Hire a student to help your business grow
As businesses continue to shift from surviving to thriving, now is a good time to think about how student interns can help your business . While you may not be in a position to hire more permanent employees right now, one way to add much-needed resources at minimal cost is to bring in a student who qualifies for a work placement subsidy. The TECHNATION Career Ready subsidy covers up to 70 per cent of a student’s wage (to a maximum of $7,000) if you can provide them with a meaningful tech-immersive work opportunity.
There are many benefits to hiring a student who qualifies for a wage subsidy:
- They bring a fresh, innovative perspective.
- You can fill a talent or resource gap in your team in a low-risk, low-cost way.
- You can trial-run future entry-level employees.
- Bonus: Since you can stack this federal subsidy with provincial subsidies and tax credits, the cost of hiring a student can be completely covered in some provinces.
Companies that have hired students through the Career Ready Program during the pandemic have been able to transition their business to virtual launches more easily – something they didn’t have the capacity to do without the student’s expertise.
Here’s a great example! A brewer in Toronto wanted to launch a new non-alcoholic craft beer and had planned to hire a digital marketing student. While the pandemic initially put the launch on hold, with the help of their Career Ready student hire, they were able to launch the product online with huge success. On a smaller scale, an artisan soap-maker in Ontario was able to hire a student through Career Ready to shift to an e-commerce business model after trade and consumer shows were cancelled.
Student hires that will work for you, now
There’s no shortage of ways you can benefit from hiring a student in a tech-immersive role. Here are some roles that can help you navigate online business.
Digital Marketing – Whether you run a tech company, non-profit or small business, digital marketing is a smart investment if you want to generate more online awareness of your brand. Digital marketing can encompass social media strategy and management, building and managing e-newsletters, paid social media and search engine marketing, content development and more.
Research and Analytics – Whether you’re looking for opportunities to grow your business or launch a new product, or you’re building a new marketing strategy for the current climate, research and analytics will help you. Students can offer short-term support in areas such as market research, analysis of your website or app’s analytics, data analysis and modelling, and, for tech companies, any sort of research related to projects, products or services.
Developers – If your website or app’s front-end or back-end user experience (UX) could improve, now’s the time to do it. In a matter of weeks, a student developer can have your website or app looking and functioning better for both you and your customers. A less-than-ideal e-commerce experience — such as poor organization or navigation, or bad UX on mobile devices — can mean the difference between a sale and a customer looking elsewhere. It’s critically important that your site works well and looks great across all devices to position your business for greater success in 2021, and hiring a student is a low-cost way to get it done. Non-profits, for example, can benefit from developer support for things like website improvements that they normally can’t afford to make, and digital database development to keep track of their donors and fundraising contacts.
If you’re interested in working with a student with the skills listed above, but you don’t know where to start looking for this talent, reach out to a Co-op office at a college or university that offers these programs.
To learn more about the Career Ready program and see if your business or project qualifies for the wage subsidy, visit our Employer Information & Resources page.
#CareerReadyProgram #FWD