Co—nnection is redefining the internship. It’s a not for profit initiative looking to tackle the age old problem, “can’t get a job without experience, can’t get experience without a job”. Co—nnection's goal is to improve student employability, retain local talent and foster the future leaders of the design industry.
Co—nnection is a online platform for connecting design students and the creative industry. A Co—nnection is a week long experience where a student spends time in a studio or other creative environment. An online platform was built to facilitate these experiences by gauging personality, values and culture, and using it as a matchmaking tool.
It’s all about students finding the type of studio they want to work in and for studios to find new talented designers that fit into their team and environment.
A 12 question quiz is taken upon sign up by both studios and students to gauge some of their core attributes. Studios are then able to create their own quizzes by selecting from a bank of recommended questions or by crafting their own.
Studios can list upcoming experiences for which students apply by taking the studios custom quiz. Based on their quiz results the 3 closest matches are found with the studio having the final say on who they’d like to connect with for a week.
Profile pages are designed to not only showcase work and act as a portfolio but more so to evoke a sense of personality; a visual C.V.. Studios and students are encouraged to include photos of their workspace, their team members, their favourite spotify playlist and are challenged creatively with showing representations of themselves in interesting ways.
“Co—nnection focuses on people, relationships and creating connections as we understand there is so much more to a student and a studio than just their portfolio”.
