Bartkus, K. R. (2001). Social Skills and Cooperative Education: A Conceptual Framework. Journal of Cooperative Education and Internships, 36(1), 17-24.
The success of a cooperative education work term typically requires students to exhibit adequate levels of social skill. Unfortunately, since social skills are not ordinarily emphasized as part of the formal college curriculum, preparation may be less than optimal. The purpose of this article is to address this issue by presenting a conceptual framework that can be used to develop a social skills training workshop within the operational parameters of a cooperative education program. The paper concludes with a proposed program for the application, monitoring and evaluation of a social skills training program.