The Best Companies for Canadian Student Internships in 2021

One of the most frustrating parts of entering the workforce is that everyone wants candidates with experience: but how are you supposed to gain experience if nobody gives you a chance in the first place? This is why getting an internship while you’re still in school is such a great idea. It allows you not only to gain some practical work experience, but you also learn invaluable soft skills — interpersonal relationships, punctuality, appropriate behaviour at work — in a real-world setting. Under Canadian law, unpaid internships are usually only legal if they’re part of an approved educational program. Here are some of the best companies for student internships in 2021.

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TD Bank

TD Bank offers a 10-week internship program and you can choose from various fields. These include different types of banking, auto-finance, auditing, risk management, finance, financial crimes and fraud management and digital channels. The company also has co-op positions available and currently many of the internship and co-op positions are remote, but require you to be located in Canada.

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BMO

If you’re looking for a summer internship in Canada, you may have to wait until next year because most positions for this season have been filled already. However, now is the time to apply for 2021 fall internships and BMO has several co-op and internship positions available. These include opportunities to learn how to be a financial analyst, operations analyst, process and change management analyst or data modeler. Depending on the position, the internship lasts four or eight months and is based in Toronto.

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Aléo Canada

While most summer 2021 internships have been filled and companies are already advertising for summer 2022, there are still some companies with a few last-minute opportunities available. Aléo Canada, for instance, still has a business internship available for this year. The position is for four months and is based in Montreal, one of the best Canadian cities in summer. If you’re looking for engineering internships in Canada for fall or for summer 2022, Aléo Canada is a good company to keep in mind too.

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PepsiCo

Many of the large companies that seem perfect for internships only offer these programs in one or two Canadian cities. However, there are companies like PepsiCo that have offices all across the country and you can choose internships based in some of the most affordable cities for young people, such as Moncton, New Brunswick or Trois-Rivières, Quebec. PepsiCo’s fall 2021 internships include positions in sales, human resources, supply chain and engineering.

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Johnson & Johnson

Johnson & Johnson usually has internships in fields as diverse as engineering, finance, marketing, supply chain and operations, technology, human resources and research and development. The company currently has several co-op positions in Canada but is also looking for financial analyst and regulatory affairs interns to start in fall 2021. These positions will be based in Markham, Ontario.

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Microsoft

You may have heard that you can land a Shopify internship in a field that has nothing to do with computers. This is actually true for most of the big tech companies. Microsoft, for instance, is advertising internships to start in fall 2021 — and some to last eight months. These include internships in marketing, business programs and operations, finance and sales, all based in Toronto. If you do want an internship in tech itself and are looking for one of the jobs that will be in demand in a post-pandemic world, there is a Vancouver-based opportunity for a data scientist internship too.

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Google

Google is another of the tech giants that normally offers internships in a variety of fields. While the company has filled its summer internships for this year, you can apply now for the tech internships starting in fall. These include internships for aspiring software developers, hardware developers and researchers and there are programs for Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD students. Depending on the internship, you’ll be based in Toronto, Montreal or Waterloo, Ontario.

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RBC

While it’s too late to apply for an RBC summer internship for this year, the company — like most of Canada’s big banks — has several internships available for fall 2021. These include internships in fields like account management, business and operations analysis, data science, wealth management and equity research. The programs typically last for four months and are based in various locations across the country. RBC normally has some of the highest-paid internships in Canada.

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Rio Tinto

Mining giant Rio Tinto offers internships at its operations across the world. In Canada, these internships usually last for four months but some can be extended to eight months and may lead to being hired after you graduate. Internships can be very specialized, for instance for aspiring hydrogeologists, or they can be for skills that you can use in many different industries, like project management. The company is starting to advertise its fall 2021 internships, which can be based in places like Montreal or Quebec City but may also require you to move to remote mining towns like Labrador City, Newfoundland and Labrador.

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Tesla

Even though Elon Musk is one of those surprising Canadian celebrities — his mom is Canadian and he studied at Queen’s University before moving to the United States — Tesla doesn’t offer many internships in Canada. This means that when they’re available (like they are for fall/winter at the moment), Tesla internships are highly sought after. Most Tesla internships last a minimum of 12 weeks and can be in fields you may not have thought of: the company is currently looking for a government relations and policy intern for fall 2021, for example. Tesla uses its internships almost as an audition for new talent and if you make the grade, you may be hired full-time.