A Comparative Study of Cooperative Education Programs in Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Finland

Abstract

For the past few years, the European Union (EU) has urged higher education institutions to improve the overall quality of cooperative education (co-op) programs with businesses for growth and jobs in the knowledge and skill-intensive business environment. Improvement of co-ops has been one of the strategic priorities of the Europe 2020 strategies, which aim to continuously improve the competitive advantages of industries. Many EU members have tried to improve their co-ops. In this paper, we describe co-ops in Germany, the UK, Italy, and Finland to find the characteristics of the co-ops. Then, we will compare the co-ops to see the differences among them.