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Summaries
What is the aim of the students and the University in participating
in the Cooperative Education Program? The National Commission for Cooperative
Education confirms the belief that this plan offers certain definite
advantages for the co-op students.
1. Through the alternating pattern of combining practical
work experience with classroom theory, the students find greater meaning
in their studies.
Well-chosen training situations provide the student a laboratory in
which he/she can test and apply knowledge gained in the classroom.
Conversely, academic performance is stimulated by skills learned on
the job.
2. Motivation is increased by close coordination of work assignments
and study.
The student’s
performance inevitable improves when he/she can identify goals in
the classroom with work activities.
The practical
test of abilities and inclinations also helps the students to decide
on career objectives.
3. For most students, the training experience contributes to greater
sense of responsibility, maturity, and confidence in their own judgments.
Various communication skills are developed. Also, greater skills in
human relations and understanding are developed.
It has been well demonstrated that the demands of full-time employment
such as punctuality, cooperation, skill, and sound judgment help to
develop in the co-op students a greater sense of his/her responsibilities
and more confidence in his/her ability to adjust when confronted with
various situations.
4. The student has more than a year of professional work experience
when graduating.
The Cooperative
Education Program helps to orient students to the work-a-day world.
Students are concerned about what
they will do when
they receive their degrees. The co-op program acquaints students with
the opportunities available to them and helps them to realize their
limitations and potential. The University of Akron’s semester
system allows the co-op student to spend three periods of approximately
four months each in co-op employment.
5. The student can earn partial (in some cases total) funds to support
his/her education and can command a better starting salary at graduation.
A recent study found that co-op students across the country earn as
much as $11.00 to $17.00 an hour during their co-op work periods, some
even more, and almost all of these students help to pay their college
costs with these earnings. The advantages of more than a year of relevant
work experience are obvious to the student when seeking full-time employment.
