Labor market | Companies snap up interns

To ensure that they succeed in hiring valuable skilled labour, employers are now hunting for interns. By contracting out their loyalty to the company, students from Quebec universities can obtain scholarships and bonuses.

Isabelle Dube
The Press

After his first internship in wood engineering, Jean-Sébastien Lavoie was offered three $1,000 scholarships by the employer for the three study sessions he had left at Laval University. “I had to sign a contract. If I leave before three years, I have to reimburse part of the scholarship, ”explains the new graduate on the phone, who says he really wants to work in this coffin manufacturing factory.

“Since I didn’t want to work during my studies, the employer offered me these scholarships to keep me, I imagine. »

The hunt is on

“We receive more internship offers than there are students available,” says Brigitte Watier, director of cooperative education at the École de technologie supérieure (ETS). The labor shortage that everyone is talking about is experienced at the level of trainees. »

“We are seeing an increase in offers at the Université de Sherbrooke,” says Alain Tremblay, director of internships and professional development at the Université de Sherbrooke.

The director explains that before, he helped students find internships, whereas now, he must accompany them in their multiple choices.

“Some students are anxious and we add an extra layer of anxiety to them, because they are over-solicited, they are offered things and we put a little pressure on them to accept,” relates Alain Tremblay.

The most sought-after students are in the engineering, business and computer science programs.

“It’s like in the market for permanent positions, also observes Marco Beaulieu, head of talent acquisition and internship experience at Bombardier. The hunt for interns is as strong as the hunt for talent. »

The Canadian multinational has employed 1,200 interns per year since 2018. More than half of the students, or 55%, are in engineering and 45% in marketing, human resources, communications and finance.

“There are more requests for trainees than available trainees”, confirms Marco Beaulieu.

Anyone who works as much in the recruitment of talent as interns has noticed an increase in the popularity of internships with employers, because internships are more indicative of the quality of an employee than a simple job interview.

Interest in internships has also increased with Government of Canada grants. The Student Work Placement Program awards $5,000 to $7,000 per intern and can be combined with the provincial tax credit.

“Companies all run after the same candidates, but we’re lucky to have a good, well-structured program with good projects, and it’s bearing fruit,” says Louise Charest, director of talent acquisition at Desjardins, who has increased its offer of internships due to the growth of the institution.

The conversion rate of trainees into employees has been 73% since 2019, she maintains.

Solicitation, gifts or culture

The director of the internship service at the University of Sherbrooke observed several techniques of seduction on the part of employers. Some call students to make sure they will do a good evaluation of their company, others make “blunders” by pretending to several interns that they really are the “best candidate”. However, the students talk to each other, he underlines.

The fact of offering scholarships and cash bonuses with a contract guaranteeing the return of the graduate as an employee is more and more frequent, observes Alain Tremblay, of the University of Sherbrooke.

“These are things that we advise against,” he says. Our role as advisers is to get the student to think. Yes, it’s fun to get paid for your studies by a company, but are you sure this is where you want to work when you finish your studies? Wouldn’t you rather choose? Because in four years, there will be as many jobs. »

It was not a bonus that pushed Lilian Nguemtchouang to choose Bombardier for her internship, but the way the recruiter conducted the interview, which had “more the air of a discussion than an interrogation”, says the future engineering graduate. Electrical from Concordia University.

“I really appreciated his warmth and his interest in my person. Some interviews that I had to do were very focused on the educational background and technical knowledge, and much less on the individual himself. In fact, it was the very culture of this company that won me over,” she concludes.

Internships follow hybrid mode

Like the labor market, internships have changed in two years. How are the internships in hybrid mode carried out? Do they have the same value as before? Overview.

After taking two internships in virtual mode, Jean-François Vo, a third-year software engineering student at Concordia University, was relieved to complete this summer’s internship in hybrid mode.

“Always being online is tiring and demotivating,” he bluntly stated during a meeting with Teams with The Press.

Jean-François Vo was eager to experience real team collaboration, like the one he is currently experiencing in the Desjardins Digital intern squad: 12 students, from different universities and programs, spent the summer to find a solution real to a possible problem in the institution.

“My motivation is higher when we work on site as a team. Communication is easier and at noon, we go out to buy lunch together,” says Jean-François Vo, software engineering developer intern at Desjardins Digital.

40% hybrid

According to data collected by the University of Sherbrooke, 58% of internships took place in hybrid mode in Canada in October 2021. Currently, at the University of Sherbrooke, 40% of students are doing their internship in hybrid mode or in full telecommuting.

As for internships in communication, computer science and administration, the percentage is higher, indicates Alain Tremblay, director of internships and professional development at the University of Sherbrooke.

“When we look at the internship offers we have for this fall, we see that the trend continues. We have 22% of the offers which are hybrid and 33% of the offers which mention that the internship will be in person, ”he observes.

Advantages and fears

The director of the internship department says that some students are positive about telecommuting internships, because they don’t have to leave their Sherbrooke apartment and can get an internship in international companies.

However, the University, which has been offering study programs under a cooperative system for many years, is facing a new challenge: student supervision.

“We have certain fears and that worries us, says Alain Tremblay. Each of the students is followed by a professional development adviser from us and it is this support that we are working on, then adjusting.

“Yes, the internship is an experimental environment for the students, but they are studying and must be accompanied. There are some students for whom it’s going really well and others for whom it’s more difficult. We play the role of intermediary. »

Mentoring: more important than ever

The Université de Sherbrooke team systematically visits all new companies that offer internships. She has also developed a guide in which the student must make a progress report and answer specific questions: is it going well? ; have you met your supervisor? ; are the terms of reference clear? ; do you have all the tools to succeed in your work?

“To our great surprise, things are going very well,” says Marco Beaulieu, Talent Acquisition and Internship Experience Manager at Bombardier. Of the 1,200 interns, are there some who have probably been forgotten, but this did not come out in our surveys that we do regularly to find out how the internship is going (first week, mid-term evaluation sessions, etc). »

At Bombardier, great importance is given to the first days of welcome and close supervision by the supervisor throughout the internship.

“There is what is called a point of contact which is made with the members of the team to find out their level of stress, to find out if they need help, if there are emergencies. There are also one-on-one meetings with the supervisor. »

For the 2022 summer internship session, interns and supervisors return to the office one or two days a week and are happy to be able to socialize in this way, relates Marco Beaulieu.

Having an internship sponsor, a mentor is even more important than before, says Louise Charest, director of talent acquisition at Desjardins. You have to keep the close link with the trainee, have regular contact, she says. “The concern for the other is very important for there to be a good integration. »

In training as in the reality of 2022

The goal of an internship is to integrate students into the labor market as it is and will be for them, says Brigitte Watier, director of cooperative education at the École de technologie supérieure. (ETS), which places in internship 3500 students per year in over of 2000 companies.

“So if the labor market means that there are a lot of jobs that are done in telework or in hybrid mode, well, we have to train students to work in the current market. »