How to Organize Cooperative Education Courses

Through participation in cooperative education courses, students can build their academic knowledge while gaining real-world experience. In courses of this type, students training for work in a field, or workers already employed but in need of additional training, complete a series of workplace and in-class training experiences. By mixing these in-class and in-the-field learning opportunities, educators and workplace leaders can ensure the students gain the skill and information they need for success in the work force.

Instructions

    • 1

      Create a school workplace partnership. If you work at a school and are trying to implement this program, contact area businesses that employ people in the industry about which your students are learning. Ask about putting students in their workplaces. If you work at a business and want to establish this program to better educate your staff, contact an institution in your area that offers training on the desired topics. Discuss setting up a training system.

    • 2

      List the courses from which students could benefit. Consult the course catalog for the school in question; compose a list of courses that relate directly to workplace situations. Use your list as a checklist for courses that participants must complete.

    • 3

      Select work experience options to offer participants. Compose a specific list of things that participants should do in the workplace, such as machines that they should practice operating or office tasks that they should attempt. As with the course list, use this list as a checklist of workplace activities that the participants should complete during the course of their program.

    • 4

      Craft a workplace and course schedule. Because participants must divide their time between the workplace and the classroom, it is vital that you craft a schedule that allows them to divide their time effectively between these places. When creating your schedule, consider other obligations students may have, such as family responsibilities. Try to plan around these potential time challenges as effectively as possible.

    • 5

      Plan a culminating project or portfolio. Select a project for participants to complete that could show what they learned, or design a portfolio assessment that calls for the gathering of materials throughout the experience, allowing these pieces to serve as indication of understanding.

    • 6

      Create a program application. Because the planned program likely will be quite rigorous, you might want to limit enrollment. Create an application for potential participants to fill out.

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