Jasmine Duplessis alternates course sessions at the University of Sherbrooke and business internships from the beginning to the end of her bachelor’s degree in business administration. Although the cooperative mode does not extend her three years of study, it allows her to quickly test whether she is in the right place.
After three classroom sessions, she interned as a business analyst at Wolters Kluwer, a Sherbrooke tax preparation software company. “It’s fun to be able to quickly confirm whether you really like what you’re learning,” she says. Sometimes theory and practice can be very far apart. During internship, I could see if I liked something learned in class. »
If she hadn’t liked her experience, she could have changed her concentration or program of study.
No one in the cooperative baccalaureate waits three years before realizing that they don’t like what they do.
Jasmine Duplessis, student
After this first internship in fall 2022, she returned to school in winter 2023. Then, a new corporate experience presented itself, last summer, at the L’Oréal Canada distribution center, as a logistics analyst in supply and demand forecasting. “Going into the field allows me to better understand theoretical elements that I can put into practice and to learn new things. In business technology, you cannot learn all the software during the baccalaureate. But during an internship, you can discover new software or specific procedures depending on the field. »
This fall, she is returning to university to pursue her passion for management. “I always had a little Germaine side when I was young. Management spoke to me a lot, but I didn’t know which concentration to go into, because administration is super broad. »
In his first session, the common core courses allowed him to cover all the concentrations. She then chose to specialize in business technology management. “Technologies are the future!” I really like learning how to implement them in business. »
Jasmine Duplessis will return to her internship next winter, before concluding her last course session during the summer. This way, she will never have had to combine studies and internships at the same time. “If you want to repeat a course, the internship service really does not recommend doing them during an internship. But if it’s necessary, they will limit it to one and it will be very supervised. We still work full-time on an internship. »
This comprehensive investment allows employers to properly train students. “After my first four-month internship, I continued to work part-time for another fifteen weeks at Wolters Kluwer. Last summer, at L’Oréal, they wanted to welcome me for a second internship and then transform it into a job offer. These are often bridges that are quite easy to make. »
The student, however, dreams of teaching at university, after having completed a master’s degree in business intelligence strategy and a doctorate. “You might think that there is no point in going to internships since I am going to become a teacher, but in my opinion, the most relevant teachers are those who have had experience in the job market. »