RATIONALE FOR COOPERATIVE EDUCATION
The purpose of cooperative education is the development of occupational competence reinforced by
a job training experience. The cooperative method of instruction provides students enrolled in
career and technical courses an opportunity to extend their employment preparation beyond the
classroom. When students have career objectives that are specific and definite, they can often
prepare themselves better for the workplace by being in the workplace.
Frequently schools find that they cannot afford to continuously equip and update labs with state-ofthe-art
equipment. Schools can build partnerships with local employers to offer training that is
specifically designed for a given student using state-of-the-art equipment and requiring the student
to perform up to industry standards as they meet the needs of clients on a daily basis.