Department of Civil and Resource Engineering

Faculty of Engineering

Co‑op Requirements

1. Co-op Work-Term Report/Technical Memo

A Work-Term Report or a Technical Memo is required for each work term, as described in the table below:

Co-op Work Term I   (8891)

Technical Memo      

Co-op Work Term II  (8892)

Technical Memo

Co-op Work Term III (8893)

Work-Term Report   

Co-op Work Term IV (8894) (if applicable)

Technical Memo                

Exception:  In Work-Term IV, any requests to complete a Work-Term Report in place of a Technical Memo is at the discretion of the Faculty Co-op Advisor.  A note regarding this is available in the 8894 Brightspace Course.

  • The Co-op Work-Term Report/Technical Memo must be submitted on Brightspace within the first week of the start of the term (or as indicated on the course syllabus) after every 4-month work term. 
  • The Work-Term Report/Technical Memo should be about a project that you personally worked on and it should be technical in nature. Detailed Report/Technical Memo guidelines can be found on the 8891/8892/8893/8894 Brightspace Courses. You are welcome to include a general overview of the company or organization along with a process flow sheet (if applicable), as well as any professional interactions, incidents involving engineering ethics and law in a separate section or appendix.
  • A research paper or a document you produced for the company is not acceptable.
  • Work Term Reports/Technical Memos are submitted to the department as professional technical documents that are formal with respect to both manner of expression and style of presentation. Good sentence structure, formal tone and word usage, proper formatting, and the correct presentation of equations and graphs are all required. 

2. Confidentiality

The Department will not enter into any confidentiality agreement with your employer. You must discuss this with your employer at the beginning of your work term and have your report released by them for review by any Faculty member.

3. Monthly Experience Records  

The Monthly Experience Record, as required by Engineers Nova Scotia, should be completed and signed by your supervisor at the end of each month and be included in the appendix of your Work Term Report/Technical Memo.  Students are required to submit Monthly Experience Records at the end of every registered 4-month work term.

4. Performance appraisal form

  • The performance appraisal should be completed online prior to you leaving your work term placement. This is submitted electronically to the Co-op Office. You have until the end of the first week of the term to have this completed.
  • If your supervisor prefers to complete a hard copy of the performance appraisal, please download and print off from the co-op website. This can be faxed to the co-op office or submitted with your Work Term Report/Technical Memo.
  • It is your responsibility to have the performance appraisal completed by your supervisor. Without the submission of the performance appraisal, you will obtain an 'Incomplete' grade.
  • If, after repeated attempts, you fail to get your supervisor to submit this - within two weeks of the term - inform both the department and the Co-op Office immediately. The Co-op Office will then pursue the matter on your behalf.

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