused non-profit organization that supports industrial and social innovation across Canada. In July, Mitacs partnered with Gustavson to launch the Business Strategy Internship (BSI) program, where undergraduate and graduate co-op students took on a 4-month strategic project with a SME or a non-profit organization. Their projects addressed business strategies such as marketing, operations, communication and finance, and helped their employers adapt their business operations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The BSI program was made possible with funding from Mitacs, Gustavson, and Business Co-op & Career as well as contributions from the participating SMEs.
Not only did the BSI program provide valuable support to local businesses as they adapted to the economic impact of the pandemic, but it also allowed co-op students to expand their networks, apply their business knowledge and gain firsthand experience in business operations during a time of economic uncertainty.
BSI co-op student Hannah Hayworth gained an array of practical business skills during her internship at Prompt Health, and says that being able to contribute to a local start-up made her experience even more rewarding. “The contributions you make at a BSI internship are extremely impactful and get implemented,” she explains.
For their part, PromptHealth, which is an early-stage health technology start-up, appreciated her work. “With the help of the Gustavson/Mitacs business strategy internship program, we were able to hire Hannah Hayworth for her final co-op work term. She is now an integral part of our team, bringing so much energy, enthusiasm and innovation to our company every day,” says Hedieh Safiyari, Founder and CEO of Prompt Health.
BCom Maya Gayton, meanwhile, completed her internship with Fort Properties Ltd. and notes that doing so gave her real-world experience in responding to the pandemic economy. “My role was to audit every aspect of their company and to provide specific recommendations to improve the customer experience and company efficiency in the COVID-19 world,” she says. “To see my work implemented within the company was very exciting.”
Currently, 20 funded projects are underway or on track to be completed by the end of March 2021.
