In my previous articles on business role in education, I referenced Larry Martin’s work with the Multiple Engineering Co-op (MECOP) program at Oregon State University.  It is still a well-kept secret but shouldn’t be, as K-12 and college education worsens.  This article is a brief description of MECOP referencing Larry Martin’s complete description on Linked In.

Larry Martin https://www.linkedin.com/in/larry-martin-15604714/  was a Business Development Director for Allegheny Technologies Corporation, a multi-billion dollar multi-national enterprise manufacturer of high performance metals for a range of markets including aerospace, defense, oil & gas, medical, and commercial. His expertise included the Defense and Aerospace sectors.  In addition, Larry was twice Board Chair of the Multiple Engineering Co-op (MECOP) program at Oregon State University during its initial expansion of college disciplines, companies, and students. Larry was instrumental in developing the connections and sponsorships of businesses which created the “pull” from industry that led to MECOP’s exponential growth.

Currently, MECOP annually places over 600 students in Engineering and Business disciplines with an office of 5.

The history and key success factors are described in  Larry’s complete article that describes the program and growth.  Three of the key success factors include:

Business Customer driven- Program growth escalated when pull partnerships were developed with businesses.

Win-Win-Win for all three legs of the MECOP Stool.

  • Student: Two paid six-month internships with two different customers
  • University: Increased promotional and resource opportunities
  • Customer: Competed customer-relevant projects, access to a large pool of competitively selected students, long-term view of potential applicants, and B2B opportunities

Dependence on the program’s total quality to fill the needs of its students, universities, and customers.

  • Program systems are in place to maintain or continuously improve the high-quality standards of student, university, and customer.

Larry has served on advisory boards as well as guest lecturer. Currently, Larry is a Strategy and Entrepreneurship Instructor with the College of Business at Oregon State University, teaching entrepreneurism, innovation, Business-to-Business value chain business development, and other related instruction.  Larry was also past co-owner of a small consulting company that helped colleges design and implement customer-based professional internship programs.

Larry Martin, Multiple Engineering Cooperative, https://www.linkedin.com/in/larry-martin-15604714/

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Debra Mervyn, The Mervyn Group, Debra@MervynGroup.com