Background, Status and Goals edited by:
Geoffrey
Davies and Alan L. McClelland
We are delighted that the JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION has given us this forum for discussion of the development, operation, and advantages of structured, cooperative work experience as Dart of the academic trainine of chemists. This is part of the >ournal's current effort to ymprove students' understandina- of the nature of their likelv careers.' In contrast to graduates in most of the other pure sciences, the majority of chemists find employment in industry. This will he even more true in future years as the academic job market continues to shrink. It, therefore, seems very important that chemistry students acquire some understanding of the requirements of the industrial job market as they go through their schooling. "Co-op" or "Internship" educational plans are an excellent wav of ~ r o v i d i n ethis understandine. ". ;et few chemistry students have had an opportunity to participate in such promams. Manv eneineerine students do have such experience, and this certain6 has t o h e one factor influencing the much better .ioh prospects. . . . both in terms of numheriof openings and in terms of starting salaries for engineering graduates vis-a-vis science graduates. Industryhas much lessexperience in providing cooperative work opportunities for science students than for engineers, which makes it doubly important to begin a vigorous program of exploring routes to the establishment of successful cooperative programs for chemists. The development and maintenance of useful extra-mural work activities requires close working relationships between employers, students, and faculty if full benefit is to be gained from such experience. There are obvious benefits to all concerned: For the student: field testing of classroom training on an extended basis; identification of academic, professional, and communication deficiencies while there is stiU time to remedy them on returning to school; financial support of education
by employer; an industrial employment reference; awareness of current technical problems and their societal impact; and enrichment of background through appropriate course work. For the employer of interns: selected, strougly-motivated em~lovees . . on relativelv short term commitment:, excellent hiring mechanism through close working relationships; excellent means of maintaiuine close professional contact with local institution; opportunity to influence the quality and scope of academic coursework and the quality and preparation of graduates. For the University: an opportunity for market-place assessment of the quality and appropriateness of course offerings and student preparation; closer technical working relationships; indirect financial assistance in the early research training of scientists; and direct industry/government involvement in education. Some definitions may clarify descriptions of the various mechanisms of providing work opportunities for students. A Cooperative plan of education is aimed a t integrating classroom trainina and paid. productive work outside the classroom. 0bvio&y, to'be s"&essful, the student must be given the opportunity to practice what he or she has learned at school in; "real w&ld%nvironment. The student's world of learning is greatly expanded by this direct experience, and the income might even pay some hills! Most well-established cooperative programs operate on an alternating schedule of classroom and outside work. Within this definition, we recommend that the term Internship be reserved as a special term for one continuous block of outside employment, whether it be for a semester or a whole year. Based on our experience, we prefer the term Work-Study to designate any ~~
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'"Real World of Industrial Chernistry,,"J. CHEM. EDUC., 56,114, 253,385,529 (1979).
About The Authors Geoffrey Davies was born in Staffordshire. England in 1942 and obtained his Ph.D. at the University ol Birmingham in 1966 under Dr. C. F. Weils. After postdoctoral work with Drs. K. Kustin (Brandeis), N. Sutin (Brookhaven) and E. F. Caidin (Kent) on fast solution phase reactions, he joined Northeastern University, where he is currently Associate Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Doctoral Infership Program in Chemis try (establishedin 1972). His indusGEOFFREY DAVIES trial experience includes en indusNortheastern University trial internship and collaborative research with lmoeriai Chemical Boston. MA 021 15 industries Alded by a grant from the Dreyfus Foundation, he hasactiveiy promoted the establishment of new and elfective academic-industrial cwperative programs far chemisRy students. His current research interests include the catalysis of reactions of small, abundant molecules such as dioxygen and carbon dioxide. and advance^ in high performance liquid chromatographic methodology.
Alan L. McCislland received his B.S. from Northeastern anda Ph.D. from iiiinais in 1950 for work an inorganic electrochemistry under Professor J. C. Baiiar. Jr. Following a year's postdoctoral work on the mechanisms of electrode reactions at the University of Birmingham. he was a member of the chemistv faculty of the University of Connecticut before joining Dupant in 1954 as a research chemist in the Central Researchand Development Department at the Experimental Station. in 1960 he ALAN L. McCLELLANt transferred to Duponfs Employee Relations Department, where he E. I. Dupont de Nemours 8 Cc sewed as College Relations Rep- Building 328, Experimental Statio~ resentative (7960-62) and AssisWilmington, DE 1989; tant Manager. College Relations Section (1962-64). He was Vice-president far Engineeringof Cherry-Buneii Corp.. Cedar Rapids, Iowa from 1964 to 1967. in 1967 he rejoined Dupont on the staff of its EducationalLiaison Section and was appointed Personnel Administrator for the Central Research and Development Department in 1969.
Volume 57, Number 4, April 1980 1 297
activity where there is no obvious relationship between the work and the academiccourseof study. Experience of this sort, often entirelv student initiated. also e x ~ a n d sa student's wurld, h t ~ not t in a direct technical sense. \%'hatever we call attetnDts to ~rovide"reaIworld"ex~erience for students, four hasic criteriamust be satisfied h i any worthwhile program: 1) Therr should be an opportuntry for "handi.un." prartir.4 rxprrimre which ir clody related toaoadcrn:~rrdinina. 21 The itudenr perticqmnt ;hr,ulJ be p i d a fatr wags 11). t h e m . ployer for the time commitment and level of effort. 3) The work experience should be prolonged andlor repeated during the whale training process. 4) The deosrtment or school should be willine to coordinate the
Among science and engineering disciplines, chemistry is severelv underre~resentedin an expandinn coo~erativeedu c a t i o n c ~ m m u n i tUseful ~. general kformakon on this field, toeether with valuable statistics, information on funding so&ces and guidebooks for setting up and maintaining c& operative and internship programs are available from the . . f&owing sources:
.ACSWashington, Cooperative Education Service, 1155 16th Street, NW., DC 20036 (202-872-4517).
.
National Commission for Cooperative Education, 360 Huntington Avenue.. Boston. ~. MA 02115 1617-437-3779). ('mprrativc i.'Jur.tt~~n .\scor~ntiun,(('EA , Indiana St9tr I l n i \t.riity,Tcrrc Haute. 1'\' 17d19 ('mperatiw Educnrion Ilcsexch Center,Surthrxctrrn ilniwrs~ty. Boston, MA 02115. The seventeen federally funded training centers in the field of eooperative education. Names and addresses can be ohtained by contacting any of the above organizations or the Cooperative Education Branch of the U.S. Office of Education, Washington, DC 20202.
Additional useful background information is to he found in a recent Conference Report2 (audiotapes of the keynote addresses are available on loan from the ACS Cooperative Education Service). The current status of cooperative education in chemistry is hard to define simply because catalog descriptions are often, in reality, only expressions of hope on the part of a few faculty members. The new ACS Cooperative Education Service, as part of the Division of Educational Activities, will promote the establishment of actiue cooperative education programs in chemistrv and chemical eunineerina. Cooperative educational plans exist, a t least on paper, a t all levels of chemistry. A recent CEA report ("Cooperative Education, 1978") gives data on cooperative programs in chemistry departments a t 2- and 4-year schools, for the year
298 1 Journal of Chemical Education
1975-76. In the former, only 11such programs (with 18 student participants) were identified. Of the 120 departments a t 4-vear schools which claimed coo~erativeplans for their students, 97 serviced only 109 students and32% of all the students were enrolled a t three schools (Drexel, Northeastern and Rochester Institute of Technology). At the graduate level, there is a growing interest in cooperative programs in chemi ~.t,rv.~ . ACS survey3 of June 1979 graduates in chemistry and chemical engineering (67%response) indicates that 17.3%(190 students) of the chemical engineers had some sort of coop exnerience. The corres~ondinefieure for chemists is onlv 1118% (240 students). 'As notzd above, this last figure is orobahlv inflated bv" ~. a r t i c i ~ a nint swork-studv and/or ~ . o o r.l v structured and ineffecti\.e programs.The percentages for men, women and Rlack students in all coo^ Dronrams are 1:i.l. l:1.6, .. and 18.5, respectively. There are indications that cooperative ~ l a n are s becoming increasinals .. . more attractive for female and minority s r u d h t s . In chrmistry, 21": of new R.S.rhemists went directly intu mmuf'acturinr" indt~strvand 15.2"; continued their collere education. June 1979 average industrial starting salaries for chemical engineers and chemists are $19,700 and $14,500, respectively. This great difference is directly attributable to industry's perceptton of the readiness of its potential employees for the marketplace. Better career education of chemists throueh coouerative work exoerience mav. helo . to correct the imbalance. There is ub\.iously much room ior immovement here. The ACS Coo~erativek:d~~ration S C N ~ Cand C this column are committed to this goal. In future columns we shall present comments from industrial employers involved with the creation and management of coo~erative education o~portunitiesfor tomorrow's chemists. We also plan to provide information on ongoing and Droiected programs from academia, together with the viewpoints of experienced cooperative students a t various educational levels. Since this is a forum for the exchange of ideas and experiences, we shall welcome your comments and contributions.
in
Davies, G., J. CHEM. EDUC.. 56. 504 (1979) and references therein. "1979 ACS Starting Salary Survey," Department of Professional Relations and Manpower Studies, to be published. "Cooperative Education in Chemistry" has been initiated as a forum for the exchange of ideas and experiences with cooperative and internship programs. Those wishing to submit material for publication or comment on this topic should write to: Dr. Geoffrey Davies, Department of Chemistry, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115.
