Cooperative education and internship programs combine a classroom seminar or online seminar with supervised work experience related to a student's academic major and/or career direction. Typically, students work an average of 6 to 10 hours a week, receive three credits applicable to their degree, and attend a weekly seminar. Cooperative education placements are paid positions while internships are generally unpaid, although some paid internships are available. The hundreds of students at Suffolk who enroll in these programs each year have discovered many advantages, including:
- getting valuable work experience plus credit towards a degree
- being able to "test out" their career choices and determine their individual potentials to succeed
- increasing their future marketability by adding career-related work experience to their résumés
- building networking skills in the business community
- increasing their individual potentials for permanent employment in their chosen fields
- learning how to achieve excellence in the workplace by becoming professional, highly motivated, career-focused employees.
