[Robert T]

I was approached by a high school cooperative education teacher today, He has several senior high school students that are interested in the landscape field and wanted to know if I would be interested in interviewing any of them for a part time job. Minimum of 15 hrs per week. Has anyone ever tried this approach? Could be a good way to develop an employee the way you want them to work and think.
also would be nice to have a $5.15/ Hr gofer!

[agla]

Remember that they can not touch a piece of power equipment until they are 18 - OSHA.

[Stonehenge]

Yup. In Wisconsin they can't touch a knife (or related sharp objects) until 16, too. Great if you have all kinds of grunt work to do. Otherwise, they aren't of much use to us.

[Paul]

I wold want to check with my insurance agent and go thru my polices. They might make good grunt labor, but would be limited as far as a gofer (no driving)

[Bill Schwab]

I would seriously doubt anyone, even a kid would work for $5.15 an hour. Kids can get jobs pushing fried chicken at KFC starting at $9.50 an hour, or at Mickey D's selling cholesterol bombs for $10.00 an hour, so why would they work busting the hump for less? I love the concept, but the numbers probably are not going to work for you.

[Noël]

Actually, the appealing part for the student is not so much the wage, but that he/she is likely also getting school credit too. I've also seen programs where the student works for NO wage, but they get the credits toward graduation.

We've done a couple stories with contractors who take advantage of the co-op programs at local schools, and they seem to like it. One advantage is the student can help with everything to, as you put it, "grunt work" to office work to passing out door hangers, etc. Second, these students are groomed to be future employees and a lot of times will come back to the place they co-opped (is that a word? ;-) after graduation.

One contractor likes the program, because when he sees a student with potential, he offers to help them pursue further schooling (kind of a scholarship) in exchange for becoming a permanent employee (working part time through school and full time after graduation). He says it has worked well for him.

One thing to remember, though, is that for credit at school, there are likely some parameters to their program, which includes more than grunt work. However, much of the time it just requires that the student be able to "shadow" folks doing different landscape projects and then writing a report on each aspect.

It depends too on if these students can actually be helpful and a good fit for your company. You may not need this type of help at this stage of your business. But for some, it's an ideal situation for both student and contractor.

[dan deutekom]

If you are looking at a program like this just so that you can get some cheap grunt labour then I suggest you forget it. If you look at a program like this as a learning experience for the student, and a chance to interest someone in your line of work with the possibility of perhaps gaining a good future employee then go for it. In our area the insurance is covered by the school. Just having had my oldest boy do 2 co-ops in the last few years has proven to be a very worthwhile endeavor for him. He originally wanted to be a mechanic but his co-op placement in that field changed his mind even though the shop offered him a job after his placement was done. He has decided to be a stone mason and that partly is because of his landscaping placement in which he got to work with stone and decided he liked it.

[Robert T]

I am considering this program because I went through it to become a mechanic. Indiana is developing new program that will start when students are in 9th grade. They will be taking classes that are in the same general area of study as the career that they wish to pursue at that time. In 10 grade they will do several job shadows and some sort of in school internship with a teacher or other school official. When they are in 11 grade they are to have an internship in there field they choose. This is for 2 hrs a day and they are not to be paid unless you hire them. When they are a senior then They are dismissed for 1/2 day of school to work for a min of 15 hrs per week. They Get 2 credits for the work portion of the program and 1 credit for a class that goes along with it.
They have about 70 students and 12% of them are interested in the landscape field. I would love to do something to help the program even if it is just to sponsor an intern at first.

[Bill Schwab]

The Illinois Landscape Contractors Association has had a program called the educational comittee where by the volunteers go into various high schools and show introductory videos and a slide show attempting to get new blood in the industry. The California Landscape Contractors Association has a similar program, except very much expanded over what ILCA had.

I am pretty excited about these types of educational offerings, the biggest issue however, is not as much of interest to students as it is finding a person who possesses the work ethics needed to add the enthusiasm for the specific field.

Work ethics as a whole are down in the US, and though it was bad in Illinois, it is terrible in California. Thus, the reason why ALL of our field personel are Guatamalan. When dad buys Jr. a new Beemer or Porsche for graduatiing HS, then gives them a $400.00 a week allowance, the last thing they are taught is work ethic. This is a very sad thing. The parents compound the problem, often looking down on those of us who get dirty for a living.

All in all, any program we push to gain those good people we desperitely need is better than as it stands now. And, I think so long as the work program is coordinated with credits/grades, I would hope that should be a good enough system of checks and balances.
Now, back to the business side of things as always, is paying someone minimum wage going to be enough compensation to your company to offset the additional cost of the learning curve, and the paperwork that will go along with co-op employees? Consider that banks spend on average of $9,000.00 to train tellers, only to have them leave after 6 months. Just food for thought....