Cooperative Education Programs At Rutgers University

744 Words3 Pages

Introduction and Objective
According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers Job Outlook 2016 Survey, there is an increasing number of employers look forward to seeking the following abilities on their candidates resumes: “leadership, the ability to work in a team, written and oral communication skills, problem-solving skills, strong work ethic”, and more (NACE). However, many of these abilities and skills that current employers expected from students are hard to accomplish only with the knowledge that students have learned in class. How to connect what students have learned in class with the actual job experiences is getting more significant. Work-integrated learning opportunities, especially cooperative education, which is defined …show more content…

What is the current situation of cooperative education programs at Rutgers University? And how about other public research universities nationwide and worldwide?
What are the significant barriers and challenges to expand the cooperative education programs at Rutgers University?
How should the Rutgers University and the local government help create more cooperative education opportunities?
Methodology
Case Study
A case study approach will be used in this research because of the boundary of the research objective is defined at Rutgers University and the availability of cooperative education program models from other universities. On the one hand, this research aims at spreading the significance of work-integrated learning, especially increasing cooperative education opportunities at Rutgers University, which has a specific research borderline and a focus on filling up “gaps and holes” in New Jersey education policies. On the other hand, there are plenty of comprehensive reports and web-pages that illustrate how other domestic and international universities working on cooperative education programs, which will function as critical references to build up Rutgers Universities’ own …show more content…

Job titles, positions, email addresses and phone numbers can be found on the search.rutgers.edu website.
Focus Groups
Student focus groups will be conducted to get their perceptions about the cooperative education experiences. At least one group of students who have already participated in the cooperative education program, one group of students who have not involved in such a program, as well as a mixed group of students with and without cooperative education experiences should be operated in order to get more detailed and comprehensive student viewpoints.
In terms of recruiting students to participate in focus groups, on the one hand, the university career services can be helpful to gather students together. Requests should be sent to the university career services through email or in-person appointment. On the other hand, contacting student organizations, sending out fliers after events, such as career fairs, internship classes, can also work as potential recruitment strategies for focus groups.
Methodological