What is coop?

A co-op student is one who is gaining paid work experience related to his/her major or career goal. The co-op earns academic credit for the work experience under the guidance of a Cal Poly Pomona faculty member. The work period should last at least one quarter on a half-time or full-time basis. Co-ops generally start their first work period sometime between their late sophomore to early senior years.

How Does Co-op Benefit a Company?

Co-op students allow flexibility in staffing by freeing up higher paid professionals to do more important work.

Co-op students are a proven source of permanent employees while keeping recruitment costs down. At the same time co-op students become excellent company representatives and recruiters on campus.

A co-op student becomes more productive sooner as a permanent employee than a college graduate without work/co-op experience.

What Departments at Cal Poly Pomona Participate in Co-op?

Students majoring in any of the 45 academic departments are eligible to be placed in co-op positions.

• College of Agriculture: Agricultural Biology; Agricultural Science; Agronomy; Animal Science; Apparel Merchandising and Management; Food Marketing and Agribusiness Management; Food, Nutrition and Consumer Science; Food Science and Technology; Horticulture; Landscape Irrigation Science; Soil Science.
• College of Business: Accounting; Business Law and Contract Management; Computer Information Systems; E-Business; Finance; International Business; Management and Human Resources; Marketing Management; Real Estate; Technology and Operations Management.
• College of Education and Integrative Studies: Department of Education; Ethnic and Women's Studies; Liberal Studies.
• College of Engineering: Aerospace Engineering; Chemical Engineering; Civil Engineering; Electrical Engineering; Industrial Engineering; Manufacturing Engineering; Materials Engineering; Mechanical Engineering; Engineering Technology; Construction Engineering Technology; Electronics and Computer Engineering Technology.
• College of Environmental Design: Architecture; Art; Landscape Architecture; Urban and Regional Planning.
• College of Letters, Arts, and Social Sciences: Behavioral Sciences; Communication; Economics; English and Foreign Languages; Geography and Anthropology; History; Institute of New Dance and Cultures; Kinesiology and Health Promotion; Music; Philosophy; Political Science; Psychology; Sociology; Theatre.
• College of Science: Biological Sciences; Chemistry; Computer Science; Geological Sciences; Mathematics; Physics.
• School of Hotel and Restaurant Management.

When and How Does a Company Hire a Cal Poly Pomona co-op?

Co-op students can be hired at any time of the year.

A company should provide the Co-op Office (by phone at 909/869-3434, fax at 909/869-4396, or by creating an employer account and submitting the information through the website) with the necessary job information at least three weeks before desired starting date for a co-op position. A site visit may be required before the job announcement can be posted. The co-op office will advertise the position to the appropriate groups at Cal Poly Pomona, including underrepresented populations, and will collect the necessary application materials which will be given to the company. Interviews may be done at the company or at Cal Poly Pomona (subject to room availability and adherence to the Career Center's policies).

What Salaries Do Co-ops Earn?

The company determines the student's salary and benefits (if any). Competitive co-op salaries depend on a number of factors such as major desired, class standing (Sophomore, Junior, Senior), flexibility of allowed working hours, distance and traveling time from Cal Poly Pomona or the students' residence, etc. Currently, the vast majority of co-op salaries fall within $9-15 per hour.

Does the Company Pay Any Fees to Participate?

No! The company will need to let us know who the student's supervisor will be at work. This person must complete an evaluation form on the student's performance each quarter, approve (sign-off) the student's co-op report that is submitted to the Co-op Office for a designated faculty member at the end of a quarter, and may be asked to and participate in an arranged on-site visitation (approx. one hour) by a Co-op Office representative with the student. If necessary, this visitation can be done by a conference call.

Please be advised that our Co-op Program CANNOT accommodate any company that conducts their business out of a private residence

Below is a partial list of companies who have recently participated in the Cal Poly Pomona Co-op Education program.

Contract Co-op For Your Company to Consider

This special variation of Co-op is designed for companies that would like students to be hired and paid as Cal Poly Pomona Foundation employees. A contract will be drawn up between the company and Cal Poly Pomona Foundation. Foundation then bills the company a monthly flat, fully-burdened hourly rate for each student hour worked. The hourly rate will vary from contract to contract depending on the student's major, education level, and nature of the task.

There are a number of benefits for the companies who participate in this special variation of Co-op:

• Co-op students allow flexibility in staffing by freeing up higher paid professionals to do more important work.
• Co-op students are a proven source of permanent employees while keeping recruitment costs down.
• A co-op student becomes more productive sooner as a permanent employee than a college graduate without co-op experience.
• Co-op students are Foundation employees and not your company employee. This lowers your payroll expenses as well as taxes.

Many companies have had continued success with this program, including the Metropolitan Water District(MWD), the South Coast Air Quality Management District(AQMD), Avery Dennison, and the United States Geological Services(USGS). We encourage you to consider this special variation of Co-op and how it can benefit your company.

If you are interested, please contact us about it or fill out the forms on the forms page.

Forms

Below is the Co-op Job Information form. Please fill this out if you are interested in posting your job with us. The first link is a "Print-only" version of the form. You may print it and fill it out then fax it to us. Please note that you will require either Flash Plugin 6.0+ or Adobe Reader 6.0+.

Alternatively, you can create an employer account, and fill out the job information form electronically. To do this, click the login link above. Complete the options required to register an account, and choose the "This is an employer account" option. When you log in with this account, you'll be able to fill out an information form for your company, and begin submitting job information to the office.

 

Co-op Job Information Form FlashPaper PDF N/A

 

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