Abstract:
Both educators and politicians appear to be quite
concerned about a dropout rate in Ontario's public schools
of some 30 percent. With the basic understanding that a
high dropout rate is costly both in economic terms and in
human terms, something quite obviously needs to be done to
reduce the dropout rate in Ontario schools and, in doing so,
ensuring Ontario and its graduates an active role in a
growing global economy.
This study is an exploratory pilot study in that it
examined mentoring and the role that mentoring can play in
assisting a student in staying in school and graduating from
secondary school. Also incorporated in this is co-operative
education and the role it can play, through mentoring, in
making students aware of lifestyle level of employment, and
of the skills necessary to obtain gainful, meaningful
employment.
In order to gain information on student attitudes,
needs and expectations of a mentoring situation, a series of
three questionnaires was used. Also, a questionnaire was
distributed to the various co-operative education employers.
The intent of this questionnaire was to probe the attitudes,
needs and expectations of a mentoring situation from the
perspective of an employer.
The findings of this study indicated that co-operative
education and mentoring are a very valuable and useful
component in education. There exist certain factors in a co-operative education setting that serve to enhance and to
augment the traditional or "theoretical" setting of the
classroom. In addition, a mentoring situation tends to add
a sense of relevance to education that students seem to
require. Also, an opportunity is offered that allows a
student to practice and further refine the skills that have
been taught over the course of the student's academic life.
Results from this study suggested that a mentoring
situation, occurring through a co-operative education
situation, adds relevance and a sense of "application" to
the traditional or classroom schooling situation.
The whole idea of mentoring bodes well for the future
of education and of the student. Many advantages are
identified in a mentoring situation. One of the advantages
is that the schools are able to work quite closely with the
community and business in order to stay current and informed
on the needs and expected needs of the business community.
Co-operative education has now gone beyond being an
"experimental" mode of education. All students can benefit
from being involved in the program. Certainly at-risk
students are aided with staying in school. Those students
who are said to be not at-risk can also benefit from being
enrolled in the program by gaining hands-on work experience
and some of the necessary skills to ensure a place in a
growing world economy.
