The Meaning of Cooperative Education (Co-op)
- Co-op is an educational plan that integrates classroom learning with supervised work experience that is directly related to academic studies.
- Co-op provides career related work experience in business, industry, public and community agency work settings.
Co-op is an academic course and each student must register for the co-op course and pay for the course. Students are expected to learn skills related to their degree, diploma, or certificate, in a work setting. Placements are normally off campus with private industry and governmental agencies, though there may be on campus placements. The work-site supervisor will orient, direct, instruct and evaluate the student’s performance. The Faculty Coordinator (from CPCC) will meet on-site with the student’s supervisor, discuss student performance, and do a final evaluation at the end of the semester. The student will set learning objectives (with the assistance of the employer and faculty coordinator) and will evaluate their progress at the end of the experience.
Benefits of Cooperative Education are many – to the student, employer, and the college.
Benefits to Students:
- Bridges the gap between the classroom and the world of business and industry
- Helps students gain the competitive edge after graduation
- Assists with college costs by making it possible to earn while they learn
- Receives college credit for the Co-op work experience
- Offers a chance to make wise career choices by exploring options within a field of study
- Gives students confidence in the work world
- Facilitates development of skills necessary to starting a career
- Enables students to build a career-related work record, thus increasing the marketability and value to employers upon graduation.
Benefits to Employers:
- Provides savings in personnel recruitment costs and training of new employees
- Offers a chance to evaluate prospective employees before making a long-term commitment
- Gives employers a hand in helping the College design the kind of training that is most appropriate for their business or industry
- Improves chances of finding qualified women, minorities and disabled people to fill job openings
- Helps reduce turnover, since employers can assess the employee on the job
- Allows better utilization of highly paid professionals
- Provides manpower flexibility to suit changing needs and seasonal fluctuations
- Furnishes prescreened and monitored candidates whose abilities and interests match company needs.
