Rationale and Goals

 In 1999 the Hariri Canadian University (HCU) pioneered its COOP Program in Lebanon in collaboration with Canadian institutions. Cooperative Education is an integrated approach to higher education enabling students to combine post-secondary studies with practical experience in their chosen field. Twenty years of successful partnership between classroom education and business experience in Canada allowed the employer to become a complete associate in educating and characterizing future productive members of society.

Students graduating from post-secondary institutions will face profound social, technological, and economic changes; the Cooperative Education Program prepares students to face up to these rapidly changing global conditions. Through COOP, educators and employers share the responsibility of characterizing and guiding the training of the very people they will employ. Through this ‘partnership’, students develop into well-trained graduates, ready to assume careers in a dynamic and demanding Lebanese and regional markets.

Significance

COOP program offers benefits to all involved: students, institutions, and
employers. Students’ benefits of COOP are as follows: 

• Clarification of career goals
• Increased relevance of learning and motivation for study
• Self-reliance, self-confidence and responsibility
• Interpersonal and communication skills
• Contacts with potential employers
• Feedback through performance assessment
• Marketable job skills that increase employment chances
• Exposure to practical aspect of student’s major study
• CV enrichment with work experience