Cooperative Education

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Cooperative Education

Welcome to the homepage for the Engineering Cooperative Education Program at the University of Kentucky.

This program is the traditional, engineering academic option for undergraduates and serves all seven Departments in the UK College of Engineering: Biosystems, Chemical and Materials, Civil, Electrical and Computer, Mechanical, Mining Engineering and Computer Science. Our students work full time for a minimum of three semesters, which alternate with full time academic work.

Each Spring a student is selected as the recipient of the UK College of Engineering, Lou Takacs Cooperative Education Award. This award is given annually to a student who has completed at least three co-op semesters and has demonstrated exemplary performance and outcomes from that experience.

This year’s winner of the Takacs Co-operative Education Award is Austin Lovan, a Mechanical Engineering Senior. Austin Co-oped at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, where he was involved in the development of the limbs for Robonaut 2, which is now at the International Space Station!

Our Mission

Our mission is to provide students with at least 12 months of work experience while they continue to make progress towards an academic degree in engineering. The co-op program integrates theory learned in the classroom with its practical application in industry.

We also strive to provide industry with the students needed to maintain a skilled and well educated workforce for future years. Our employers get a chance to mentor a student, introduce him or her to their business, and possibly hire him or her after graduation.

Through co-operative education, we help students obtain transferable skills, such as communication, leadership, presentation, teamwork and social skills. Students get a glimpse of “real life” as an engineer.”

Our assessment tools provide the college with necessary tools and data for accreditation.

Participation and Outcomes

Roughly one-third of UK ‘s eligible engineering and computer science students elect to participate in co-op. Many employers located across the nation are consistent co-op partners – such as the National Security Agency, GE, Eastman Chemical Company, Duke Energy, Marathon Petroleum, BMW, and NASA. “In state” employers such as Ashland, Lexmark, Trane, LinkBelt, Messer Construction, CMTA, Turner Construction, Alltech, CMWA, Progeny, Toyota, the Center for Applied Energy Research, Altec Industries, LG&E and KU, Ceradyne, Parker Seals , and many more participate.

About thirty percent of our co-op work outside of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

The company size is not important; the work assignments must, however, complement academic programs. Most Co-op employers request students to work for a total of three, full-time semesters (about four months each) alternating with semesters of study on campus. Typically, 90 percent of UK’s co-op graduates have received job offers before receiving their diplomas. Their starting salaries are consistently in the 75th percentile of starting salaries being reported nationwide by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

Fifteen percent of UK co-op graduates go on to pursue advanced degrees, securing fellowships and assistantships from such schools as UK, Purdue, GA Tech, MIT, Duke, Virginia Tech, Johns Hopkins, University of Florida, UC Santa Barbara, Cal Tech, Carnegie Mellon, and UC Berkeley.

If you are an employer please see For Employers

If you are a UK student please see For Students