Canada Summer Jobs at Work: How Students Grew with the DWA
The DWA was fortunate to receive Canada Summer Jobs funding for two summer students in 2025. This program enables organizations to offer summer employment to young Canadians, allowing them to develop their skills through real-world work experience. Below, these students share their experiences of working at the DWA this summer.
Marketing Research – Zarish F
From May to August, I had the opportunity to intern with the Durham Workforce Authority as a Marketing Researcher, and it was such a rewarding experience.
During my time there, I got to work on a variety of projects that allowed me to grow both creatively and professionally. I was heavily involved in content creation using Canva, which gave me the chance to experiment with different styles and sharpen my design skills. I also contributed to developing the survey marketing plan and supported the logo/rebrand launch both of which were an exciting project to be a part of. Seeing how ideas evolve into real strategies was incredibly valuable.
One of the things I appreciated most was the flexible, stay-at-home work style. The DWA team, Eric and Heather, were not only accommodating to my needs but also genuinely supportive of my learning journey. They encouraged me to share my ideas, gave me exposure to new areas of marketing research and always created space for growth. I truly felt heard and respected, which made the experience even more meaningful.
Looking back, I am grateful for the trust, flexibility and mentorship I received. I will definitely miss my time at DWA and will carry the lessons and experiences with me as I move forward.
Database Administrator – Bilal S
For the past four months, I have been working as a database administrator for the Durham Workforce Authority. During this internship I learned many things and benefited in various different ways that will contribute to my future success in my career path.
As a post-secondary student studying in a computer science-related field, this position has helped me learn a lot about writing code in a work environment. I’ve learned that thorough testing is required and that consistent communication is key. This is because it is very important that my manager is always up to date on my progress on a weekly basis.
Furthermore, I’ve been able to greatly strengthen my self-regulation and time management skills throughout my experience at this job, as it is a very different kind of experience from schoolwork. I believe these things will help contribute to my future career success because the specific ways in which I learned these lessons are going to be much more beneficial to me in future work environments.
Moreover, I was also able to strengthen my technical skills with my work this summer in a way that will be appealing to future employers. This is because I was able to get a lot more experience coding with Python and scripting tests, which are both tasks that come up very often in the software engineering field. So, on top of the soft skills I strengthened, I was also able to gain more technical skills through this work experience.
Overall, my summer internship with the Durham Workforce Authority has left me with a lot of lessons learned, and it is because of these lessons that I feel a lot more optimistic about my future career prospects.