A Study of Initial Employment Characteristics between Co-op and Non-co-op Community College Graduates

This study analyzed the concept of cooperative education as it relates to preparing students for the workplace. Community college graduates from an engineering/technical graphics program that utilized cooperative education in its curriculum were compared with graduates from another engineering/technical graphics program that was comparable except that it was not involved with cooperative education. Samples chosen from both institutions represented the years 1992-1999. Graduates were examined by measures designed to assess organizational socialization, relevance of job-to-career plans, degree of access to resources, and participation in decision-making. A questionnaire developed by Brown (1984) was modified and employed to obtain data. No significance (p < .05) was detected with any of the 4 measures with regard to the following 3 groups of community college engineering/technical graphics graduates (a) cooperative education graduates who stayed with their former coop employer, (b) cooperative education graduates who gained employment with a new employer, and (c) graduates without cooperative education experience. In addition, statistical significance (p < .05) was not attained for the combined 2 groups of cooperative education graduates versus the graduates without co-op experience on the employee sense of power measures. INTRODUCTION This inquiry examined the concept of workplace power as related to community college engineering/technical graphics graduates employed at their first job after graduation. In particular, the investigation focused upon the following three groups: (a) cooperative education graduates who remained with their former co-op employer, (b) cooperative education graduates who gained employment with a new employer and (c) graduates who lacked co-op experience. Following the same mission as other past co-op studies, this research was conducted to broaden the understanding of cooperative education. While studies exist which concern cooperative education’s effect on the process of socialization into organizations (e.g., Williams, Sternberg, Rashotte & Wagner, 1993; Aultman, 1997), most co-op research supports other types of benefits. A literature review into this subject exposes such a reality and that additional studies exist which suggest that cooperative education experience enhances various aspects of the educational