cooperative education
edited by GEOFFREY DAVIES ALANL. MCCLELLAND
Cooperative Education A Resource for Human and Economic Development Paul E. Dube Center for Cooperative Education, 503 Stearns Center. Northeastern University, Boston. MA 021 15
Cooperative education, a strategy for relating education and work, was initiated to help students better understand classroom theories and concepts by experiencing their application in the work place. Greater understanding of subject matter reinforces and expands learning in a manner similar to the laboratory learning process that complements science and engineering courses. Two hundred-fifty thousand higher education students participate in the nation's cooperative education programs each year. While many students participate in cooperative education work as a means of paying their college expenses, all agree that the learning derived from the work experience i s the cooperative plan's most important benefit. There are many other benefits. As students hetter understand their courses and see the importance of an education in terms of careers and lifestyles, their motivation to study increases. For most students this leads to significantly higher grades and greater persistence in completing their education. The work experiences also help students to learn about careers and what is needed to succeed in the world beyond the campus. And for many the income they earn makes their degrees a reality rather than a distant dream. While the benefits of the cooperative plan have been well publicized by the institutions that subscribe to it, most college administrators and faculty have been reluctant to integrate cooperative education with the college curriculum. Few have recognized that traditional curricula do not meet the education and career needs of all college students equally well. Nevertheless, by 1990 over 1,000 colleges and universities were offering cooperative education as a means of meeting institutional missions, providing a more complete education for their students, and strengthening their institutions' academic and economic position. By marketing the benefits of the cooperative plan to high school students and their parents, higher education institutions can significantly increase their enrollments. Not only are more students attracted to the campus, but more of those who participate in the cooperative plan remain in college to complete their degrees. The better grades and greater persistence demonstrated by most co-op students are reassuring academic benefits for faculty and parents. For most public and private colleges, enrollments have a very direct impact on income. Employer financial contributions are another important source of income for institutions that operate co-op programs that are effective in helping employers meet their human resource needs. For almost 20 years the performance curves of the nation's education systems have tended to level off. In some instances they have even declined while employers' hiring requirements have become more demanding. The number of employers making use of cooperative education has grown
steadily as they search for cost-effective ways to recruit, select. and retain colleae graduates. Emolovers have found that they and their co-op-students get i o know each other and learn what each might aain from the other. Students can explore career with their co-op employers. At the same time employers have opportunities to evaluate student performance and long-term potential in the work environment prior to making employment commitments. This approach to evaluating potential performance has proven far more accurate than recommendations from professors or even from previous employers. Work performance is also a better predictor of individual potential than academic performance. A large computer manufactuer long ago found that students with a 3.5 GPA as undergraduates are not alwavs 3.5 iob oerformers. The education and trainine of . college graduates is very expensive. All employers recognize that large amounts of time and monev can be saved if the best are recruited to begin with: Many employers also believe that cooperative education programs will provide a direct link to the shrinking college graduate pool.
-
Growth in Cooperative Education: 1970-1989
While cooperative education was first introduced a t the University of Cincinnati in 1906, its growth in higher education was not significant until the 1970's, when a number of forces in society came into play. These forces were not interrelated, but each did not have an impact upon the others. Federal suonort throueh the Hieher Education Act made funds available to colleges and univlersities for implementing and exoandine coooerative education oroerams. This fund. ing c a ~ a ~ ~ z e d ~ c o o ~ e reducation ative growth that started from a base of about 300 co-op programs in 1970 to over 1,000 by 1975. Economic forces at work in this same oeriod are believed to have contributed to the growth of cooperative education. A decline in several manufacturing industries accompanied by an expansion in the trade, finance, and senrice ind;stries caused some dramatic changes in the economy's employmentJoccupation mix. Many of manufacturing's high-wage, low-education-requirement jobs were lost to overseas producers. while new iobs were beina created in low . navine" service occupations or in the managerial, professional, and technical occuoations that reauired colleee deerees. This " shift in employment opportunity had a direct impact on the college-going behavior of high school graduates. While not every displaced automobile and steel worker went to college, young people recognized that their employment opportunities were limited without a college education. In the 1950's, 25% percent of high school graduating classes went on to college; by 1987 nearly 60% of the students graduating from
-
-
Volume 67
Number 9
September 1990
~
