Cooperative Education Program

What Is Cooperative Education? Cooperative Education in the EET Department at Broome Community College is defined as part-time, paid work experience directly related to the student's field of study. Students in the Electrical Engineering Technology program participate.

Why Hire A Co-op Student? Hiring a EET co-op student:

• provides a ready source for obtaining employees.
• satisfies immediate and long-term needs at a relatively low cost.
• reduces the cost of recruiting and training if the co-op student is hired full time.
• helps current employees find time for those hard-to-get-to tasks.
• establishes productive relationships between industry and college.

When Are Co-op Students Available?

EET co-op students are full-time, day students at BCC who are required to register in EET297 Cooperative Work Experience each semester. Their work terms should correspond to the length of the academic semester and their work hours should be flexible enough to allow them to satisfy their educational goals while still being productive employees. The recommended number of hours a co-op student should work each week is based on the student's credit load as follows:

How Do You Hire A Co-op Student?

Simply contact the EET Department at (607) 778-5010 and ask for the Department Chairman. You will be asked to submit a thorough job description, along with the weekly work times available to students. We will supply you with candidate names. (Candidates must have completed 24 credit hours and maintain a GPA of 2.2 or higher in the EET Program.) You then hire the candidate of your choice.

What Is Expected Of You After Hiring?

After hiring a co-op student, be ready to provide appropriate orientation, supervision, and performance evaluation. You should provide frequent feedback to the co-op student about performance. In addition, toward the end of each academic semester, you will receive from BCC a co-op Student Evaluation Form that needs to be completed and returned to the EET Department in order for the students to receive college credit for the co-op experience.

It is important that you promote the value of education to the co-op student and help the student understand the connection between higher education and higher paying, more satisfying employment.

Are Co-op Students Available For More Than One Semester? Summer?

Participating students may be either first or second year students. Some will be available to register for EET297 Cooperative Work Experience for more than one consecutive academic semester if they maintain their eligibility requirements. EET297 will not be offered to students in the summer. Summer work agreements are strictly between employer and student.

The EET Department encourages employers to hire the same student for more than one semester. Job responsibilities should reflect student progress. Employers will be notified if students fail to meet eligibility requirements.