British Columbia's pre-eminent technical institution is looking to strengthen ties with businesses in the Lower Mainland.

The business school at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) is wooing local companies with the opportunity to work with the cream of this year's graduate crop, says Dick Dolan, dean of BCIT's school of business.

The Burnaby-based educational institute's success is rooted in its "ability to place students right into the workforce - we're fortunate that we are single-minded in our goal," Dolan adds.

Recent graduate Timothy Nordin, 22, agrees, noting his many job opportunities have made the program worthwhile.

Sara Luu

"I've had at least five high-paying job offers since I graduated" last spring, says Nordin, who completed the operational management program offered by the school.

Operations management is just one of the programs available in the school of business, says David Horspool, associate dean of operations management and information technology at BCIT's school of business.

"Though we now offer degree programs and some part-time studies, what we're really about is the two-year diploma," says Horspool.

BCIT business programs are known for their intensity.

"Everyone says the program is like four years crammed into two," says Nordin.

"But I saw what a few friends had to do at UBC, and I think what we got at BCIT was more like six years worth of work and experience," he laughs.

"The first week at school they told us to say goodbye to our social lives - that our new best friends were in the classroom, and we'd better learn to organize our priorities because there was going to be almost too much work to finish it all."

Recent graduate Sara Luu, 24, concurs. "I have a psych degree from the University of British Columbia, but by the time I was in third year I had decided to go to BCIT after I finished," she says.

"I felt like I had spent four years in a university that hadn't gotten me anywhere.

"And I wasn't just going to take any job that was available to me. I wanted to get into a career that my life experience made a difference to. BCIT pushes you to get out into the workforce while you are still in school."

Timothy Nordin

Dolan says getting students jobs is a top priority. "We've never considered ourselves a transfer institution, but have always been focused on creating career- and job-ready grads. We know we survive as an institution by getting our students ready for the job market in the best way we can."

Stories like Luu's are fairly common. According to Dolan, the average age of students attending BCIT's school of business is 21 or 22.

"Many BCIT students have been out of school for a few years," agrees Horspool. "They may have taken some other training or experienced the work world, realized that they wanted more out of life. Only about 10 per cent of our students come straight from high school.

"Generally, our students have more life experience and are looking for a faster route to a career than through university. BCIT has a reputation for preparing students for the workforce; our students are very highly sought-after by employers."

Virtually all the students in the second year of their business programs at BCIT are required to complete a major directed studies project to prepare them for entering the workforce.

In her final year, Luu teamed with fellow student Nordin to complete a project for the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority. Working with consultant Bruce Marsh, the duo did an analysis in the purchasing department that allowed the health authority to save $1.8 million from its annual budget.

"In my 12 years with BCIT, it was the single best project I had ever seen," says Horspool.

Luu and Nordin were promptly offered jobs by not only the Vancouver Health Authority, but also by the B.C. provincial health authority as well.

But employment statistics for BCIT school of business grads are impressive for more than just the award winners. "While economic cycles do perturb the figure somewhat, on average we see about 85 per cent of our students employed within three months of graduation," says Dolan.

"BCIT is not the best spot to 'find yourself' - university is better for that. In our school of business, typically 75 per cent of entering students will have had some post-secondary educational experience, a third have a degree. They have a much better idea than a graduate of high school of where they want to go in life."

Despite their interest in the health industry, Nordin and Luu ultimately chose to head off in different directions.

Luu is working for Robeez, the Burnaby-based maker of soft-soled leather slippers for children.

"I was offered a position as a supervisor and it was something I'd never had any experience with," she says. "The idea of it made me feel sick to my stomach - but after my time at BCIT, I knew that sick feeling meant I'd better take the job. I knew it was going to challenge me every single day - and it does."

Nordin has returned to the job he held with CompuSmart in Terrace before he entered BCIT. "Most people go to school to find a better job, but I went to school to do my job better," he says.

Though he'd still like to return to the Lower Mainland to work some day, Nordin says his diploma in operations management - the same diploma that his boss at CompuSmart had taken 10 years ago, was "like the full-meal deal. It covers all the core components that I need to work in the business world."

Web Watch: www.business.bcit.ca/ contact (Karen Dyer can be reached at karen@businessedge.ca)