Thursday, September 8, 2011
Unit 3 - CTE Internships vs. CoOp
CTE Internships appear to be much easier to set up. I could see an internship working for two of my classes that I teach. Our District Information Technology office is located just down the hall from my classroom. So having interns there would make perfect sense. An internship program would be much easier for me to implement than a Co Op due to the schedule structure that our high school follows. I would not be required to hold a Co Op endorsement and working with the IT department would be easier based on their location. There is still a large amount of paperwork required to run both but a lot less leg work would be required on my part. I believe that to make it more desirable for seniors here, it would need to be a paid internship that was competitive with local hourly rates in town. It would greatly enrich my program if I had my Juniors obtain their CompTIA A+ certification and then during their senior year, they work with the IT department under an internship program. My students would graduate with their certification, a years experience in the field and a leg up on their competition.
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From Sean via me!
ReplyDeleteI think your right on. I feel the internship is the more appropriate choice in your case. It allows for more flexibility in terms of classroom time and allows for the student to be catered to; meaning designing a pipeline or student plan that is individualized. Co Op has a place also, but it seems like it is more labor intensive as you aluded to. I think as educators, our goal should be to be produce students who can funtion in the outside world. We didnt have programs like this when I was young. There was shop and shop. I think it is awesome that a student can come out of high school with education and training to actually get hired some place. Great Post.
In a rural community you really have to work with what you have. We are limited by our location and lack of any real industry available to work along with the kids. The challenge here in this district, with regard to an IT internship, is one of ownership. It is a very hard nut to crack to get the IT department to really work with students. They usually become gophers and that quickly gets old.
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