Is Co-Op Education a Better Avenue to Job Experience?

I commented on a NYT article that reinvigorated the old concept of student housing co-ops, but I’ve been digging around a bit on the subject I’ve come to realize that student cooperatives have many faces. There are the food co-ops, healthcare co-ops and even bike co-ops.

How about the educational co-ops that are providing students willing to participate with an exclusive fusion of class work and real work experience? RPI and Purdue do it:

Co-op provides students with the opportunity to gain practical experience in their field as an undergraduate. The department’s slogan says co-op is the “competitive edge” because it combines the reputation of a Purdue education with real-world experience…

If educational co-ops work so well, then how come everybody ain’t doin’ it? Actually there are a lot of programs that utilize the concept. Apparently the more technological the program the better-suited students are to the concept, but that’s only because it’s been a traditional option for technology students from the start. Educational co-ops are offered along the rest of the curriculum spectrum they are just not as popular or widespread. But why?

Internships are different. An internship offers a fantastic opportunity for a student to typically spend a semester working in their field of study. But it’s a one-time thing. A co-op is as close to an educational mash-up as you can get, a splicing together of chunks of classroom learning with episodes of practical in-the-workplace experience applying what has already been learned.

It’s really a true example of: “Tell me and I will forget; show me and I will remember; involve me and I will understand.”

In today’s hyper-competitive world it’s surprising more fields of study are not engaged on a cooperative level, and why it’s not risen to the level of Amazing New Movement. It could do so much more for business and for education.

Leave a comment