Students also noted the relevance and value of the work programs in the development of the students and preparing them for the workplace. Reflect the students' exposure to the workplace 44 Reflect the students' perceived recipients of the work programs 44 Reflect the students' preparedness for work programs 46 Reflect the students' expectations of work programs 47 Reflect the students' experiences with work programs 48.
AN OVERVIEW OF THE RESEARCH
- INTRODUCTION
- CO-OPERATIVE EDUCATION
- THE STAKEHOLDERS OF CO-OPERATIVE EDUCATION
- AIMS OF THE STUDY
- PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
- OBJECTIVES This study will investigate
- CRITICAL QUESTIONS
- RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY
- OUTLINE OF CHAPTERS
- CONCLUSION
The National Qualifications Framework (NQF) and the South African Quality Assurance Act (SAQA) also present new challenges for collaborative education. This study will focus on the perceptions and experiences of cooperative education students.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK, THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND LITERATURE REVIEW
- INTRODUCTION
- CURRENT CONTEXT
- QUALITY ASSURANCE OF CO-OPERATIVE EDUCATION
- EXISTING LITERATURE 1. Introduction
- CONCLUSION
Cooperative education has always played its role in building education and training institutions like Technikons. Stasz (1997) and Stasz and Kaganoff (1997) believe that cooperative education provides students with workplace opportunities. Assignments that include a wide variety of experiences and activities should be planned in advance before students come to the cooperative education work experience (Houze and Simon, 2002).
The student should be encouraged to ask questions about the assignments, and similarly the mentor should find out about the student's assignments, especially in the early days of the cooperative education workplace. The academic coordinator needs the support of the academic community to provide students with quality cooperative learning experiences. Houze and Simon (2002) see the following as the main responsibilities of the cooperative education coordinator: - to provide information about the cooperative program to all students.
To help the student recognize his or her responsibility for achieving a quality co-op education experience and to facilitate a healthy interaction and relationship with the employer. Helping students navigate the complex cooperative education curriculum and advising the student on job-related issues can often become routine for the coordinator. Second, higher education staff whose students take internships in a cooperative education (whether for academic credit or not) should.
METHODOLOGY
- INTRODUCTION
- THE NATURE OF THE RESEARCH
- DATA COLLECTION
- ETIDCAL CONSIDERATION
- LIMITATIONS
To achieve the purpose of the study, we used both quantitative and qualitative methods, which are acceptable for social science. Institutional demographics are presented in this study by age, gender, and race. After selecting the participants, I personally telephoned each student and described the course of study and selection.
The researcher asked the head of research at the Durban Institute of Technology for money to carry out the study. The purpose of the study was explained and a copy of the questionnaire to students accompanied the consent request (see Appendix B). A cover letter explaining the purpose of the study and requesting cooperation from students, which must be attached to each questionnaire, was also presented.
The study was limited to students at the Durban Institute of Technology, where the researcher was employed for one year, between 2002 and 2003, as a Co-operative Education Coordinator at the Faculty of Arts. It could be argued that the particular subject of the Study, the tool chosen and the expectations of the researcher may presuppose a certain bias, although every effort has been made to guard against bias by maintaining a high level of professionalism in dealing with students and industry staff.
4. ANALYSIS OF DATA
PRESENTATION OF DATA
Tables, graphs and figures must be used to make concise presentations of the statistical decision information.
TABLES, FIGURES AND GRAPHS
ANALYSIS OF QUESTIONNAIRES
- STUDENTS' PROFILE
- Previous Work Experience
The purpose of the following analysis is to give the reader a profile of the respondents so that analysis of the data can be contextualised. This section will deal with faculty registration at the Durban Institute of Technology, the home language of students, gender of students, age of students and previous work experience of students. Of the questionnaires returned, eleven students responded from the Faculty of Arts, twelve students responded from the Faculty of Commerce, eleven students responded from the Faculty of Engineering, Science and the Built Environment and twelve students responded from the Faculty of Health Sciences .
Analysis of the data revealed that 2S % of the students spoke English as their home language, SO% Zulu, S % Xhosa, 5% Afrikaans and 5 % spoke other indigenous languages.
Full Time
Work During Holiday
No Work
SECTION B: STUDENT PERCEPTIONS OF CO·OPERATIVE EDUCATION WORK PROGRAMMES
The analysis of the perceptions of the students will attempt to answer critical question one, namely "What are the Durban Institute of Technology students' perceptions of eo-operative Education?" The analysis revealed that in relation to their perceptions, regarding the benefits that can be derived from cooperative education work experience, students listed work opportunity, which includes gaining work experience, work discipline skills, communication skills, technological skills and knowledge and understanding of theory , educational input from industry and the opportunity to relate theory to practice, as the most important benefits Section B of the questionnaire serves to establish the type of career awareness, career exploration and career preparation in which the students participated prior to the work placement.
The majority of respondents (58%) stated that work experience would be their main benefit1l This is not surprising given the understanding that work placements aim to equip students with marketable work-related skills. 15% of respondents believed that their benefit lay in the fact that they were given an opportunity to relate their theory to practical situations, which is an inherent characteristic of cooperative education. 24% believed that this experience either created greater job opportunities or helped make career decisions, while a small 3% of respondents saw their benefits as financial.
A large majority (58%) of students indicated that students gained from being empowered in terms of work experience.
Strongly Disagree
SECTION C: STUDENTS' EXPERIENCES OF CO-OPERATIVE EDUCATION WORK PROGRAMMES
- Visits by Technikon Staff to the Workplace
The following discussion will focus on the expenses of the students as communicated by them. The fact that such a large percentage of the students had no mentors raises some critical concerns about workplace norms e.g. Fifty percent of respondents were comfortable asking their mentors questions while 17% were not comfortable.
Only 30% of the students received theoretical explanations from their mentors, while 28% did not receive theoretical explanations. Of importance, however, are the 46% of students who noted that the program was not carefully selected to suit their abilities. When asked to rate the co-op program of work, 31% of students agreed that the program was excellent, 26% strongly agreed, 22% disagreed, and 4% strongly disagreed that the program was generally excellent.
When they responded to “The points awarded to the program were reasonable because the students chose not to answer, 37.
SUMMARISING THE FINDINGS
Students' experiences were included in many issues, such as program that did not meet their expectations of not being visited by the technical staff, receiving no feedback from either the industry or the technical staff. This primarily descriptive analysis is based on student responses regarding their perception and experiences of cooperative education work programs. Student responses included various principles, guidelines and recommendations of the new Cooperative Education curriculum as defined by SASCE (2000).
The analysis was organized based on the students' perceptions and experiences, which is also reflected in the new curriculum policy framework, e.g. However, the results of this study indicate a difference in terms of the benefits to different stakeholders. Mahomed (2002) found that support from Technikon staff was highly lacking in terms of the number and nature of visits to students.
Communication with the student will give the technikon staff a good idea of what the students' needs and expectations are from the program for work programs.
CONCLUSION
Indeed, it is surprising that we have these findings despite efforts made to improve the quality, relevance and flexibility of educational outcomes, with industry and business being asked to play an increasingly important role in the delivery of Technikon curricula (Smout, 2001). The fact that the Technikon staff did not visit them also affected the answers to question 4, in which the students had to comment on the nature of the visits. According to Houze and Simon (2002), the technikon staff is essential for cooperative education, as they must try to understand the individual characteristics and needs of each student, try to determine which programs are suitable for the student and what is the best learning experience for the student.
Technikon personnel must also have a good understanding of the various employer organizations and each location, group, department and mentor in order to determine the needs of that specific industry. Basically, the main focus of the technikon staff is to improve the quality of each student's workplace experience.
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION
- ORIENTATION TO TIDS CHAPTER
- SUMMARY OF FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
- CONCLUSION
There must be evidence of Technikon's strong commitment to an ongoing cooperative education relationship. Co-operative education in higher education is not new and has a long history in most courses at Technikons across South Africa. Kerka (1999) points out that although work experience is proliferating, much of the literature on it relates to its programmatic characteristics, such as how co-operative education is set up and organized.
Much less has been written about what the work experience component of co-operative education courses does or does not do for the students for whom it is arranged. In South Africa as a whole, we need to know much more about the characteristics and quality of workplace perceptions and experiences in co-operative education across disciplines and geographical areas. Essentials of Cooperative Education Pracrice.(2000).Committee for Technikon Principles (CTP) in collaboration with the South African Cooperative Society.
Technilron's understanding and use of cooperative education in its curriculum design of programs offered. thesis, University of Durban-Westville, Durban.
BIOGRAPIDCAL DATA
The following list shows some of the benefits that can be derived from cooperative education. Choose one of the answers above and indicate why you think you would benefit from a cooperative education experience. What kind of exposure you had to the work space of your current field of study prior to your co-op education placement.
YES NO
