Cooperative and Work-Integrated Education in Asia: History, Present and Future Issues

It has been over a century since Cooperative System of Education, a work-study programme for higher education, was initiated by Herman Schneider at University of Cincinnati in the United States. Today, it is known as Cooperative Education which is commonly included within the umbrella term of Work-Integrated Learning and broadly referred to by the World Association of Cooperative Education (WACE) as Cooperative and Work- Integrated Education (CWIE). Its development worldwide has been closely related to the socioeconomic background of the region.

This book offers the first attempt to focus on the development of CWIE in Asia. To date, the development of CWIE in the Asia region has been slow compared to their counterparts. The analysis follows international comparisons of China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore on their educational history, vocational education, CWIE, and future issues. Although the level of development varies among them, there is no doubt that this region as a whole is experiencing a rapidly growing global demographic and economic prominence. CWIE can, and to some extent already does, play an important, supportive role as part of growth. The book goes on to conclude that in order to enable further successful expansion of CWIE, and improve its best practice, it is imperative to establish national and regional associations for CWIE, as well as establish collaborative research activities across the region with governmental funding support.