 Cooperative education is a structured method of combining academic education with practical work experience.
Research indicates that one of the attributes employers value most in newly hired employees is work experience. Cooperative education provides academic credit for career work.
From its beginnings in Cincinnati in 1906, cooperative education has evolved into a program offered at the secondary and postsecondary levels in two predominant models (Grubb and Villeneuve 1995). In one model, students alternate a semester of academic coursework with an equal amount of time in paid employment, repeating this cycle several times until graduation. The parallel method splits the day between school (usually in the morning) and work (afternoon). Thus, like STW, the co-op model includes school-based and work-based learning and, in the best programs, "connecting activities" such as seminars and teacher-coordinator worksite visits. These activities help students explicitly connect work and learning.
 Cooperative education provides an opportunity to test classroom learning in the laboratory of the "real world". The Network form of Cooperative education provides the most comprehensive form of higher education in that students are able to integrate theories learned in the classroom with professional applications and experiences under the supervision of professional practitioners. Often, state-of-the-art equipment and technology are available for use by cooperative education students in the workplace.
- The cooperative education portion of the curriculum helps to develop important professional skills including presentation, writing and technical skills. Cooperative education employees often must perform in tandem with professional counterparts. The confidence this creates is evident when coordinators see the growth of students from the first workterm to subsequent workterms. When students know they can successfully perform in the workplace, where it really counts, they realize that classroom assignments aren't nearly as frightening..
 Cooperative education offers a sequence of career-related work experiences in a student's field of study, often increasing in responsibility with increased education. Network colleges and universities support multiple workterm experiences which, over a period of time, can lead to very challenging work assignments. Construction Management students are often responsible for the construction of buildings in the Junior year. Information Technology students have been assigned network installation projects thousands of miles from the company home office. While first-term work experiences are more beginning-level, students are often very surprised by the confidence shown in them in subsequent workterms.
- Cooperative education enables a student to see a more direct relationship between a college major and full-time employment. This often leads to students not getting "bored" with school and dropping out. Some studies point to cooperative education as the catalyst for students getting better grades.
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 Cooperative education enables students to gain a clearer perspective of individual career objectives. It is not uncommon for students to enter college with a dim perception of what they want to do in life. Cooperative education, beginning with the orientation phase (which often explains various career paths) and ending with a rather specific career-related work assignment can help to bring some clarity to a student's interest, value and skill utilization.
- Cooperative education provides a means of earning money to cover a significant portion of college expenses. While income is not the first determining factor in developing a student work experience, Network schools support the concept that cooperative education students should be paid a fair wage for the work they perform. This causes the employing organization to give the student meaningful work; work that is important to the organization; the kind of work that causes a student to grow. A nice periphery, because schools connected with this Network engage students in a significant amount of work, is that students can often pay a substantial portion of college costs with the income from cooperative education.
- Cooperative education provides a means of improving after-graduation employment (or graduate school) prospects by providing the student with transferable, relevant work experience. Many employers, today, tell us that they will hire only people with experience in the field. Network colleges and universities provide that experience with substantial programs of cooperative education. Cooperative education students are positioned to develop field contacts more readily than other students. Most cooperative education students are, therefore, hired more quickly upon graduation. 40% of co-op students are traditionally hired by co-op employers. Cooperative education students often receive higher starting salaries than other graduates. Former cooperative education students often receive promotions more quickly.
What schools offer Co-op programs?
Different schools have different approaches to a Co-op education. If you are interested in the Co-op network, please contact the universities listed in our database for information.
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