By Wayne Rollins Cooperative Education is a planned learning process, which integrates classroom studies with supervised work assignments. These assignments may vary in length, depending upon the company's needs, the university's guidelines, and the availability of students. Students completing these assignments typically graduate with a year or more of experience in their major field as well as a diploma. These costs can be minimized by utilizing co-op students in appropriate positions.
Hours allocated for interviewing and direct dollars spent for travel to campuses are expensive.
Looking like a productive worker on paper and being a productive worker are sometimes two different things. Co-op students are known quantities since company personnel have already worked with them. Job expectations of co-op students are more realistic because of exposure to the real work environment. This employee retention also decreases long-term recruitment costs. The breadth and depth of knowledge co-op students gain during their work periods enable them to begin at a higher level of responsibility and productivity than inexperienced graduates.