Asia- Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education Cooperative Work Placement: Educating Monolingual Gatekeepers

This essay considers questions of inequality, language and power, in the context of non-English speaking background students (NESB) at an English-medium university. It has some guidelines as to how best get international or recent migrant students (those that have permanent residency) into a cooperative work placement, based on the experience of teaching at a New Zealand university where the School of Languages has specialized in migrant education and work placements for over 25 years. It also takes an overview of the situation as it currently exists in many, if not all, state-funded tertiary organizations in New Zealand, and the politics behind the situation. Strategies for coping with and improving the process of job placement in these circumstances are outlined to assist academic administrators in the position of dealing with wor