Engineering co-op and internship experiences and outcomes: The roles of workplaces, academic institutions and students

Abstract

Work-integrated learning, particularly in the form of co-ops and internships, has long been an integral part of many engineering programs. While recent government interest in work-integrated learning has raised its profile, it is unclear how the three main actors—the workplace, the academic institution and students themselves—interact with each other to enhance students’ learning experiences and outcomes. This paper attempts to fill this gap by examining engineering co-op and internship literature as well as programming practices at nineteen North American universities. In light of a conceptual framework foregrounding the triad that shapes co-op and internship experiences and the resulting learning outcomes, we identified four themes that respectively demonstrate the achieved learning outcomes and the roles of workplaces, academic institutions and students in the work-integrated learning process of engineering co-ops and internships. The paper contributes to the discussion on engineering education by developing a framework out of the findings for understanding the work-integrated learning process in engineering co-ops and internships.