#654 - Information Overload

Angela is correct that it's not Canadian-exclusive parlance, but yes, it's pretty much the same thing as pre-graduation intern. In my experience, co-op positions are always paid positions - it's a way of paying for your education without taking time off from it - and require some manner of report to be delivered to the university at the end of each 4 month work term. Getting all of them in results in some manner of formal recognition that you went through the co-op program and thus have greater than average practical work experience.

On the industry side, I've heard some people refer to everyone who's working during college in their field as co-op students, but technically it should only apply to the people in the program.

(Intern, by the way, can also be applied to the first few months of what is intended to become permanent employment - often people struggling to find work will accept a lower pay grade for that period in order to prove their worth to the company - idea being that they hire you for real at the end of it...unless the company you're working for is just exploiting you for cheap labor and just moves on to the next cheap intern.)