Examples of Co-op Placements
Examples of Co-op Employers
Student Background
Additional Skills
 Meghan Clark
 Niagara College, Welland Campus
 300 Woodlawn Road
 Welland, ON  L3C 7L3
 (905) 735-2211 Ext. 7743

The final year of the Computer Programmer Analyst program has a summer co-op work term (May - August) followed by a specialization term. The co-op work term provides paid on-the-job experience. The co-op work term ensures the opportunity to learn and practice in the industry. Many graduates find employment through their co-op placements or business contacts made while working on projects.

Examples of co-op placements:

  • Junior programmer
  • Junior programmer analyst
  • Programmer
  • Help desk support
  • Data analyst
  • Database developer
  • Microcomputer programmer
  • Trainer/troubleshooter
  • Technical worker

Examples of co-op employers:

  • Stelco Inc.
  • IBM
  • Ontario Central Application System
  • Canadian Tire Acceptance Ltd.
  • Manpower
  • Niagara College
  • Dana Canada
  • EDS
  • Community Care Access Niagara
  • Region of Ottawa Carleton

Students have a theoretical and practical background in:

  • MS DOS operating system
  • MS Windows XP Professional
  • MS Windows Server 2003
  • MS Office XP
  • Visual Studio .NET and MS Access programming languages
  • Linux environment
  • Relational databases with SQL
  • Networking
  • Windows administration
  • PC maintenance and troubleshooting
  • Web Development and ASP
  • Structured & Object-Oriented systems analysis and design
  • Problem solving skills
  • Team-building skills
  • Business and business systems

In addition, students perform some or all of the following:

  • Test and implement computer programs and provide user training
  • Design, text, debug, document and implement computer programs
  • Install, maintain and upgrade computers in a networked environment
  • Maintain and modify existing computer programs according to specifications
  • Act as a resource person, solving computer problems for users
  • Define the needs of a system by documenting the information from end-users and other necessary sources
  • Work effectively as a team member in planning and implementing the tasks involved in a project utilizing system development life cycle (SDLC), CASE tools and prototyping
  • Perform operating system procedures such as file system management, system optimization, backup and restore functions using appropriate DOS and Windows utilities
  • Set up and administer a local area network using Windows
  • Describe and explain computer communications within a local and wide area network environment
  • Develop and write readable, useful business and technical documents
  • Prepare a business plan for a new business
  • Design and create menu-driven/event-driven systems using relational databases to allow end-users to easily and efficiently maintain and access data for a given business application
  • Write interactive SQL statements to create, protect, manipulate, update and query databases and tables using DBMS