Cooperative Education in an Industrial Engineering Program

The purpose of this paper is to describe the experience and lessons learned from implementing the cooperative education option in the department of Industrial Engineering and Management at the University of Sharjah, UAE. The objectives are to analyze the impact of the cooperative training on the performance of the students and study the role of the co-op training in enhancing the achievement of student learning outcomes. The study confirms earlier results from prior studies which show, for example, that students who choose the co-op option have higher cumulative grade point average and show better achievement of program outcomes.