From College to Career: How Co-ops Shape Initial Labor Market Transitions

• In Event: Toward effective and equitable career-based learning: Multidisciplinary perspectives on the college-to-career transition

Abstract

Study Objectives
This paper examines how the structure and experience of cooperative education (co-op) shape students’ early labor market outcomes. We examine three dimensions: the structural features of the co-op, the supervisory climate, and students’ subjective evaluations of their learning during their co-op. Our research questions are:

How do the structural features of co-ops and task specialization relate to students’ initial employment after graduation?

How does the supervisory climate of co-ops—particularly perceived quality of supervision—relate to student satisfaction with their most recent co-op?

How are perceived learning and task complexity associated with co-op satisfaction?

Conceptual Framework

We adopt a task-based framework (Acemoglu & Autor, 2011; Acemoglu, 2002) to conceptualize co-op placements not as uniform educational interventions but as channels that allocate students into specific bundles of tasks—each with distinct labor market transitions. In this approach, tasks (operationalized via our HHI index of functional specialization) shape variations in employment outcomes: specialized tasks yield larger skill premiums and a higher full-time probability of employment while non-routine, high skill co-ops contribute to student satisfaction. Our work also draws from occupational and organizational theories and professional identity development (Trede, Macklin & Bridges, 2012) to examine how students sort and are sorted into co-op trajectories.

Methods and Data Sources

Our sample comprises 4,851 undergraduates who entered a private East Coast university between 20116-2018 and graduated by 2023. Data sources include:

Administrative records of co-op structural features (payment method, search method, Fortune 500 indicator, duration, institutionalization, tasks performed during co-ops) and student demographics.

Web-scraped employment outcomes (LinkedIn; National Student Clearinghouse) classifying alumni as full-time employed versus underemployed (part-time or job-seeking) within 12 months post-graduation.

Survey data measuring perceived learning, supervision quality, and satisfaction, with scales derived via exploratory factor analysis.

Task specialization is obtained through the normalized Herfindahl–Hirschman Index (HHI), categorizing students as specialized, partially specialized, or diversified. The primary outcome is a binary underemployment indicator. We estimate multilevel logistic regressions with student–co-op predictors at Level 1 (HHI, structural features, sociodemographic characteristics) and college of primary enrolment at Level 2.

Results

Students in highly specialized co-ops had 2.4 times the odds of full-time employment within 12 months versus those with diversified or no co-ops (p < 0.001). Engagement in high-skill, autonomous tasks drove greater satisfaction, with perceived learning increasing satisfaction by 0.5 SD compared to a 0.2 SD gain from supervision quality. Co-op structure, task content, and supervision together accounted for nearly half of the between-college variance in underemployment. Underrepresented minority and first-generation students remained more likely to be underemployed even after controls.

Significance

Our work examines potential mechanisms through which shape students’ initial labor market transitions. We find that the content and structure of co-ops are more relevant to explain satisfaction and full-time employment than the number of co-ops. Our results contribute to the debate of specialization vs exploration showing that specialization and doing high skill tasks drives stronger full-time employment outcomes and higher satisfaction compared to exploration through diverse task trajectories or low skills tasks.

Authors

• Enrique Eduardo Valencia Lopez, University of California - Berkeley

• Oded Mcdossi, Tel Aviv University

• Faith Ann Couts, University of California - Irvine

• Richard B. Arum, University of California - Irvine