Transformation of Employability Skills Through Co-Op Experiences

Abstract

The structure of co-operative programs gives students the opportunity to transform employability skills. Using a proposed conceptual framework and inspirationfrom Mezirow’s Transformative Learning Theory, this paper analyzes four engineering students in varying disciplines across the three contexts that a co-op experience provides: pre co-op school setting, co-op work placement and the post co-op school setting. Using reflection and by adapting to their settings, these students transformed their communication, organization/ time management and initiative/ responsibility skills. Analyzing these skills and experiences against the framework, we can see how the details and specifics of the transformation varies for each student; however, each student needs to experience each stage for successful transformation. Each of the stages then feeds into and helps further the skills as it changes.