SB

The

Mad Hatter

A Douglas College Newsletter.

 

August 24, 1

 

CO-OP EDUCATION PROGRAM

hen Mike Collett reached his

early thirties, he began to ques-
tion his career choice. He had a
background in marketing and was
working in restaurant management,
but he wanted a change. He began
studying computer programming at
Douglas College, hoping that he
could one day build a career in the
computer field. Still, he was slightly
unsure he could really do it.

Then something happened that
changed Mike’s life faster than he
expected. He was offered a place in
the Co-op Education Program, a
program that uses an innovative ap-
proach combining classroom study

. on-the-job training.

ere he found the confidence-build-
ing skills he needed to break into a
new field. Co-op Placement Officer
Barbara Franck says that even
bright, motivated students like Mike
often need to learn resume and in-
terview skills in order to get the job
they're after. She tells them, “Having
the ability isn’t enough -- you have
to be able to convey your ability to
the employer.”

Soon Collett was working at Head-
work, a small Burnaby business of-
fering vocational counselling and
career monitoring services to victims
of brain injury. His job was to
design a computer program to aid in
the assessment of job skills and
detect problem areas.

Mike says, "What they were finding

was that the employability assess-

ments they were doing were not

giving them all the information they
anted. So they came up with the

©: of computer-based assess-
ents."

J. Lynne Mann, Psychologist and
owner of Headwork, explains that
the company decided to hire a co-op
student because, "Our main busi-
ness isn’t computers. | talked to the
college, and we submitted a descrip-
tion of our proposal to the co-op
program. When Mike was inter-
viewed, he had the opportunity to
talk with the originators of the
project.”

It was a challenging job for Collett.
Mann says that although Mike had
computer training before he came
on staff, "He had no experience in
the field of rehabilitation, psychology
or evaluation, all key areas of the
project he worked on. He did a lot
of meeting with the staff that repre-
sent those different disciplines."

Mike developed a system based on
the manual system they had been
using. "The program," he says, "is
something called an expert system --
the computer has the knowledge of
a psychologist or employment coun-
sellor in its data base, adds informa-
tion it gets from interaction with the
professional operator and comes to
a conclusion based on all the infor-
mation."

"It helps professionals go about their
job more efficiently and gives a
much more detailed account of the
information than the manual system.
It gives us the ability to identify
specific problem areas and direct
the rehabilitation where it can do the
most good.”

Throughout the project, Douglas Col-
lege provided him with back-up sup-
port in the form of a faculty advisor
in computer programming, a place-
ment officer and the use of college
facilities, such as the computers and
library materials.

The project was so successful that
Mike was selected to present a
paper on his work at the Pacific
Coast Brain Injury Conference to be
held in Vancouver in October.

Mike Collett says he isn't a typical
Co-op Education student. His situa-
tion is unique in several ways. Most
students alternate two terms of
class work with two separate place-
ments with different employers;
Mike took evening classes while
working his two four-month terms
back to back at Head-

CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

 

 

IN THE HAT

Fear of Public Presentations
Increase in ABE Financial Aid
Co-op - continued from pg. 1
Bookstore Hours

A-V Booking Lists

Health & Welfare Packages
Union Bulletin Board

Welcome Cathy Hart

Mad Hatter Insertions

ACCC Reminder

Congratulations Walmsleys
Library Staff Changes

New Co-ordinator HSW

Happy Birthday H.C.

Women's Centre Workshops
Group Advising Sessions
Co-op Supporters

UBC Higher Education Courses
The Teaching Professor