Micro-Placements for Students
Want to try on a career for size? Need to build up your experience?
Explore various fields and areas of work, develop essential skills, connect with future employers and complete resume-building projects with micro-placements.
Micro-placements are project-based opportunities that offer flexibility with a short-term commitment. They can help you:
- Find experience that fits within a school schedule
- Increase your variety of experiences
- Try new career options and pathways
- Build your professional network
- Be part of real projects with potential employers
- Students can take on a micro placement project up to 4 times per year in the fall, winter, spring and summer. Project timelines will align with scheduled reading weeks and the spring and summer semesters.
Upcoming info sessions
How does a micro-placement work?
Apply
Micro-placements are managed through the Elevate platform, which all UCalgary students have access to.
Browse opportunities
Once you've registered and completed the necessary steps, look through the range of industry projects that are being offered by partner organizations and companies.
Start and complete a placement
If you're interested in pursuing a particular project, we will do our best to get you started as soon as possible so that you can meet with the partner organization to arrange the placement details.
Try another or move forward
After completing the project, you can pursue another one! Just head back to Elevate to apply again.
If you're ready to take another step in your career development, you can look into a co-op/internship with your faculty, or search for jobs on the Elevate job board.
“These experiences offer a wide range of benefits, from skill development and networking to enhancing your resume with room to balance academic commitments while gaining valuable experience.”— Safia Ihsan Ali, Biomedical Engineering graduate student. Read more
Frequently asked questions
Absolutely! International students are eligible to apply for micro-placements. In fact, this is a fantastic way to meet employers and demonstrate your skills prior to beginning the search for co-op, internships or full-time positions.
Yes! This program is open to graduate students which offers employers more options.
Fall, winter, spring, and summer. Projects are submitted by our industry partners 4 times per year:
- Fall – project execution starting in early November
- Winter - project execution starting in mid-February
- Spring - project execution starting in early May
- Summer - project execution starting in mid-June
Employers have the option of offering paid or unpaid micro-placements.
As you complete your application, you can rank the opportunities that you are most interested in. We will try our best to match you based on your preference.
Yes! You can complete multiple placements so that you can really experience different fields and opportunities.
We're always recruiting employers for this program! Some areas include: Arts and Culture (entertainment, design, event planning), Business (consulting, marketing, operations), STEM (programming, data science, UI/UX), Healthcare (medicine, rehab), Public Service (education, non-profit, government).
This program is not connected to any of your academics. These micro-placements are designed to help build your professional skills and experience while exploring and learning workplaces.