Reality check: college costs a bundle. Most academic institutions must increase tuition between 2% and 10% each year just to pay bills and keep their heads above water. This means that students approaching the start of their college careers often have a tough choice to make—take out more student loans, thus falling deeper into debt even before school begins, attempt to obtain financial aid in time before the semester or term starts, or work a few years to earn enough money to get through their first semesters of college. Trying to chart a course to help fund your college career can be a daunting endeavor.

But for those who hang tough and feel that there must be a better way out there to pay for school, the answer is simple: professional cooperative education. You can earn enough money during your terms away from school throughout college to pay tuition and room and board and still graduate debt-free. So what will it be? The debilitating dangers of student loans, the uncertainty of financial aid, or a degree paid for through professional work experience that can jump-start your first job and help you develop a career network?

A 2003 survey of high school counselors and associated research conducted by the National Commission for Cooperative Education (NCCE, www.co-op.edu)—a premier organization dedicated to the advancement of the highest-quality college-level cooperative education programs in the U.S.—showed that while two-thirds of counselors responding to the 2003-2004 survey could identify one or more benefits of co-op, the vast majority wanted more information concerning the advantages. It’s clear that people learn information more easily when they can immediately apply their learning to an actual activity.

Approximately 50,000 employers in the U.S. participate in cooperative education. In addition, more than 60% of students who participate in co-op accept permanent jobs from their co-op employers, and more than 95% of students who engage in co-op obtain employment immediately upon graduation. Corporations find that cooperative education schools fill important needs by identifying and providing talented professionals before they graduate from college, which is critical in a tight, highly competitive economy. Co-op programs help companies because they spend less time and money training individuals for assignments, especially when students take classroom theories and apply them immediately and directly to a co-op position.

Concrete evidence Mike Eagle, who is a retired vice president of manufacturing for Eli Lilly & Company in Indianapolis, Indiana and chair of the Kettering University Board of Trustees in Flint, Michigan, believes that his Kettering co-op gave him the start in his career that he needed to succeed. “The adjustment from high school senior to college freshman can be difficult for many,” he explains. “Having a co-op experience mixed in with the academic work in my freshman year provided an opportunity to learn from some experienced and supportive colleagues in the workplace. There is no doubt in my mind that the two-and-a-half years of practical experience gained concurrent with my degree gave me a head start in my career. As I began full-time work, I was more mature, more experienced, and already respected for my accomplishments in co-op work assignments. I would not do it differently if I was starting over.”

Current students in cooperative work assignments echo Eagle’s experience. Sueann Wickstrom, a student majoring in Mechanical Engineering at Kettering, co-ops at Harley-Davidson Motor Co. in Milwaukee. “I am gaining hands-on engineering experiences related to my desired focus [acoustics] in the NVH [Noise, Vibration, and Harshness] Department,” she says. “Being a Harley-Davidson cooperative education student has given me the opportunity to gain experience in a technologically advanced NVH lab.”

Dozens of cooperative schools
The list of cooperative education schools in the U.S. continues to grow. Some of them include Kettering University, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Antioch College, Drexel University, Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Michigan-Dearborn, Rochester Institute of Technology, Johnson & Wales University, Northeastern University, the University of Cincinnati, Pace University, and the University of Louisville. Many students participating in co-op at these and other schools receive excellent wages, stipends for travel, and assistance with locating housing during their co-op term. Faculty and staff at these institutions also have years of industry experience as well as lasting relationships with American companies. Corporations seek out these faculty and staff to aid in developing new products, conduct sponsored research, and assist in the future development of the organization. In return, many schools gain additional cooperative education opportunities with companies as the institutions build their stable of professional positions for students.

Co-op enhances student and employer outcomes
The NCCE also reports that students who engage in cooperative education gain a number of advantages. These include:
• the ability to integrate classroom theory with workplace practice;
• clarity about academic goals;
• strong academic motivation;
• technological knowledge through the use of state-of-the-art equipment;
• understanding of workplace cultures;
• maturity, including an understanding of their strengths and weaknesses;
• productive and responsible citizenship skills.

Employers who hire cooperative education students gain, too. Advantages include:
• employing well-prepared, short-term employees;
• increased staff diversity;
• flexibility in addressing human resource needs;
• access to candidates with needed skills and backgrounds;
• partnerships with schools and opportunites to provide input on quality and relevancy of school curricula;
• cost-effective productivity.

Other advantages of cooperative education
In a tight economy, co-op can mean the difference between landing a job after graduation or a career in a chosen field of study. In an environment where students find themselves at college for more than four years working toward their degree, gaining relevant, paid professional experience during this time means that students are less likely to drop out of college altogether. Instead, they finish their degrees and graduate with up to two or three years of professional experience, an attribute that employers seek yet one that students struggle to fulfill while enrolled at schools that don’t participate in cooperative education programs.

Finding the right school—one that offers the program you want at a price you and your family can afford—can be a real challenge. But adding cooperative education into the mix can give you a definite advantage.

Gary J. Erwin is Director of Publications and Communications and a lecturer of Communications at Kettering University in Flint, Michigan. Grateful acknowledgement is made to the National Commission for Cooperative Education publication The Best of Co-op (2003-2004 edition), from which much of the research information in this article was derived.

Source: careersandcolleges.com