Fleming College’s Applied Projects is a third-semester program in which students obtain valuable experience working directly with local businesses. Placed in groups and paired with a facility member, students are tasked with projects designed to provide tangible business outcomes. The collaboration is a mutually beneficial one, offering students shoulder-to-shoulder experience with staff while learning responsibility and accountability. Businesses gain the opportunity to take an active role in developing the qualified and engaged workforce they themselves need.

It is the second consecutive year Steelworks Design has played a role with the Applied Projects program, and is currently working with 4 students: Katherine Viers and Jesse Wood, both studying International Trade, and Arjune Mohanan and Prabhjot Prabhjot, are from the International Business Management program.

“This is an opportunity for students to show local companies what they’re made of. Essentially giving them an immediate in with the business community,” says Katherine Duncan, Foreign Trade and Sales Administrator at Steelworks Design, herself hired from the Applied Projects after working with Steelworks Design last year. “The Applied Projects gave me the confidence to feel like I could actually be a member of the business community.”

When asked how they felt the Applied Projects was benefitting them; the enthusiasm was unanimous. “It has been a very rich experience to work with the Steelworks Design staff,” said Katherine Viers, formerly of Georgia, USA. For Mohanan, having traveled from India to study at Fleming, “It’s given me a lot of practical knowledge which can be applied and put to use in the future,” while her countryman Prabhjot notes, “It’s a good platform to prove myself.” Jesse Wood sums up his experience as such, “I’ve been able to exercise my leadership and project management skills, as well as communicating professionally.”

For Russell Turner, co-coordinator at Fleming College, “Applied Projects is an important part of the students’ learning experience in the business programs at Fleming College. Teams provide innovative solutions for diverse organizations in a variety of sectors including small companies, international enterprises, not-for-profit and social service organizations.  Giving students hands-on, real-life, meaningful work that reinforces what they have learned in the classroom better prepares them for the transition into the work world.”

It’s partnerships such as this that make for a unique and vibrant community, and one that Steelworks Design is proud to shape and support.