Benefits of Cooperative Education to Employers in the United States

Cooperative education, an educational plan that integrates classroom learning with practical work experience, was initiated at the University of Cincinnati in 1906. The plan involves three partners: the student, the educational institution, and the employing organization. Each partner must benefit for this plan to survive. The advantages to the student, as well as to the educational institution, have been widely publicized. However, there must also be some advantages to the employing organization for this plan to survive more than eighty-two years. The purpose of this study is to review the documented employer benefits and compile it in a thesis entitled, Benefits of Cooperative Education to Employers in the United States. The thesis will begin with a brief history of cooperative education in the United States. The benefits of cooperative education will be examined and classified under the following headings: 1) Preprofessional Stage of Cooperative Education, when the employee is still a student; 2) The Advantages of Co-op in College Recruiting, which discusses the advantages of recruiting cooperative students as well as noncooperative students; 3) The Permanent Employment Phase, where the service of former co-op students is compared to other employees; and 4) Environmental Benefits, how the employer can share benefits with constituents outside the organization. The thesis will conclude with a brief summary of the benefits and a statement about the future of cooperative education in the United States