Colleges Offer Students Work Programs Ahead of Graduation
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Here's your money briefing. I'm J.R. Whalen at The Wall Street Journal in New York. After the pomp and circumstance of college graduation day, most graduates turn their focus to finding a job. Some schools are giving students a head start on their peers by letting them begin working in their field of study while they're taking classes.
What are college co-op programs and how do they give students a head start?
If you're talking a job that's three to six months and you can do it in some places, you can do the multiple times and you can really get a really a plethora of experience that you just can't get in another way.
That's Wall Street Journal contributor Cheryl Winokur-Monk. She'll explain how these students juggle a job and their studies, and how earnings from job programs could put financial aid in jeopardy. That's next.
Some college students looking to enter the workforce can get a leg up before they even graduate. Programs called college-sponsored cooperative education, or co-op programs, allow students to alternate between working classes. Wall Street Journal contributor Cheryl Winokur-Monk is on the line with us to discuss the pros and cons of these programs. So Cheryl, the competition for jobs out of college is fierce. How does a co-op help students?
Well, the thing about co-ops is that they tend to be longer than maybe an internship or a summer job. And so if you're talking a job that's three to six months and you can do it in some places, you can do the multiple times and you can really get a really a plethora of experience that you just can't get in another way.
And these job experiences would happen while the student is enrolled at school, right?
That's correct. Although they may not be taking classes at the time. Some schools allow you to take classes, a class or two. There's really the policies depend on the school. But you certainly wouldn't have a full workload while you're doing this co-op opportunity.
Yeah, there are a lot of questions for students to ask here, like, for example, would the co-op require them to suspend their studies?
How long do co-op placements typically last and how do they differ from internships?
And it could actually extend the student's enrollment from four to five years in some cases.
That's true, although in some cases, in some schools, you're not going to actually pay extra for that. It's kind of a, I'll call it pro-rated, so that you're actually not paying more because some of these schools say that you don't have to actually pay tuition costs while you're on the co-op. So you have to ask that question to see whether or not staying longer is going to cost you more in the long run.
And another question to ask would be about the salary paid by the co-op experience.
Typically, co-ops are paid full-time work experience, but it really depends on the school and on the job. Some jobs are going to pay more than others. Some people will pay less, obviously. It really depends. And the other thing is, is even sometimes when a school calls it a co-op, it may be more like an internship or a school calls it an internship. It may be more like a co-op. The terms are used somewhat interchangeably sometimes. The students really, really just need to know to ask questions about what the specific opportunity is.
Now, the money they earn from these co-op jobs, they can apply those earnings to their tuition.
Absolutely. And that's a big win for these students as well.
How does a student in the college sort out the amount of time that will be spent working?
Most of them have programs that are pretty well defined, and I guess it would depend on the employer. Each employer in each school is going to have different programs to define how these co-ops work. It's going to be very school-specific and even employer-specific.
And have students been able to turn the co-op experience into success in their field? Is there a track record here?
Many students have. I've talked to a couple people who said that they really recommend it because it gets you a foot in the door to talk, to work with these companies. And in cases where it's a mutual fit, then there could be opportunities for the student to extend that to a full-time role after they graduate.
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