In Tamil, there is an old proverb which roughly says you cant eat a parchment on which a picture of a fruit is drawn. It generally means that if you study something theoritically and dont know the practical implication about it, it is completely a waste.
Lets say you know all about a Jet Engine. You know where each and every nut and bolt is on it, and you have seen images, drawings and you happen to know even the dimensions of a particular model lets say. But when you see it for the first time, without help, you cant even dismantle it and re assemble it. This is why institutions come up with practical classes that run in parallel with theory.
Co-operative education is entirely different. Cooperative education is a structured method of combining classroom-based education with practical work experience. Research indicates that employers value job experience in their newly-hired workers. A cooperative education experience, commonly known as a “co-op”, provides academic credit for structured job experience. Cooperative education is taking on new importance in helping young people to make the school-to-work transition, service learning, and experiential learning initiatives.
Kettering University is one of the finest Instituitons that offer engineering co-op programs. America’s Best Colleges Guide for 2008 has listed Kettering University and has says “the #1 University in the nation for Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering”
From Wikipedia about Kettering University :
Kettering University (formerly “General Motors Institute”) is a university in Flint, Michigan, offering degrees in engineering, the applied sciences, and management. The campus is located along the scenic Flint River on property that used to be the main manufacturing location for General Motors. It is named after inventor and former head of research for General Motors Charles Kettering.
The university boasts that the majority of its seniors are employed or accepted to graduate schools before graduation and that one out of 15 alumni either own their own business or are high-level managers in leading companies (see Notable Alumni). Although the school’s undergraduate class is small with approximately 2,400 students, it graduates one of the largest mechanical engineering graduating classes in the United States annually and is consistently ranked by US News and World Report as one of the best schools in the country for an undergraduate engineering education without PhD programs.
