Canadian Co-op Work Term Report: What to Include

A Canadian co-op work term report is normally a technical report analysing one specific problem or project from your placement, not a summary of the whole term. Most programs require a defined structure, a technical audience, and employer clearance before submission.

What It Is Not

Not a diary, not a job description, and not a reflection on personal growth. Canadian co-op programs — Waterloo, Sheridan, Conestoga, Simon Fraser and others — assess a technical report on a defined problem, written for a technically competent reader who was not there.

Students who submit "what I did on my work term" receive the lowest band almost regardless of how well they performed at work.

Standard Structure

1. Letter of submittal — a short covering letter to the co-op office, often required.
2. Title page, table of contents, list of figures and tables.
3. Executive summary. Problem, method, findings, recommendation, on one page.
4. Introduction. The organisation briefly, the problem, the scope, the objectives.
5. Background or theory. What a reader needs to evaluate your method.
6. Analysis or methodology. What you did, with the working visible.
7. Results and discussion. What you found and what it means.
8. Conclusions and recommendations. Numbered and actionable.
9. References and appendices.

Employer Confidentiality

This is the practical constraint that shapes everything:

• Ask your supervisor early whether the report needs employer review — most programs require sign-off, and it takes time
• Many employers require an NDA that limits what may appear
• Where figures are sensitive, normalise them: report an index or a percentage change rather than absolute revenue
• Most Canadian co-op offices offer a confidential submission stream
• If the project is entirely restricted, agree an alternative topic early rather than three weeks out

Choosing a Strong Topic

The best work term reports share three features: a problem with a measurable dimension, data you can access and publish, and a genuine decision that followed. "Evaluating three vendor options for the warehouse scanning system" works. "My experience in the logistics team" does not.

Writing for the Assessor

Your reader is technically literate but unfamiliar with your workplace. Define internal acronyms on first use, explain the system context briefly, and never assume knowledge of the organisation's processes. At the same time, do not over-explain fundamentals in your own discipline — the assessor is usually a faculty member in your field.

Where Marks Are Lost

• A chronological account rather than a problem analysis
• No recommendation, or one with no implementation detail
• Data that cannot be shown, discovered too late
• Missing the required format — many programs mark format explicitly
• Undefined acronyms and unexplained internal systems
• Missing the employer review deadline, which can delay your credit

Frequently asked questions

What is a co-op work term report?

A technical report analysing one specific problem or project from your work placement, written for a technically competent reader unfamiliar with your workplace. It is not a summary of the term or a reflection on personal growth, and those submissions receive the lowest band.

Does my employer need to approve the report?

Usually yes. Most Canadian co-op programs require employer sign-off before submission, and many employers have an NDA limiting what may appear. Ask in the first weeks rather than at the end, because review takes time and can force a topic change.

What if my project is confidential?

Normalise sensitive figures as indices or percentage changes rather than absolutes, and check whether your co-op office offers a confidential submission stream — most do. If the project is entirely restricted, agree an alternative topic early rather than close to the deadline.

When should I choose my report topic?

Within the first three weeks of the work term. The strongest reports analyse a problem you actually worked on and have data for, and choosing late usually means writing about something you no longer have access to.