Students Earn Cash, Experience Through College Co-Ops

Fox News ^ | By Ryan Spass

[PissAndVinegar]

Many of our students don't know what's it's like to work," said Lynn Lyford, vice president of the cooperative education program at Northeastern University. "(Co-op) not only gives students the experience, but it enhances what they learn in the classroom … They get evaluations, go to meetings. These students are considered employees of the employers' organizations."

(A co-op) is not like your traditional intern where you get coffee and wash the boss' car," said former Northeastern student Christopher Beasley, 23, who landed a job with NASA after completing a co-op with the company. "You interview like it's a real job."

[PissAndVinegar]

We use co-ops @ my company for software development and tests - they are a huge and great asset.

Financially, you can get a co-op for less than the cost of using off-shore and generally, they don't get the medical benefits, retirement, etc. so they are a great value.

Culturaly, they (generally) speak english and are familiar with US culture which helps greatly in an office enviroment (e.g. you can make a Scooby Doo joke and not have to explain who Scooby is).

Regarding their work ethic, they go after tasks like a dog after a steak. They completely immerse themselves and proactively search for solutons and then new tasks when they solve their previos tasks. Unlike my experience with offshore, they will stop dead if they encounter an issue or something unespected.

We pay > $15/ hr and for a colllege student, that's awesome (and a lot of beer $)!

If you have your own business, I strongly recommend looking into your local college's co-op programs.

..and remember(I love this comment): "Everyone else is still in the Communist era," Cedercreutz said. "Those are the institutions that are not doing the co-op program. They're not in touch with reality."

[Mazda3Fan]

Interesting. It's good to see students getting a taste of the real world. You have to earn your way.