Cooperative Education: The Utah Way
Utah’s Cooperative Education (Co-op) Pilot, established through SB 162 (2025), is a statewide initiative that integrates classroom learning with paid, career-aligned work experience. Through partnerships between higher education institutions and employers, the pilot offers accredited co-op opportunities that support full-time enrollment, strengthen career readiness, expand high-quality learning opportunities, and ensure program quality through clear expectations and ongoing evaluation.
Annual Co-op Symposium – April 2025
Save the date | Specific date TBD
Due to flight cancellations and delays, our annual Co-op Symposium has been rescheduled to April, 2025. We’re hosting a three-part webinar series to provide valuable opportunities in the interim. More details coming soon!
Webinar Series and Statewide Summit
We invite institutions and partners to join a three-part virtual webinar series beginning Thursday, December 4, 2025.
Each webinar, along with a spring convening, will cover essential components required for institutions to launch a robust co-op structure and strong employer partnerships by fall 2026.
Webinars will be recorded and made available on this page after they occur.
Webinar 1
Co-op in Action with Drexel University
December 4, 2025 | 10:30 am – 12:45 pm MST
Learn from Drexel University’s proven co-op model.
Webinar 2
Designing the Academic Framework for Co-op
Date & Time | TBD
Learn how to integrate co-op into your curriculum effectively.
Webinar 3
Co-op Toolkit
Date & Time | TBD
Access shared tools, templates, and statewide resources for co-op implementation.
What the Series Covers
Proven co-op practices, academic design strategies, implementation tools, and approaches to industry engagement and student success.
Who Should Attend
Institutional leaders, faculty champions, career services teams, employer engagement staff, academic administrators, and industry partners involved in co-op development.
Outcomes
By the end of the series, institutions will have an implementation roadmap, shared tools and strategies, and a statewide support network to guide co-op launch efforts for the fall of 2026.
Cooperative Education vs. Internships
Many colleges and universities use the terms co-op and internship interchangeably, but they serve different purposes. Understanding the distinction is essential for designing meaningful programs, meeting employer expectations, and providing students with the experience required in today’s workforce.
Co-op Education: Structured, Deep, Career-Integrated Learning
Co-ops are formal, academically integrated work experiences in which students alternate between full-time work and academic study, providing immersive, real-world experience, producing graduates who are job-ready, industry-aligned, and highly competitive in the labor market.
Characteristics of Co-ops:
- Longer-term (typically 3–6 months, often with multiple rotations)
- Full-time paid employment with significant responsibility
- Directly tied to academic programs and learning outcomes
- Structured partnership between employer, institution, and student
- Mentored by trained workplace supervisors
- Emphasis on progressive skill development
- Often includes academic credit, reflection, or integrative assignments
Internships: Short-Term Exposure
Internships help students explore career fields, build introductory skills, and expand professional networks by providing brief, flexible experiences that introduce students to a workplace or industry. They are valuable but limited in scope.
Characteristics of Internships:
- Short-term (typically 2–4 months)
- Often part-time; offered year-round
- Primarily observational or project-based
- Minimal integration with academic curriculum
- Variable supervision and mentoring
- Paid or unpaid, depending on the field
Why This Distinction Matters
Internships and co-ops both have value, but they are not interchangeable.
- Internships build awareness, co-ops build capability
- Internships provide experience, co-ops deliver applied expertise
- Internships support exploration, co-ops create direct talent pipelines
For higher education, recognizing and implementing true co-op models strengthens curriculum relevance, industry engagement, student learning and career outcomes, and Utah’s statewide workforce competitiveness
Program Launch Timeline
The Mechanical Engineering co-op pilot will launch at USHE institutions in the 2026 Fall Semester.
Employer Engagement
Utah employers who participate in co-op education gain direct access to a pipeline of emerging talent trained in the exact skills their industries need. Co-op students work full-time, contribute meaningful output, and bring fresh ideas and problem-solving capacity to ongoing projects.
Because co-ops run semester-long, employers benefit from reduced turnover, lower training costs, and increased productivity compared to short-term internships. Participation also allows companies to shape curriculum relevance, strengthen their future workforce, and build visibility as an employer of choice for Utah’s top students.
Past Webinar Recordings
Missed a session? Access recordings of our previous webinars below. All recordings include presentation slides and supplementary materials.
Questions About the Co-op Pilot Program?
Contact Bryce Nelson for more information about Utah’s Cooperative Education initiative.