WHAT goes around comes around
Imagine a summer job that includes basketball, baseball, going to the park, and puts money aside for tuition. How do you get that "dream job"?
Renita Bartlett, Special Projects / Youth Coordinator with the Truro Boys & Girls Club, has the answer: visit your campus student placement office.
Bartlett, 21, a second year sociology / psychology student at Saint Mary's University, tapped into the Student Loan Employment Program, a Nova Scotia Economic Development and Tourism (EDT) initiative. The program is available to university undergraduate students who receive a student loan in the current academic year and who plan on returning to school full time.
Under the Student Loan Employment Program, it is the students' responsibility to apply to EDT for funding by mid-February. Once approved, they must find an employer who will provide job experience related to their field of study. The unique element to the program is that at least 60 per cent of the students' pay is held back and applied directly against their tuition in the fall.
To Bartlett, and many like her, this program offers a good opportunity to save money while gaining work experience. "I have a hard time saving money, so knowing that 60 per cent of my pay goes to tuition is good," says Bartlett.
Over the summer Bartlett planned activities for children and teens, and helped them deal with personal issues. She also took on a supervisory role as teen softball coach. "It's a great place to work. I put it on a very high pedestal, very high," she says.
Bartlett has been a member of the club for about 12 years and is appreciative of the services it provides. "Like all teenagers I had some turmoil in my life, and I wanted to give back to it what they gave me over the years," says Bartlett.
Craig Burgess, Executive Director of the Truro Boys & Girls Club, says Bartlett has benefited from the job experience, as well as experiencing the Club from a different perspective. "The shoe was on the other foot," says Burgess. "It has helped her see the ins and outs of what a non-profit does, and it's been a benefit to me because I needed some extra help."
Burgess is a supporter of the Student Loan Employment Program not only because of the difference it makes in a student's life, but also because it benefits the Club in many ways.
He also feels that the program is a great advantage for not-for-profit organizations. "The bonus is I don't have to look after payroll for them, it's all taken care of," he says.
Bartlett hopes to work in a facility dealing with teenagers in a one-on-one counselling setting once she graduates.
September 1997
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What is PEP?
The Provincial Employment Programs (PEP) have a new home with the Department of Education, Skills and Learning Branch. PEP
was established in 1978 to provide career-related work experience
for students in post-secondary education, and jobs for the unemployed.
It's a fact...
Students participating in PEP are twice as likely to get jobs
when they graduate than students without post secondary degrees
or work experience. Follow up studies conducted on PEP's
Cooperative Employment Program show that 87 per cent of all
participants get work after they graduate.
It's all about quality jobs...
1900 students and unemployed Nova Scotians received quality work
experience in 2001
Great Investment...
$30 million has been invested through PEP in the past four years.
budget of $4.6 million in 2001, funding a number of programs.
Employers contributed $1 million to student wages.
Eligible employers...
Non-profit organizations, provincial and municipal government
offices.
Eligible students...
Those entering or returning to a post-secondary school in the fall.
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