Wichita State Program Pairs Class Work With Career Experience
Published Aug 18, 2009
Wichita State University’s Ablah Library
Students attending Wichita State University don’t have to wait until after graduation to road-test their new careers. Thanks to the school’s cooperative education and work-based learning program, each semester finds hundreds of students working part-time jobs in their major field of study.
“Our students are provided the opportunity to connect their academic learning with professional, on-the-job experience,” says Connie Dietz, the program’s coordinator.
The program helps hone job skills, starting with résumé writing and interviewing. Internships may be paid or unpaid and usually last a semester or a summer. Cooperative education jobs are paid positions related to a student’s major, and may last longer than a semester. Both programs offer academic credit and are available to all of the school’s majors except health care, which has its own clinical training component.
“For our business partners, it’s an opportunity to grow their own, a great recruitment tool,” Dietz says. “Employers can really get to see a student’s work ethic, skills and academic knowledge. It’s also a great way for them to fill short-term work needs.”
Spring semester, for example, is prime time for accounting majors to learn about the field during tax season. Nonprofit organizations, Dietz says, may tap the program to find a student who can build a new Web site.
To participate, employers send a job description for the program’s review. If it meets the standard of providing academic advancement, they receive résumés of qualified students. “We encourage employers to use the same interview techniques they would for regular, full-time employees,” Dietz says.
The career-training program, which has been in place since 1979, has grown dramatically in the last eight years, placing 467 students in spring 2009. Historically, 79 percent of those who participated in the work-based learning program stay in Wichita after graduation.
Some graduates of the program now call Dietz to participate as employers.
“This is meaningful work connected to their degree,” Dietz says. “Our students are eager to learn and bring in new ideas, and this is a great way for employers to help build a strong workforce.”
The area’s urban setting makes it ideal for the program, says Dr. Ravi Pendse, professor of engineering and computer science as well as an associate provost and vice president for academic affairs and research.
“We are the only urban-serving, research university in the state,” Pendse says, adding that news of the program’s success is spreading. “We showcase our program to visitors who come from out of town or who have heard from word-of-mouth about how fabulous it is.”
He describes the university and business community as intertwined, noting the genuine care each entity has for the other.
“We’re able to work with our industrial partners, with places like CISCO and Boeing and NASA,” says Pendse. “We look at each other as partners working together as our community grows.”
Story by Leanne Libby
Photo by Antony Boshier
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