Alberta’s Externship Program

Gain career clarity by taking on a real-world challenge a business is facing with a volunteer team of like-minded peers. Expand your network, meet future employers, and step up to the challenge.

Students in Alberta Only

Current post-secondary students

Program Benefits

Short-term commitment; long-term impact.

Career Clarity

Learn by doing. You’ll work on real challenges to help you decide if you like the industry or the scope of work or not.

Mentors to Employers

First impressions matter. Meet a mentor who's signed up exclusively to meet you. Who knows? You might meet your future employer. Expand your network either way.

Competitive Edge

Don’t have a lot of professional experience? Get some! Give yourself a competitive edge when applying for future jobs.

Program Features

A long-term career development investment and volunteer opportunity that fits into your already busy schedule. You’ll learn from peers across disciplines and a mentor who’ll show you the ropes.

Program Announcements

How It Works

Submit your Application.

Apply to participate in Alberta’s Externship through a quick online application.

Selection

Applications are reviewed on an ongoing basis. If successful, we’ll get in touch about the next steps.

Onboarding

Attend a virtual onboarding session, plus complete our short Extern Training. Our Extern Training will give you the keys to access externship opportunities.

Choose your Externship

Yay! Once you’ve finished, you’ll gain access to our platform of Externship Opportunities and sign up for the challenge of your choice.

Get to (net)work

You’ll work with a team of 2-7 students. Over the next four weeks, each of you will spend ~24 hours working on the challenge over the next few weeks. You’ll work independently, plus meet up with your team every week to check-in.

Coffee-Chat Mentorships

You and your peers are assigned a mentor from the company that posted the challenge. You’ll have weekly check-ins plus, you’ll get the opportunity to have a 1-on-1 coffee chat with your mentor.

Present it

At the end of the month, you and your group will present your findings to your challenge company. The company will provide each team member with an assessment of their work.

Update and Upgrade Your Resume

We’ll help you showcase this incredible experience with our resume resources.

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

Since 2015, BHER has worked to harness the strengths of Canada’s business and post-secondary education sectors to build opportunities for young Canadians, boost innovation and drive collaboration.

Business & Higher Education Roundtable
National

Extern Eligibility

Currently enrolled in post-secondary education in an undergraduate or diploma program

Lives and studying in Alberta

International students are welcome to apply

Students studying for master’s, or Ph.D.’s are not eligible

Apply now

Program Details

Are Externs paid?

The Externship Program is not a paid opportunity. It’s a volunteer opportunity for students to gain crucial experience in a short time frame without a huge investment of their time.

Remote Externships

This program is fully remote and virtual. You will meet with teams & the challenge company virtually, and work on your challenge remote.

Externship Challenges

We have three types of challenges you can participate in: Focus Group An idea, product, or problem for students to solicit creative, fresh and innovative feedback. Suited for early year students. Research Students will research and present their findings to a question posed by employers. Suited for early or upper year students. Analysis/ Project The action-based solutions to address a problem. Employers provide more background context, so students have the relevant data and information to identify solutions. Suited for upper-year students.

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