By: Emily Hutton
Business students in the supply chain management program at the college have unique opportunities to work on various projects in government departments for their paid internships.
Supply chain management is a program offered by the school that aims to make students into creative, action-orientated professionals ready for private or public business environments.
Brittany Gibson, a third-year year business student in the program, spent her internship working on two main projects for the Royal Canadian Mint during the summer vacation.
“I worked as a student buyer in the purchasing department of the Mint,” said Gibson. “Two of the main projects that I worked on over the summer was the Superman launch for seven collector coins that were released for the 75th anniversary, and also a three coin collection for the birth of the royal baby.”
Gibson’s main position in the project was on the purchasing team, obtaining the certificates of authentication and the UPC labels that are used in selling the collector coins from the boutique locations in Winnipeg and Ottawa.
“I would definitely recommend the position I was working in for the Mint for a first year student, because I felt it gave us a good opportunity to use the skills we’ve learned in the first two years,” said Gibson, who is planning on doing her second internship at the Mint. “But also the freedom and responsibility I was given really helped be develop the skills.”
Jessica Lawen, a third-year year business student, worked for Industry Canada in the asset management department during her internship, where they managed all government assets across the country that is internal to Industry Canada.
“I played a big role in the Inventory verification process which is an annual process where people take their active inventory list and confirm whether or not they have all these items,” said Lawen. “If they do, then they are done with the process; if not, they have to go onto phase two which is where they locate these missing items.”
Jacob Cooke, a third-year student in the program, spent his internship at Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) working on programs such as eManifest.
eManifest is a program that requires importers to communicate advance commercial information electronically to the CBSA.
“My role at CBSA was as a junior business analyst,” said Cooke. “I worked on a project called eManifest, which is part of an even bigger project by both the Canadian and American governments to work on facilitating easier trade across the border, as well as more security.”
“I like to think I am destined to be in project management,” said Cooke, who would like to have experience running a factory environment. “It’s hard to say right now whether the government would be my first choice because working for the government as a project manager comes with certain inherent complexities that are not present in the private industry.”
Hemasrikha Bucktowar, a 3rd year business student taking supply chain management, worked for International Development Research Centre (IDRC) during her internship. IDRC is a Canadian Crown Corporation that helps developing countries find solutions to local problems using science and technology.
“I was the one implementing the websites and parts of the site,” said Bucktowar. “I was a web developer and had training and everything given to me and had to finish the task by the end of my internship.”
“I would recommend working at IRDC to a first-year student because you learn so many skills that you don’t even know you have,” said Bucktowar. “I learned a lot about myself personally and professionally and I would recommend it to someone who wants to learn about team environment.”