Page 82 - Educating the Engineer of 2020: Adapting Engineering Education to the New Century

Educating the Engineer of 2020: Adapting Engineering Education to the New Century
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11338.html

A BRIEF SUMMARY OF COOPERATIVE EDUCATION 65

• helps defray the costs of postsecondary education through
wages earned
• expands after-graduation job opportunities
• teaches “soft skills,” such as communications, working on
multidisciplinary teams, career assessment, resume writing, and
interviewing
• encourages traditionally non-college-bound students to pursue
postsecondary education

Advantages to employers
• provides a pool of well prepared employees
• provides on-the-job performance as a basis for permanent hir-
ing decisions
• enhances relations between businesses and colleges
• improves access to permanent employment for students from
disadvantaged (underrepresented) groups
• makes recruitment and training more cost effective
• increases retention rates among permanent employees
• provides a means of technology (knowledge) transfer

Advantages to postsecondary institutions
• expands the range of educational opportunities by integrating
workplace learning into the academic program
• builds positive relationships between schools and industry
• enables the enrollment and education of more students with-
out the expansion of physical facilities, especially in an alternat-
ing program in which a large number of students are at work
each term
• provides a means of technology (knowledge) transfer

Advantages to society
• increases the effectiveness and relevance of education by relat-
ing classroom study to the world of work
• promotes respect for work
• addresses national concerns about the preparation of the future
workforce for competition in a global economy
• does not add costs to taxpayers because cooperative education
returns sizable tax revenues from student earnings

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