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| Stern, D., Finkelstein, N., Stone, J. R., III, Latting, J., & Dornsife, C. (1994). Research on School-to-Work Programs in the United States (MDS-771). Berkeley: National Center for Research in Vocational Education, University of California. |
Two-year colleges are taking increasingly diverse roles in the delivery of job-related instruction. While it has always been the case that community, junior, and technical colleges offered some vocational curricula, the range of direct linkages with outside organizations has become remarkably wide: At present, two-year colleges are engaged in cooperative education, work-study, Tech Prep, community-based education, economic development services, JTPA training, faculty internships in industry, apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship training, and contracted customized training for employers (Suchorski, 1987).
Cooperative education and apprenticeship are considered in this section; Tech Prep in the next one. Table 8 shows the percentages of two-year institutions offering co-op and apprenticeship programs and the percentages of students participating in them, as reported to the National Assessment of Vocational Education survey in 1992 (Stern, 1992). Two-year institutions are classified as comprehensive community colleges, vocational-technical institutes, area vocational schools serving postsecondary students, or other. More than two out of three institutions offer cooperative education or work experience; there is no nationally consistent distinction between the two at the postsecondary level. Almost one institution in six offers the classroom component of apprenticeship training. Nearly nine out of ten two-year institutions also operate school-based enterprises, but the numbers of students involved are tiny. Even co-op/work experience and apprenticeship do not enroll very large numbers, accounting for only 2.25% and 1.39% of enrollment, respectively.
Prevalence of School-to-Work Programs in Two-Year
Public Postsecondary Institutions
| Comprehensive Community College | Vo-Tech | AVS | Other | Total | |
| Number of institutions | 675 | 175 | 72 | 68 | 993 |
| Percentage* of institutions reporting presence of each program | |||||
| Co-op/work experience | 75.85 | 54.86 | 52.78 | 39.71 | 67.88 |
| Apprenticeship programs | 16.89 | 18.29 | 9.72 | 4.41 | 15.71 |
| School-based enterprises | 88.89 | 90.29 | 84.72 | 89.71 | 88.82 |
| Participtating students as a percentage* of total enrollment | |||||
| Co-op/work experience | 2.23 | 2.35 | 4.15 | 1.54 | 2.25 |
| Apprenticeship programs | 0.93 | 3.58 | 11.63 | 2.26 | 1.39 |
| School-based enterprises | 0.05 | 0.13 | 0.54 | 0.10 | 0.06 |
| Participtating students as a percentage* of full-time day enrollment | |||||
| Co-op/work experience | 7.34 | 9.76 | 10.50 | 3.36 | 7.43 |
| Apprenticeship programs | 3.07 | 14.89 | 29.44 | 4.93 | 4.57 |
| School-based enterprises | 0.15 | 0.53 | 1.36 | 0.22 | 0.21 |
| *Denominator includes institutions that did not respond to the question. | |||||
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| Stern, D., Finkelstein, N., Stone, J. R., III, Latting, J., & Dornsife, C. (1994). Research on School-to-Work Programs in the United States (MDS-771). Berkeley: National Center for Research in Vocational Education, University of California. |