Topics discussed in this podcast include:
- Some details of how a major cooperative education university operates to combine academic and work-place learning after just celebrating its Centennial anniversary.
- In addition to taking care of the students, note was taken that Drexel as a co-op school also takes care of its co-op partners by providing them with year-round employees even if the person on co-op changes.
- Benefits to the students include more than in-depth on-the-job skills that can help them get the job after graduation, especially if they have not worked in high school on summer jobs as some 60% have not. But they also learn at a more personal level building confidence and maturity – what some are calling essential skills – that allow them to better network, develop opportunities, and really test their intended career choice.
- We discussed the ongoing issue of integration of the learning from the workplace and learning in classical courses from the academy. A focus is on using data to inform faculty and creating understanding of opportunities for that integration. In this regard assessment of the cooperative education experience is critical.
- Also the Drexel Solutions Institute is a new effort to leverage industry relations, integrate with faculty, and solve business problems.
- The new focus on skills is, of course, suited to a Drexel education and involves new federal efforts as well as local Philadelphia job-data-exchange project that piloted last year.
- Finally, we talked about coping with Covid19 and the alteration that has brought to all walks of life including Drexel’s co-op program. Here the focus was on the entrepreneurship that co-op schools encourage as well as learning and being flexible, e.g. allowing virtual co-ops for the first time and learning how to manage them well. Even in an ongoing pandemic world, Ian asserts that Drexel students succeed … as they always have.
Resources Discussed in this Episode:
- https://drexel.edu/
- https://drexel.edu/difference/co-op/
- https://drexel.edu/scdc/about/contact/
- https://drexel.edu/solutions-institute/
Music Credits: C’est La Vie by Derek Clegg