In Education for Employment and the concurrent Cooperative Internships, business partnerships are essential to enhance the curriculum by providing the industry expertise and resources that classroom instruction alone cannot provide.  Below are examples of partnership involvement:

1.   The Cooperative Education Coordinator recruits the participation of community businesses through face-to-face meetings with potential employers during the summer months. Thirty minute appointments are scheduled for sharing an overview of cooperative education instruction, distributing COOP brochures, and highlighting the benefits of the program for students and employment sites alike.  There is a training agreement which is a formal written document that clearly spells out the responsibilities of all parties involved—student, parent, employer, and Cooperative Internship Coordinator; a sample of this agreement is left with the potential employers to review at their convenience.  Likewise the evaluation process of students is shared with employers--the monthly employer evaluation checklist and quarterly assessment are completed by the supervising employer.  The current partnerships encompass a variety of businesses in the retail, child care, food, beauty, and automotive maintenance, landscape, and entertainment industries. A coordinator's role in this evaluation process is to visit job sites monthly discussing with the employer and observing students' performance in the workplace.  The employers praise Hayfield's program due to its stringent accountability to students, the Hayfield business community, and Virginia Department of Education.  They realize that cooperative education in <st1:state w:st="on">Virginia</st1:state> provides opportunities for students to acquire the academic knowledge and technical skills to enhance employability, enables them to advance in a career interest, and maintain their competitiveness in the workplace. 

2. The annual Employer/Employee Appreciation Luncheon is one of the most important business and social events in the cooperative education program.  This luncheon provides an opportunity for the students and school community to honor employers for their cooperation in hiring and training coop students in a real workplace setting; hence allowing them to apply their knowledge and skills learned in the classroom.  Jointly, the Hayfield Cooperative Internship coordinators plan and implement this event with the help of the students. Responsibilities are divided to include securing the high school lecture hall facility and seating arrangements, creating invitations, name tags, printed programs, and employer certificates of appreciation, choosing a student speaker, buying decorations and certificate frames, selecting music for the theme of the luncheon, and securing a catering company within budgetary restraints.

The Appreciation luncheon is a structured two hour function that includes a greeting and networking time, opening remarks, a student speaker, distribution of certificates of appreciation by student employees to their specific employer, and closing comments by the Cooperative Internship Coordinators and the Employers.  This culminating event illustrates the total involvement of the students in appreciation of the workplace expertise provided to them as well as the commitment of the Hayfield employment community to the cooperative internship program. See attached samples.

3.  Another curriculum related event which benefits both the students and employers in our local community is the Mock Job Fair Interviews. Employers are recruited for a mock job fair day as a culminating activity for the interviewing skills unit.  The employers conduct panel interviews using structured interviewing techniques and company questions. Students are given three 30 minute panel interviews as they move table to table simulating a job fair environment.  The employers allow time for feedback to the students as to their interviewing strengths and areas needing improvement. This experience is a win-win situation for all involved!  Not only did it promote favorable relationships between employers and Hayfield, but the employers were able to recruit qualified students, who were not currently employed, to apply for a job opening with their company. It likewise gave the employers greater awareness of the related classroom instruction in preparation for the workplace. Employers networked with other businesses in the community and new partnerships have been developed through the best public relations strategy—word of mouth!  Attached are pictures of the mock job fair.

4. A final example of partnership involvement is the use of guest speakers in promoting technical school options.  The College and Career Center does an exemplary job of presenting an array of post secondary opportunities to students through speakers representing various colleges/universities, apprenticeships, and the military.  In addition to the services of the Center, discipline specific guest speakers are invited to the classes. Representatives from Westwood College, a EPCI College of Technology, Devry University, and Northern VA Community College speak of alternative options to a 4 year university.  Technical and community colleges provide a lot of hands- on learning experiences, flexible degree programs, expanding program of studies, free tutoring, and career support; all of which are enhancing components for the success of an Education for Employment student.