The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has contributed to Algonquin College Cooperative Education in significant ways, which includes a commitment to hiring co-op students. One particularly noteworthy example within the CRA is the unique partnership established in 2015 between the CRA’s Business Intelligence, Research and Analytics Division (BIRAD) and Algonquin’s Business Intelligence Systems Infrastructure (BISI) program. Since its inception, this partnership has shown great value to both the Agency and Algonquin College students. The nature of this agreement took on an all new meaning this summer in the midst of the pandemic.
Going back in time, the terms of the agreement between BIRAD and the BISI program include student recruitment, innovative exploratory case studies, and upgraded training/accreditation opportunities for BIRAD employees. This agreement was further enhanced over the years, building on a culture of mutual trust and respect, collaboration, shared ownership and mutually agreed upon working arrangements. It is one of the cornerstones of BIRAD’s Human Resources Strategy. It provides an unparalleled opportunity for BIRAD to build and renew its capacity and meet the growing needs for a technically skilled workforce in advanced applied predictive analytics. Since 2016, BIRAD has coordinated the hiring of approximately 35 co-op students, for the Collections and Verification Branch from the BISI program; most graduates now work at the CRA full-time.
“Business and Artificial intelligence is a key component and driving force for the future. The BISI program is one of the best fits to meet our current needs,” says Hala Ibrahim, Director, BIRAD.
Co-op hires have been instrumental in bringing fresh, creative and innovative ideas that have helped optimize our existing business processes. In addition, the students bring with them a level of maturity that allows them to be successful in a public service environment. Being a one year specialization program, many of the students have practical real world experience in BI or related fields. These skills, enhanced by an intense BISI curriculum create the perfect conditions for the graduates to succeed.
“Upon joining BIRAD, BISI students are put through rigorous internal training and follow a development plan customized for them. This helps them learn about CRA processes, and exposes them to different areas of BI related workloads. The students have found professional success and have thrived in a CRA environment. With an incredibly high “bridge-in” rate, many BISI alumni have been promoted within our Division, or found success in other areas within the CRA,” says Dinaz Forbes – Coordinator, BISI-BIRAD partnership.
Throughout this long-standing partnership, BIRAD has developed and implemented a well thought out and effective process for hiring co-op students. The process starts with an orientation session to the new students, which includes presenting an overview of the Agency, BIRAD, the partnership, and a brief description of the work done in the hiring sections. Previous co-op students, who are full-time BIRAD employees are taken along to share their work experience, and offer tips to the new class on the management of their course load. Once the positions are posted on HireAC, BIRAD ensures that every student who applies is interviewed.
“We share interview questions with students ahead of time. We want to make them as comfortable as possible at the interviews so they can fully showcase themselves. The interview process lasts up to three full days, depending on the number of applicants. It’s a great opportunity for students to get experience in being interviewed. The BISI program instructor and the Stakeholder Relations Lead for Cooperative Education are given detailed feedback on the overall interview experience.” says Forbes.
The strong BIRAD-BISI collaboration enabled BIRAD to support the growth in the Business Intelligence/Applied Analytics sector stemming from the pandemic. Significant emergency packages were rolled out by the government to support Canadians in these unprecedented times. This context enabled BIRAD to honour their offers of employment made to seven students in early December. They all joined on the scheduled date of May 4, 2020.
Furthermore, when other BISI co-op students lost their prospective co-op assignments with various private and public sector employers because of the lockdown, BIRAD, in a concerted effort with BISI, was able to place three additional students, as BI service needs continued to grow and more expert resources were needed. This spoke volumes to the depth of the relationship and a mutual commitment in supporting each other for the common good. Other positive benefits emerged as a result of this situation. The solicitation of interest across the CRA’s BI community to fulfill both the organization’s resource needs and BISI co-op students’ employment needs helped raise awareness of the BISI program across the Agency for the future.
As the BIRAD-BISI partnership continues beyond the academic year, representatives from BIRAD participate with other employers from the public and private sector, as members on the “BISI Program Advisory Committee” meetings. BIRAD’s participation in the advisory committee benefits the college by utilizing industry knowledge to contribute to the BISI curriculum while providing an opportunity for students to gain quality work-integrated learning opportunities through class projects and co-op.
Every year, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) honours the achievements of its employees whose work and behaviour best exemplify the mission, vision, and values, through the CRA Awards of Excellence. A few years ago, the “Algonquin College and BIRAD Collaboration” was the recipient of this award in the Partnership category. This underscored the initiative taken in recognizing the growing demand for skilled labour in advanced applied analytics and providing a solution from within the Agency, to recruit and onboard young, promising students through the partnership.
In 2018, BIRAD and the Learning Technologies Division in CRA won the inaugural Outstanding Contribution to Algonquin College Cooperative Education Award.
The BISI-BIRAD partnership has proved to be incredibly powerful and impactful. Best practices from this relationship have been expanded within the Agency to the benefit of other areas, with a focus on the business intelligence community. BIRAD has demonstrated its sustained commitment through hard times, and is committed to continue building on this relationship and taking it to the next level in the years to come.
Business Intelligence System Infrastructure students complete their co-op work term in the summer and fall terms. Connect with us to hire an Algonquin College co-op student today.
