Through Riipen, students can take part in experiential learning programs that allow them to apply their knowledge, strengthen their confidence, expand their networks, and explore career possibilities all while earning income for their work.

“I would recommend this way of learning to other students so that they can better understand what the workforce would be like for them and so that they could look for a position that would match the skills that they’ve learned in university and so that they could learn a little bit more about what jobs will be best for them.” – Student participant, UserEvidence

What Riipen Offers Students

• Level UP: Work on short, paid projects with employers across Canada that fit alongside your studies. These projects run for 60 hours and let you test your skills in areas like business, marketing, IT, and more.
• FuturePath: Explore your career options by joining a cohort of students who complete 10-to-300-hour paid projects with employers. You gain industry exposure and grow your professional network.
• IBM SkillsBuild: Take part in specialized 60-hour paid projects designed to help you build digital skills and industry-recognized credentials. This program focuses on preparing you for career transitions and new opportunities in tech-focused fields.

Together, these programs are designed to support students in making the leap from the classroom to professional environments that match their goals and interests.

Want to Learn More?

If you’re curious about how to get involved, start by exploring the Riipen website. You can also reach out to Experiential Learning Partnerships directly at elpartnerships[at]umanitoba[dot]ca to request a program info sheet with all the details, including upcoming cohort dates and application steps.

What if you could add in-demand skills to your resume in just a couple of hours? 

What if you could walk into your next interview with confidence, proof of your competencies, and a certificate employer recognize? 

Now you can. 

The University of Manitoba has once again partnered with BioTalent Canada, a national leader in training and workforce development, to give UM students FREE access to a suite of online Essential Skills for Career Success courses. 

Employers across every field say the same thing: transferable social and emotional skills (SES) are among the top qualifications they want in new hires (Rose, 2024, p. 7). Skills like communication, collaboration, and problem solving often matter as much as your GPA. 

These short, online BioTalent courses help you: 

• Sharpen the high-demand skills employers ask about
• Build resume-boosting credentials
• Stand out from other applicants

Most courses take about two hours to complete. They are short enough to fit into your schedule but long enough to give you practical skills you can add directly to your resume. 

What You’ll Learn 

The Essential Skills Fundamentals Series 

Eight courses covering: 

• Communication & collaboration
• Problem solving
• Reading, writing, and numeracy
• Document use
• Bio-economy fundamentals

Every course includes strategies, practice activities, and pre/post-assessments so you can see your progress. 

The Technical Skills Fundamentals Series 

Practical workplace training in: 

• Writing scientific reports
• Lab and factory work
• Quality assurance and quality control
• Clinical practice

These courses give you practical, hands-on knowledge that employers in science, healthcare, and industry look for when hiring. 

Canada’s Bio-economy Deciphered 

Four new courses that open the door to growing industries: 

• Bio-health Deciphered
• Agri-bio Deciphered
• Bio-industrial Deciphered
• Bio-energy Deciphered

Whether or not you see yourself in the biosciences, these courses deepen your understanding of Canada’s innovation-driven economy. 

Recognition That Matters 

BioTalent courses: Every completed course is added to your Experience Record 

BioTalent Ready Certificate: Finish a full series to earn a nationally recognized credential that shows you’re workforce ready. 

UM students have exclusive free access this year. Don’t miss your chance. 

Don’t wait. Register for BioTalent courses today! 

• Sign in with your UM student email at BioTalent websites. 

• Enroll in the Essential Skills or Technical Skills Fundamentals series using code umanitoba_courses. 

• Enroll in Canada’s Bio-economy Deciphered series using code Bio_Decipher2024. 

Rose, E. (2024, June 10). SES in the workplace: Insights from Canadian employers. The Conference Board of Canada

Hosted on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month, these sessions will bring one employer at a time to the spotlight—virtually or in person—to share insights into their workplace culture, recruitment process, and early-career opportunities. Each event will feature a presentation followed by a Q&A, giving students the chance to engage directly with hiring professionals and recent hires.

“We designed UM Behind the Hire to give students direct access to employers who are actively building talent pipelines,” says Rhonda van Veggel, Experiential Learning Partnerships and Industry Liaison. “Employers are eager to share what they’re looking for in candidates, and students have told us they want to hear directly from recent graduates or alumni and to be able to ask questions about hiring processes, workplace culture, and how to get involved. It’s about creating a conversation that helps students envision their next steps.”

Employers participating in the upcoming series include Manitoba Hydro, Wawanesa Insurance, the Public Service Commission of Canada, and others from industries ranging from tech and finance to health care, public service, and engineering. Many sessions will feature alumni speakers and recent hires to provide first-hand perspectives on the transition from university to the workplace.

UM Behind the Hire is open to all UM students. With flexible delivery and focused content, the series provides opportunities for a wide range of disciplines and career interests.

Staff and faculty are encouraged to share upcoming sessions with students and academic units. Alumni interested in speaking alongside their employers or supporting employer outreach efforts can connect with Experiential Learning Partnerships at elpartnerships@umanitoba.ca.

To learn more or to see a schedule of upcoming sessions, visit the Employers and Industry Partners webpage.

• The UM Indigenous Career Mentor Program (ICMP)connects Indigenous students to Indigenous mentors who are working in their fields of interest.  

• UM Café: Ten Thousand Coffees is a networking platform that connects students to alumni. 

• The UM Career Mentor Program (CMP) is a career exploration tool that connects students with professionals in the community to explore one or more occupations of interest.  

The Career Mentor Program, established in 1989/1990, celebrates 35 years of operation at UM! The program is one of the many excellent ways students can connect with experts in fields of interest. Mentor meetings are powerful experiences that play a crucial role in shaping student’s career planning.  

Over the past 35 years the Career Mentor Program has received countless positive reviews from students and mentors. Student participant and current program assistant Olamide Nwankpele notes that: “Everyone can benefit from meeting a mentor. Before I used the program, I thought I had done a lot of research, but my mentor told me things I couldn’t find online… Which is the point of the program!” 

Our mentors consistently receive accolades from students in the program, including mentors Brenden Dufault, a Biostatistical Consultant in the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, and Robert Le Neal, a Senior Rocket Systems Engineer at the Rockwood Propellant Plant. Mentor volunteers recognize the benefit of mentorship and are often keen to connect with students.  According to Robert, mentorship provides students “a general idea of career paths and opportunities within an industry which is equally helpful for students about to graduate and new students choosing their profession.”  Brendan highlights that with mentorship students “gain a sense of what the day-to-day work looks like and what skills they should focus on acquiring”.   

“You would be surprised how much people would love to help you, even if they only have 5 minutes. We were once young and eager students too!” – Brenden Dufault, Career Mentor 

To read more from Brenden Dufault and Robert Le Neal, the full interviews are included below.  

To read additional career mentor interviews or profiles, check out the Indigenous Career Mentor Programs’ Mentor of the Month profiles as well as the Career Mentor Program 25thAnniversary mentor profiles.  Students can sign-up for the Career Mentor Program and Indigenous Career Mentor Program September to April of each year. 

For career support any time of year, visit the Career Services website to connect or come by our office at 474 UMSU University Centre. Appointments for career planning, job search or interview preparation can be booked in-person at our front desk, online, or by phone (204) 474-9456.

Thank you again to Brenden Dufault and Robert Le Neal, two mentors from our list of 700+ volunteers, for sharing their thoughts with students about the benefits of mentorship: 

Provide a summary of your position and training background. 

Brenden Dufault: I am a biostatistical consultant in the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences. I have the pleasure of helping design and statistically analyze research projects from many different areas of health research, and I also teach statistical programming and methods to students. My academic background is in statistics and epidemiology, with just enough biology to understand the acronyms. 

Robert Le Neal: Upon graduating from the University of Manitoba in 2007 with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (Mechanical), I was hired as an Engineering Intern at Magellan Aerospace, Winnipeg. I am currently employed as a Senior Rocket Systems Engineer at the Rockwood Propellant Plant. My day-to-day activities include the design, manufacture and testing of solid propellant rocket motors. 

What advice do you have for students who are interested in following in your footsteps?  

Brenden Dufault: I would strongly advise students to gain exposure outside the classroom, and to contact working professionals in the field and pick their brains. You would be surprised how much people would love to help you, even if they only have 5 minutes. We were once young and eager students too! Talk to career mentors, and email people in your future field with questions about opportunities. Participate in a Kaggle competition, attend a journal club meeting. Lastly, let yourself have fun and worry less. If you love a subject, studying its ideas becomes a pleasure and your imagination becomes active again. Creativity is more important than memory in the current era. 

Robert Le Neal: I recommend students choose a program that provides many career options and enables them to follow their interests. In addition, developing other attributes are important for near and long term career development: the ability to function as part of a team, showing initiative, and assuming responsibility. Participating in internship or co-op programs, technical societies, or University / community associations, chapters and interest groups are excellent ways to demonstrate continued development of these attributes. 

How do you feel students benefit from taking part in mentorship opportunities? 

Brenden Dufault: I hope that students gain a sense of what the day-to-day work looks like and what skills they should focus on acquiring. Hopefully mentors can not only answer questions but point out things that students aren’t even thinking of, including co-op and other networking opportunities. 

Robert Le Neal: Programs offered by the University of Manitoba open doors to exciting opportunities and career paths. However, students often remain unaware of available career paths until they are actively working in industry or their chosen field of interest. 

Mentorship opportunities help participants map career paths and opportunities in the participant’s field of interest from an early stage. For instance, in the aerospace industry here in Winnipeg Engineers not only work in Design, Manufacturing and Testing, but also participate in other departments such as Marketing, Quality Control, Procurement, Auditing, and Management. A general idea of career paths and opportunities within an industry is equally helpful for students about to graduate and new students choosing their profession.

Co-operative Education (co-op) is an academic program and one of 12 types of experiential learning that alternates academic study with paid, full-time, supervised work experience. Placements are linked to the student’s area of study and offer unique opportunities for students to apply and enhance their academic knowledge in real-world settings, and in turn build their confidence.

Co-op is one of the ways students can directly expand their understanding of the field. It opens many doors, leads to different horizons and illuminates different trajectories that students may not have been aware of. It also allows students to see the emerging trends in the field and get a glimpse of the direction that the industry may be heading towards.

Meet two members of the UM community whose co-op experiences as faculty and as students have left meaningful, eternal impacts on their careers.

Lisa Landrum

The Faculty of Architecture is one of many UM faculties offering co-operative education (co-op) opportunities. Dr. Lisa Landrum, Associate Professor and Associate Dean (Research) & Co-operative/Academic Liaison, has been working with students, alumni, community and employers on academic and architectural advocacy for years.

“I’m keenly aware of the truly cooperative nature of co-operative education,” says Landrum. “Our program not only supports the next generation of design professionals, but also collaboratively creates more equitable, sustainable and engaging built environments for all.”

The Faculty of Architecture’s Co-op program offers placements for both undergraduate and graduate students. To assist students in finding a position and finding success within it, the program offers workshops on resume and cover letter-writing, portfolio presentation and interview skills, as well as many opportunities to network with employers and members in the industry.

She reflects on her own experiences as an undergraduate student and the positive impacts of work opportunities and exceptional mentors who helped her secure a riveting job in New York City upon graduation.

As a leader and instructor in the faculty, Landrum’s envisions a world where “cooperative education is about mutual advantages and support, leveraging the common goals of academic, community and industry sectors to create vital and just societies.” In her national role as the newly elected President of the Canadian Architectural Certification Board, she is a remarkable leader of what it means to be an architect in Canada.

Even as an instructor in the faculty, she definitely cares to make the same impact on her own students: “It is an honour to participate in a trans-generational network of inspiring and caring professionals committed to life-long learning. As Martha Nussbaum argues in Not For Profit, education should foster democratic citizenship and ethical imagination, because this is what the world most urgently needs.”

Hillary Beattie

Hillary Beattie was a Master of City Planning student in 2020 when she took on a co-op placement with Narratives Inc., an impact assessment consulting firm dedicated to environmental planning, Indigenous engagement and reconciliation.

During this internship, Narratives was working with four First Nations communities to analyze the impacts of the twinning of Highway 17 between the Manitoba border and Kenora. The project increased the number of lanes from two to four, calling for an impact assessment that bridges scientific and Indigenous traditional knowledge.

Beattie was involved with mapping the project and writing reports and proposals, yet her skills and experiences working on documentary films before pursuing this degree were just as valuable. She planned, filmed and edited some videos of the communities, and was truly delighted by the opportunity to combine her film and planning skills.

“I’ve witnessed how important this is when it comes to developing plans and negotiating outcomes that really work for the communities involved,” Beattie says as she reflected on the well-established working relationships between her colleagues and the First Nations communities. “I hope to be able to continue this type of community-based work throughout my planning career.”

Learn more about co-op and internship opportunities as a student at UM.

The fun starts on November 1 with the Career Month Kick-off in UMSU University Centre. Grab a snack and a coffee, and learn about the full suite of activities happening on and off campus. Take time during this month to reflect on who you are, how your personality and interests fit with your education and future work possibilities, and explore opportunities to help you continue to build your career. Remember, your career starts before graduation, so learn how to actively plan, keep your eyes open for opportunities and create opportunity for yourself during your degree.

Start designing your career early!

• Attend the Arts Round Table on November 6 to hear about the career journeys of Arts alumni and gain valuable insight and guidance.
• Go to one or more of the career workshops offered – Luck Isn’t Everything: Creating Your Own Career Opportunities, Networking, Career Choices: Figuring Out Your Future or Entrepreneurship to mention a few.
• Meet with industry experts on November 20 at the Career Café to chat one-on-one and get their professional opinion on resumé, cover letter, CV, online presence, how to present in an interview and get advice about gaining experiences that are transferrable across occupations.
• Check-out the Volunteer Manitoba Volunteer Fair on November 27 to find opportunities to develop skills and explore interests.

Career Services is here to assist YOU in mapping a plan to create the life you want to live and do the work you love to do. Visit us at 474 University Centre or use our online resources. With a little planning and some hard work you can boost your career and pave the way to multiple opportunities.

To learn more about Career Month activities and what Career Services offers visit our website at http://umanitoba.ca/student/careerservices/

Briefly, tell us about your job. What do you find most rewarding? What are your greatest challenges within this profession?