Creating Opportunity with Emerging Now

In partnership with the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA), Emerging Now provides eligible small and medium sized enterprises with wage support that covers up to two thirds of a co-op student’s salary. Student hires from Engineering, Computer Science, or related STEM disciplines qualify.

We spoke with Berk Karacaoglu, an engineering co-op student, and his supervisor, Wayne Ford, VP Engineering Services at Atlantic Industries Limited (AIL). With help from Emerging Now, AIL was able to hire Berk.

“Hiring Engineering students is expensive, so carries some amount of risk associated with hiring, ‘Will I get the results I anticipate?’ ‘Is this a better alternative than sub-contracting to a consultant?’,” said Wayne, “It is my belief that some organizations struggle with justifying the cost of Engineering co-ops and Emerging Now mitigates the financial risk.”

Berk was looking for an opportunity that gave him room to grow and test his skills. “I’m proud of myself for taking risks and trusting my knowledge,” he said, “they counted on me as a teammate. They let me do what I needed to do and experiment with my knowledge, which I appreciated a lot.” While working with AIL, he was able to try out a broad range of positions. “I was the ground worker. I was the manager. I was the person dealing with government agencies, etc. It gave me experience on all levels of a project,” he said.

Wayne praised Berk and the work he completed with AIL, “Berk was an important element of demonstrating a new patented product. He assisted with the installation of the proto-type on a highway north of Moncton, specifically ducting to convey hot air through the structural ribs of a bridge designed to melt ice and snow from the driving surface,” he said.

We asked Wayne if he would recommend hiring a SITE Co-op student. "Yes. I have for around 15 years and will continue. I hire co-ops from other schools and Dal is the best,” he said.

Want to learn more about Emerging Now? Visit our funding page.