Katherine Gibson

Report of the sixth New Zealand Association Cooperative Education Annual Conference, Wellington, New Zealand, 21-22 March 2002.

1

New Zealand Association for Cooperative Education

Susanne Taylor

Opportunities for Research

1

Technikon Witwatersrand, South Africa

Prof. Wichit Srisa-an

Prof. Wichit Srisa-an is a leading figure in Thailand education. He has an international reputation for innovation in education and vast experience of education in Thailand and the Asia-Pacific region. In this article, reproduced from his book "Global Education: Borderless Worlds" he shares his education vision for Thailand and the region.

1-4

Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education, 2002, 3(1), 1-4.

Global Education in Asia for the Twenty-First Century

Keywords:  Thailand; global education; borderless education; distance education; open learning; virtual learning; life-long learning

Richard K. Coll*, Neil Taylor and Sheila Grainger

The assessment of work-based learning is a major challenge for practitioners worldwide. However, there are many professions, such as teaching, that have along history of external moderation on their assessment practices. In this paper we examine present and past practice in the assessment of teaching practica and consider what the experiences of the teaching profession have to offer other work-based learning programs.

5-12

Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education, 2002, 3(1), 5-12.

Assessment of Work based Learning: Some Lessons from the Teaching Profession

Keywords:  New Zealand; United Kingdom; teaching practicum; assessment

George De Lange

South Africa, like many other developing countries is facing the consequences of globalization. Globalization represents a significant challenge for the republic. In this article three models of intervention that seek to transfer technologies from a developed to a developing country are described. The author suggest that these models provide a working infrastructure for the exchange of students between two countries and significantly advances students' understanding for both technical and non-technical skills.

13-17

Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education, 2002, 3(1), 13-17.

Cooperative Education Interventions Aimed at Transferring New technologies from a Developed to a Developing Economy: Germany/South African Collaboration in the Automotive Industry

Keywords:  South Africa; Germany; international exchange; globalization

18-21

Cooperative Work Placement: Education Monolingual Gatekeepers

Keywords:  New Zealand; non-English speaking background students

Ahmed M. Aleisa* and Mohammed A. Alabdulhafez

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has experienced enormous economic and social  development in the last ten years. This has resulted in a significant challenge to provide an educated workforce to sustain this growth. The Riyadh College of Technology has been at the forefront of, workforce training and this has been achieved through its science and technolgy degrees which incorporate work-based learning. In this paper we  provide details of an evaluation, from all three partners, of the College's work-based learning program.

1-7

Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education, 2002, 3(2) 1-8.

Cooperative Education at Riyadh College of Technology: Successes and Challenges

Keywords:  educational evaluation; Saudi Arabia; science and technology

Elizabeth Rainsbury, Dave Hodges*, Noel Burchell and Mark Lay

This study concerned New Zealand business students and graduates ranking of a series of 24 workplace competencies. The results show a close similarity between students and graduates’ ranking of the five most important competencies, namely, computer literacy, customer service orientation, teamwork and co-operation, self-confidence, and willingness to learn. There also was little difference between the two groups in their rankings of cognitive or ‘hard’ skills and behavioral or ‘soft’ skills. However, the graduates placed greater importance on most of the competencies, resulting in a statistically significant difference between the graduates and students’ ranking of both hard and soft skills. The findings from this study suggest that cooperative education programs may help develop business students’ awareness of the importance of graduate competencies in the workplace.

8-18

Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education, 2002, 3(2) 8-18.

Ranking Workplace Competencies: Student and Graduate Perceptions

Keywords:  competencies; New Zealand; business; ranking

Richard K. Coll*, Karsten Zegwaard and Dave Hodges

In this paper we report the views of science and technology sector employers about the importance of a variety of workplace competencies.  Employers of students from the University of Waikato’s cooperative education program completed a questionnaire (n=172) in which they rated the relative importance of a list of 24 workplace competencies (using a 7-point Likert scale) for new graduates entering the workforce now, and for new graduates who will do so in 10 years time.  The survey instrument, taken from the literature, was that used to investigate the views of business sector stakeholders (employers, graduates and students) and science and technology students.  According to science and technology employers, the top competencies required for new science and technology graduates are; ability and willingness to learn, teamwork and cooperation, initiative, and analytical thinking with concern for order, quality and accuracy, computer literacy, and written communication skills rated next most important.  As with employers of business students, the science and technology employers considered all competencies to be important but the latter saw little change in the importance of these competencies in 10 years time.  The results of the present work show that the science and technology employers rated both ‘hard’ skills and ‘soft’ skills as important, but they placed more emphasis on hard skills than science and technology students or business sector stakeholders.

19-28

Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education, 2002, 3(2) 19-28.

Science and Technology Stakeholders' Ranking of Graduate Competencies Part 1: Employers Perspective

Keywords: New Zealand; employers; ranking; competencies; science; technology; hard skills; soft skills; technical skills

Lesley Ferkins

This paper reports on an investigation into the current practice of student work placements in sport studies in Auckland New Zealand.  It identifies the scope and range of student and sport organization involvement, and reports on the industry perspective of the process.  The study also identifies recommendations from employers to improve the placement process and to assist in developing best practice guidelines for industry organizations involved in learning via cooperative education.

29-34

Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education, 2002, 3(2) 29-34.

Sporting Best Practice: An Industry View of Work Placements

Keywords:  New Zealand; Sport; best practice; evaluation

Richard K. Coll*, Karsten Zegwaard and Dave Hodges

Students from the University of Waikato’s cooperative education program completed a questionnaire (n=71) in which they rated the relative importance of a list of 24 workplace competencies (using a 7-point Likert scale) for graduates entering the workforce now, and those who will do so in 10 years time.  The top five ranked competencies in order were; ability and willingness to learn, initiative, achievement orientation, personal planning and organizational skills, and analytical thinking.  Comparison with business sector students showed some differences in what students thought were the most important competencies, with business students ranking computer literacy, teamwork and cooperation and self-confidence more highly than their science and technology counterparts.  The science and technology students saw computer literacy as the competency most likely to increase in importance in the future.  The results of the present work show that science and technology students believed all competencies were important and that both ‘hard’ skills and ‘soft’ skills are important, suggesting that they perceive a need to be multi-skilled before entering the workforce.  However, comparison of these data with that of science and technology employers, suggests that the employers see hard skills as well as teamwork and cooperation as more important (ranked second most important).

35-44

Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education, 2002, 3(2) 35-44.

Science and Technology Stakeholders' Ranking of Graduate Competencies Part 2: Students Perspective

Keywords:  New Zealand; students; ranking; competencies; science; technology; hard skills; soft skills; technical skills

Susanne Taylor

Cooperative education as a strategy for combining classroom learning with workplace training is becoming well known internationally.  So too are the concepts of life-long learning and continuous education and in the minds of many authors learning is not confined to what happens in a classroom, neither is it a ‘one-off’ experience.  Cooperative education typically occurs when a learner is placed into the actual working environment.  The question arises, what about a working adult entering the academic arena?  If this process is formalized could there be a new slant to cooperative education - one of life-long learning and reversal of cooperative education where the world of work sends its adult learner into the education sector?  There is some recent research, including that from a small South African case study presented here, that suggests that there is now a growing trend worldwide - a trend of ‘reverse cooperative education’.  The author considers that practitioners of cooperative education globally need to consider what implications such a trend has for the practice of cooperative education.  This issue is discussed in this paper along with suggestions for further research into ‘reverse cooperative education’.

45-52

Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education, 2002, 3(2) 45-52.

An Investigation Into the Possibility of a Growing Trend in Cooperative Education: ‘Reverse Cooperative Education’

Keywords:  South Africa; continuous education; experiential learning; life-long learning; reverse cooperative education; workplace learning; work-based learning; work-integrated learning

Axel Göhringer

This paper describes the acceptance of German Berufsakademie or University of Cooperative Education graduates in the job market.  This system, unique to this kind of university in Germany, combines theory and practice in equal parts.  The first part of this paper describes this ‘dual’ system of education and provides a general overview of its history and the special features that make this model so effective in Germany.  The second part of the paper describes the Berufsakademie Karlsruhe, its faculties and the importance of its location in one of Germany’s most advanced high-technology areas.  The paper concludes with the presentation of some research findings for an empirical investigation, which shows that Berufsakademie graduates are highly sought after by their training companies and other employers.  The research suggests that graduates are in demand because they are able to do responsible tasks soon after graduation without the need further training.

53-58

Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education, 2002, 3(2) 53-58.

University of Cooperative Education – Karlsruhe: The Dual System of Higher Education in Germany

Keywords:  Germany; program description; technology; engineering; business; employer evaluation