Performance of Student Trainees in a Co-operative, Education-Integrated Six-Year Engineering Degree Program

Cooperative Education or Co-op is an immersion program which allows engineering students to gain professional work experience while still in college. Co-op work experience provides students with the opportunity to explore career interests and goals, use the workplace as their classroom, and gain professional development. This paper describes how the CPU College of Engineering Six Year Engineering program integrates Co-op education into its curriculum. This paper is intended to give the description, mechanics and evaluation of the impact of the six-year degree program herein referred to as the Co-operative Education Program. Co-op Education students are allowed to enroll in this engineering program by selection criteria of top (20) percent of the class. Overall student evaluating Co-op experience was 47.78 percent (good). The six-year engineering curriculum and teaching approaches are aligned with and responsive to the needs of the industry.