As employers increasingly seek college graduates with strong credentials and work experience, students in cooperative education programs may have an advantage in today’s tough job market, employers say.

“Any student who is actively seeking employment while in school is showing the kind of characteristic we are looking for,” said Schneider Automation Human Resource Manager John Zanco.

Schneider Automation, which designs and develops hardware and software programs, has hired approximately 40 percent of the co-op students that have interned at its North Andover office, Zanco said.

Co-op students generally alternate between semesters of learning in the classroom and periods of employment. Cooperative education programs were rated the second most effective recruiting method companies used to hire college graduates by the 2004 Job Outlook Survey, conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers. Internship programs were first on the list.

NACE Employment Information Manager Andrea Carr said employers reported that 59 percent of new hires from the class of 2003 had internship experience and 28 percent had co-op experience.

Carr said the results of the survey demonstrate that co-op programs are an effective recruiting method.

Doreen Hodgkin, a senior associate dean at the Department of Cooperative Education at Northeastern University, said many schools have begun to mirror the university’s co-op program. Each semester, the university places 3,000 co-op students in jobs ranging from journalism to engineering, she said.

“In the end, a student can have 12 to 18 months of work experience by the time they graduate,” she said.

According to Hodgkin, 71 percent of recent Northeastern graduates were offered a job by former co-op employers.

Co-op programs do not appeal to every high school graduate. Students participating in co-op programs generally complete their studies in five years. While students get a break from tuition during their co-ops, they still face housing, transportation and living costs.

Basant Dang, a co-op student at Northeastern, said his two internships at John Hancock Financial Services were valuable.

“In a six-month internship you can learn your job properly and make many connections,” Dang said.

The 24-year-old business major said the co-op program “gives you the opportunity to see what it would be like to work in the real world for an extended period of time.”