Cooperative Education-Innovative Approaches for Partnerships betweenUniversities and Industries and High Schools

摘要

Over the last few years, continuous learning has become an essential element of job success,and workplace learning linked to career development has become part of the educationalsystem of the future. Today, many industries are increasingly depending on cooperativeeducation (co-op) and internship programs with universities, colleges and sometimes with highschools. However, they do not perceive how to start one or what is expected from them. Insome cases, high schools aren’t aware of how to establish good relations and bettercommunication with the industry. Some department chairs or administrators don’t recognizethe role of co-op in the academy, or else they decide to overlook it. Therefore, co-op with aclear expectation and assessment should be part of student educational experience. Educators,students and industries will all gain substantial benefits from their involvement in this process.The objective of this paper is to make the university and high schools’ educators aware of theopportunities they could offer their students in industrial area. Students have the chance toexperience the real world of industry with hands on experience simultaneously with theeducation they receive at school.