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. Cooperative education enables a student to see a more direct relationship between a college major and full-time employment.
Some studies point to cooperative education as the catalyst for students getting better grades.
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 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. 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.