Best Practice in Cooperative Education

Abstract

The competitive edge of technikons is founded largely in the practice of cooperative education. The World Association for Co-operative Education (WACE) defines cooperative education as a method of education that combines learning in the classroom (theoretical studies) with learning in the workplace (experiential learning). The importance of incorporating an experiential learning component into the various instructional components is illustrated by the comment that a competitive economy requires a close link between education and the world. The Green Paper on Further Education and Training states that the curriculum and qualifications framework of the future will require a profound shift away from the traditional divides between academic and applied learning, theory and practice, knowledge and skills, and head and hand. The success of co-operative education programmes depends largely upon close cooperation with commerce, industry, government and the community. It is hoped that this publication, which was compiled in a consultative manner with members from each of these sectors, will provide guidelines for promoting co-operative education and experiential learning at technikons and closer collaboration with these sectors. In addition to outlining guidelines for stakeholders in the existing co-operative ambit, it is important to note that legislation (i.e. the Skills Development Act of 1998 [3] and the Skills Development Levies Act of 1999) provides opportunities for technikons to consider the challenges that lie ahead in the provision of skills programmes and learnerships. Although experiential learning and learnerships appear to demonstrate synergy in many respects, there are also subtle differences between the two approaches that need to be taken into account.