Imagine working on fascinating projects ranging from an investment analysis in Saskatchewan’s oil and gas industry to the impact of taxation and royalty rates on the natural resource sector in Western Canada, to an analysis of the workings of the international carbon emission trading market (Cap and Trade analysis). 

Imagine how working on projects like these will look on your resume; but this is only the beginning imagine all the additional benefits and advantages the A. Boving Economics Internship Program can bring to your career. These would be:

• Acquiring and enhancing your human resource and problem solving skills.
• Enhancing and strengthening your applied economic and quantitative research skills.
• Getting the opportunity to work and network with host-organizations ranging from world class corporations like Cameco to prestige enhancing organizations like the Greater Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce.
• Getting the opportunity to receive a possible job offer after the internship.

One Term A. Boving Economics Internship Program

(January to April of Each Year)

Project Format Career Internship

The A. Boving Economics Internship Program of the Department of Economics represents a partnership between the Department, the business community, and government and community organizations for the purpose of enhancing the educational process and learning experience of economics and business economics students, as well of students from other related academic disciplines, by integrating applied and conceptual learning. During this one term internship, students will work on one major project, designed by the Host Organization and the Program’s Academic Coordinator. All aspects of the project – data collection and interpretation, research analysis, the writing and presentation components of the project – are expected to be carried out by the internship student. Furthermore, through their participation in the Program, students will also receive valuable work experience, while at the same time earning academic credits towards their degree requirements. The participating host organizations from business, government, and the community at large have the opportunity to obtain useful information and analysis arising from the students' projects and, importantly, assess the quality of the internship students as potential future employees.

Throughout the 13-week academic term, the participating student is expected to perform 6 to 8 hours per week of unpaid work on the assigned project for the host organization. The host organization itself provides a supervised workplace and appropriate job and project assignment. The student also completes an academic component under the guidance of the Academic Supervisor who approves and evaluates (e.g., a paper and presentation) the conceptual learning component of the student's internship placement.

The A. Boving Economics Internship Program format is designed to provide students with valuable workplace experience that includes exposure to various research topics as well as an opportunity to apply learned skills to various smaller projects specifically developed by the host organization. 

This workplace internship program has been developed to provide students with practical internship experience that allows them to interact with the host organizations’ employees while providing valuable research support. The research opportunities and tasks associated with this workplace internship program are varied and flexible, reflecting the host organizations’ changing research support needs on a monthly, weekly and even daily basis.

During the students’ in-office workplace internship hours, students will be available to the host organizations to provide research that is driven by the day-to-day needs of the particular host organization. Students may be assigned a variety of research duties throughout their internship on a monthly, weekly or daily basis depending on the needs of the host organization. This will require and allow greater interaction between the organizations’ staff and the participating intern(s) and will provide the participating students with a much richer practical workplace experience. 

Depending on an individual student’s strengths and areas of interest, the host organization will work with the students to develop research and analysis tasks that will support the efforts and ongoing activities of the organization. Each research tasks may be short or long in duration and may also depend on the level of supervision, collaboration and guidance required of each student.

Consequently, this type of internship program is designed to provide flexible research support while increasing each student’s level of interaction and learning experience with the host organization staff in an interaction-based work environment. All of this will provide students with a higher likelihood of gaining a reference for future employment pursuits. 

The workplace career internship program is also beneficial to the host organization as it offers the host the opportunity to interact with the interns and collaborate and mentor them as they provide the timely delivery of research support. The interactive nature of this program will also enable the host organization to gauge each student’s interests, skill level and work ethic so that they can mentor and guide students more appropriate throughout their internship experience. Therefore, the benefits of this program are two-fold: the host organization receives much needed research support that is flexible and timely while students gain practical workplace experience. 

As with the economics career internship program, students will not receive financial compensation for their participation, however, all work completed will count towards the course credits for Economics 387.

• Affinity Credit Union
• Areva Corp.
• Bhp Billiton
• Cameco Corporation
• Canada West Foundation, Calgary
• City Of Saskatoon
• Mgi Securities
• Potash Corp
• Saskatoon Chamber Of Commerce
• Saskatoon Home Builders Association
• Saskatchewan Home Builders Association
• Saskatoon Regional Economic Development Authority
• Tourism Saskatoon
• Trico Homes, Calgary

• Apprenticeship & Training – Residential Construction Industry;
• Economic Analysis of Macroeconomic Impact of Expanded Potash Output Capacity;
• Demographic Analysis of Central Saskatchewan;
• Public Sector Productivity: a Comparative Study;
• The Barriers to the Use of Prefabricated Wall Systems in Saskatchewan;
• Changes in the Self Employment Market Place over the last 10 Years with an Assessment of Key Trends;
• An Analytical Prediction of Future Labour Shortages/Surpluses in Saskatchewan;
• Research Data Analysis of Attracting Investment to the Saskatoon Region;
• Profiling Businesses in the Saskatoon Region by Industry Sector;
• Identification of Internet Links, Research relevant Government and Community-based Programs for the Saskatoon Labour Market Committee;
• Balance of Trade Analysis by Measuring Saskatchewan Exports and Imports;
• Research & Survey related to the Issue of Housing Affordability in Saskatoon;
• Comparative Analysis of National Health Care Reports;
• Analysis of Issues and Options related to Poverty in Saskatchewan;
• Rural Education Market Penetration of the University of Saskatchewan;
• Analysis of NAFTA-related Trade implications for Saskatchewan;
• Comparative Balance of Trade Analysis between Saskatchewan and Alberta, British Columbia and Manitoba.
• Price Forecast in the Global Uranium Futures Market

Students who have participated in the Economics Internship Program have gone on to to contnue their education or careers in government and private sector, including:

• Logan Downing   (ECON 387 Internship – 2014) – Market Analyst, Husky Oil, Calgary
• Rebecca Hotsko  (ECON 387 Internship – 2017) – Junior Market Analyst, Bank of Canada
• Meritt Kocdag     (ECON 387 Internship – 2014) – Research Planning & Facilitation Officer, College of Arts & Science, University of Saskatchewan
• Krista Seibel       (ECON 387 Internship – 2016) – M.A. Graduate Studies in Theoretical Economics, Freiburg University, Germany
• Alex Tempier      (ECON 387 Internship, 2008 & ECON 385 Research Internship, 2009) – Global Strategy Senior Analyst, Aberdeen Standard Investments, Inc., Edinburgh, Scotland                                          
• Brittany Witham (ECON 387 Internship – 2015) – Junior Market Analyst for Foreign Direct Investment, Sask. Ministry of the Economy, Regina – Since 2018, Data Analyst, Research On Investment (ROI) Inc., Montreal

“I was fortunate to find early in my second year that I wanted to pursue my studies in economics. I loved studying economics because it was so challenging and I found myself spending much time out of class wanting to learn more. This lead me to always taking every opportunity this school provided, such as the wonderful internship program, where I interned at the Ministry of the Economy and then landed my first job as a junior research officer in my third year. In my last year I had become very interested in monetary policy and chose to fulfill my honours research requirement by participating in a group project for the Bank of Canada Governor's Challenge predicting monetary policy. After spending a whole semester immersed in this research, I loved this field of economics and how it tied in econometrics, forecasting and theory that I have studied so intently over the years. After graduation, I will be working for the Bank of Canada as a research assistant and am so thankful to have had the opportunity to be involved in a program that gives students opportunities to really build their academic portfolio and achievements before they graduate. This allowed me to have a competitive enough application just by my academic qualifications and my internship experience to qualify for and then receive the position that I am thrilled to take on now. The most important thing I learned at university is to take every opportunity that comes your way. My current position at the Bank of Canada is solely a result from using every opportunity that this university, my professors and the economics program gave me!”

- REBECCA HOTSKO, 2017

“I was selected as an intern for the Department of Economics Career Internship (ECON 387) for the 2014 January to April semester. The internship experience was a highlight of my undergraduate experience, and one of the most high-impact courses of my degree for my career goals. Because I was completing an honours degree in Public Administration and wanted to pursue employment in the public sector, Professor Alfons Boving secured an internship position for me with the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN). My internship project involved an economic impact analysis regarding the efficacy of a federally-funded pilot project on Aboriginal employment and skills training.

The internship was an extremely valuable experience for three main reasons. First, I was able to apply the theories and knowledge I had accumulated over the course of my degree and understand the real world applicability of these concepts. This meant that compared to other graduates in my year, I had real-world experience to speak to in my job interviews upon convocation. Second, the internship experience was an opportunity to practice professional skills such as interviewing, public speaking, and other forms of professional communications with both my internship organization and my program coordinator. Because of the confidence and experience from my internship, I became much more comfortable in an office environment than students who did not complete an internship. Third, the process of completing the documents and reports required by the internship program meant I was experienced and confident in creating policy documents and formal reports. This was a huge advantage for me when I began applying for jobs, as I was able to bring a copy of my policy report and recommendation documents to job interviews as evidence of my experience and knowledge.

While many newly convocated students struggle to find employment in their field, I received several job offers, and accepted a permanent position with the Government of Saskatchewan as a policy strategist. I fully believe that the skills and knowledge I gained during the ECON 387 internship program gave me an advantage over other applicants, and helped me to perform well in the interviews. I have since moved onto another position, and am still regularly applying the knowledge and skills I gained during my internship.

I do plan to return to academia in the future to complete a graduate degree, and have been advised by mentors that my internship experience will continue to help my C.V. stand out and identify me as a well-rounded applicant. I also benefit from a strong network of references and contacts established through my participation in the internship program that are able to assist me in my career.

I would fully encourage qualified applicants to pursue the internship program as a complement to their undergraduate or undergraduate honours degree. ECON 387 was a perfect complement to my honours degree, and made my studies feel more meaningful as I was able to see the real world relevance of my work.

I am grateful to Professor Boving and the Department of Economics for the time they dedicate to running this program, and for working to further the successful careers of their students.” 

- MERITT KOCDAG, 2014

"I started this position in Montreal in April 2018, just three weeks after finishing classes for my Master's in European Affairs at the University of Toronto. Research on Investment (ROI) is a consultancy that helps its clients find and attract investment, and I am currently helping build the first artificial intelligence platform to signal business expansion (Gazelle.ai). Typically, I spend the workweek writing code to automate our research processes, collecting and compiling economic data, and using my analytical skills to validate our algorithms (in other words, teaching our robots to be smart!).

My ECON 387 internship was invaluable in helping me build the skills I needed to find and succeed in this position. I interned at the Government of Saskatchewan and conducted a benchmarking survey to determine why Saskatchewan saw lower-than-average investment attraction despite its low costs of doing business. Only a couple of weeks after starting my current position, I was tasked with helping the lead economist profile one of our client's jurisdictions in a similar way, and knew I had the skills to do so. Yet in a broader sense, the internship experience also helped give me transferrable skills and mobility to work wherever I wanted, including getting my Master's at one of Canada's top universities and then moving to a city I love.

Some final advice for job-seekers: Market your curiosity. When I decided I wanted to move to Montreal last August, I didn't know where to start. So I relied on the network I built at the Saskatchewan Government and by emailing people with interesting-looking jobs I found on LinkedIn Premium (well worth the monthly fee!) and simply met with them for coffee when I was in the city to ask them about their work. Soon enough, one of those meetings turned into an informal interview, and ultimately a job offer. Secondly, find out how tools like programming in Python and R apply to your interests, and use the amazing open-source software and free resources on the internet to learn them. Decision-makers take note of that initiative and completing an internship with the Department of Economics is a great first step in that direction.”  

- BRITTANY WITHAM, 2015

• Internship Brochure
• Internship Poster
• Internship Application Form