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Cooperative Education Program
in School of Informatics and Data Science of
Hiroshima University

Learning for the Society,
Experience for the Future.
First "Cooperative Education" program
in National Universities JAPAN

In 2022, to cope with the progress in the research of AI, the School of Informatics and Data Science of Hiroshima University reorganized its curriculum for undergraduates into three major programs and introduced the three study models: "Basic Model Course", "Integrated Model Course", and "Pratical Model Course".

Particularly, the study model "Pratical Model Course" provides education based on a long-term corporate internship through the academia and industry collaboration. This model adopts the "Cooperative Education" strategy that allows students to experience practical work at a company and apply and improve their skills which they obtained in the lectures in the real society while being registered in the university. This is the first case of such a cooperative education program for the digital technology field, which is provided as a regular course in a national university JAPAN. To develop digital talents for the future, Hiroshima University will continue to provide new education models which integrate theories and practices.

Message from the Dean

Dean of School of Informatics and Data Science
Professor Tadashi Dohi, Dean the School of Informatics and Data Science

　The School of Informatics and Data Science of Hiroshima University was established as an education center that integrates the computer science and the data science in April 2018. In 2022, we introduced a new curriculum that consists of "3 programs and 3 model courses" to catch up with a progress in AI research and to handle various requirements for students' carrier development.
　Particularly, the "Cooperative Education" program was adopted as a part of the "Practical Model Course". This program is introduced as a part of the education based on the academia and industry collaboration, in which students are sent to companies for practical training for a long period of time. It is the first program in the digital field that is officially introduced as a regular curriculum at a national university JAPAN. The School of Informatics and Data Science regards this program as a lecture class of the "Long-term Fieldwork" to provide students with an opportunity in which they can have practical experience at a paid position in the company for four months respectively in the third and fourth grade.
　In addition, we hold the debriefing presentation where students evaluate their development and the learning they obtained by themselves and receive feedback from host companies after completing the corporate internship. This initiative is a new challenge that has not been seen in conventional higher education. We hope to further strengthen our collaboration with local companies and the industry while taking feedback and evaluation from various stakeholders into consideration.

Cooperative education, which allows students to obtain practical skills in a company

The Cooperative Education ("Co-op Education") is an education program which integrates the learning in a school and practical experience in a workplace. In this program, students are allowed to utilize the theory and knowledge which they have learned in the school to obtain practical experiences in an actual workplace. Such a program has been widely introduced by universities and professional training colleges and bridges learning in schools and a vocational career.

  • Practical education

    Students apply the theory and skills that they learned in the university in their internships. They are allowed to apply what they acquired in a practical situation and specifically visualize the way they will advance.

  • Paid internship

    Because most of the internships conducted in this program are paid, students can earn an income while studying. This is one of the differences between the internship conducted in this program and that in regular cases.

  • Internship compatible with study

    The internship is arranged according to the schedule established based on coordination between the university and the company to allow students to be concurrently engaged in their study and the internship.

  • Networking

    Through the experience in the company, students are allowed to establish personal connections with people in the industry. It helps them in their job seeking efforts after graduation.

Specialized education at university

Practical work experience at company

The Co-op Education is a system that benefits both the companies and the students and is expected to contribute to the improvement of human resource quality and enhancement of corporate value in the long run.

Benefits for students

  • Preparation for career development

    Through the experience in the workplace, students are allowed to learn the actual business processes and understand the workplace culture. It helps them in their efforts for job searching and career selection after graduation.

  • Practical work experience that can be listed in Curriculum Vitae

    Companies make much of practical work experience of recruits. In this regard, the Co-op Education provides a significant advantage to students.

  • Payment of salary

    The salary that is paid in most of the programs complements the tuition fee and living expenses.

Benefits for corporations

  • Discovery and development of talents for the future

    The Co-op Education program provides companies with an opportunity to directly observe the ability, aptitude, and attitude for the work of students. It allows them to find and train a suitable candidate to be employed after graduation at an early stage.

  • Reduction of recruiting costs

    By employing a student who has taken part in the Co-op Education program, the company is relieved from the necessity of searching for another candidate and can reduce the cost for recruitment activities. In addition, the student who joined the Co-op Education program has already got familiar with the corporate culture, therefore the onboarding period can be curtailed.

  • Introduction of new ideas and points of view

    Students are learning at the cutting edge and have the potential to bring a new technology and ideas into the company. They are expected to contribute to accelerate the innovation and problem solving in the company.

  • Inspiring the team and employees

    Joinning students, who are generally younger, can energize the workplace by inspiring the existing employees and providing an opportunity for learning.

  • Provision of practical experience that can be used as work-ready individual

    Through the practical work experience, students can obtain skills for coping with the challenge that they will face in the actual work situation. As a result, students who have completed the Co-op Education program are expected to be work-ready individual just after they are employed.

  • Exercising the social responsibility

    Companies can contribute to the local society and the education realm by providing students with opportunities for learning. Such activities also can be evaluated as a part of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) commitments.

  • Improving the corporate brand

    By cooperating with the education organization for the Co-op Education program, the company can establish a positive impression as "a company that is willing to contribute to education and the society." It helps create a positive impression on potential employees, customers, and students.

Co-op Education in School of Informatics and Data Science of Hiroshima University

The Co-op education of the School of Informatics and Data Science is the first Glocal Cooperative Education program*1 in a national university JAPAN that aims to provide the education based on the academia and industry collaboration at the global standard level. Hiroshima University joins the WACE*2 which aims to advance the "cooperative and all other forms of work-integrated education" while cooperating with universities and companies in the world as a full institutional partner. Under this concept and vision, we will promote Glocal Cooperative Education program with universities all over the world.

*1...Glocal Cooperative Education Program is a regular education program that is led by a university to integrate the study in the university and the internship outside the university to provide opportunities for practical learning while being engaged in an actual business based on a long term employment in a glocal company.
*2...WACE (World Association for Co-operative and Work Integrated Education) is a non-profit organization that consists of approximately 1,000 education institutions, corporations, organizations, and individuals from 52 countries, which is headquartered at Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It is the only international organization that is engaged in development, promotion, and branding of "Cooperative & Work-integrated Education (CWIE）including co-op education" which is conducted under cooperation between an education organization and the industry.

Participating companies

CHUGOKU ELECTRIC POWER CO.,INC.
CHUGOKU ELECTRIC POWER CO.,INC.
DreamArts Corporation
DreamArts Corporation
Hiroshima Bank, Ltd.
Hiroshima Bank, Ltd.
FUKKEN CO.,LTD.
FUKKEN CO.,LTD.
Micron Memory Japan, K.K.
Micron Memory Japan, K.K.
Mazda Motor Corporation
Mazda Motor Corporation
For companies interested in participating, please contact here!

Flow of practical and business subjects

The School of Informatics and Data Science provides six practical and business subjects for Co-op Education. Particularly, the "Long-term Fieldwork" is a characteristic subject in which students are engaged in an internship about eight months in total to experience the actual business process.

Lecture overview

  • Information Processing and Industry

    The omnibus lectures are provided by companies to introduce the up-to-date efforts for DX which are carried out in each company. Students learn how the study and learning in the School of Informatics and Data Science can be used in the industry and society and understand the actual situation of DX that is accelerated in various industries. They also discuss the way to use the knowledge and skills of information science.

  • Data Science and Management

    The lecturers invited from companies and public agencies present cases in their organizations.
    Students learn the actual situation of DX which is accelerated in various industries and discuss and review the way for using the knowledge of data science and management skills.

  • Frontier of Informatics and Data Science

    Students learn the trend of the study that is advanced at the front end of the information science in the lecture provided by prominent researchers in Japan. The lecture is provided based on the problems and data in the actual society to allow students to think about the practical challenges from the academic point of view.

  • Research Project

    Students are engaged in the study and development project in the company as an intern for approximately five consecutive days during the summer vacation. They are expected to obtain diverse capabilities required in the real company.

  • Long-term Fieldwork I

    Students are engaged in paid work in a company for approximately four months. They exercise the knowledge and skills that they have learned in the university and present the result in the debriefing presentation.

  • Long-term Fieldwork II

    Students are engaged in paid work in the same company as the Long-term Fieldwork I for approximately four months to improve the capability for applying the knowledge and skills in the practical situation. They present the result in the debriefing presentation.

Voices from Students who Joined the Program

Realized wide variety of careers

The long-term internship is appealing because it allows us to be engaged in actual business as a staff of the company. In my case, I was engaged in the requirement definition process with a vendor outside the company in the development of application for business efficiency improvement and joined an in-house seminar for introduction of generative AI as a panelist. I used to imagine only engineering roles as the job that requires the programming skills in the IT field, however, I realized that there are a wide variety of careers such as promoting DX within the company and infrastructure management.

Youta Oki (Host Company: CHUGOKU ELECTRIC POWER CO.,INC.)

Important skills as an engineer

I was responsible for implementing and optimizing the frontend experience of a product at DreamArts Corporation. I have significantly developed my capabilities in an environment that enabled me to work with discretion by receiving detailed code reviews and feedback. Furthermore, I believe that my communication and task management skills have strengthened in close collaboration with various departments, including the design team. While coding processes are becoming automated, I have recognized that in addition to coding skills, it is also crucial for engineers to cultivate a product-centric mindset and a profound understanding of the user experience.

Koki Ito (Host Company: DreamArts Corporation)

Perspective looking for the future developed in work

I acquired the skills required of an engineer by developing the in-house tool and mobile application product. The functions I developed and improved have been successfully implemented in the applications and delivered to customers. I have learned that writing clean, readable code is essential for long-term maintenance. I will continually improve my multifaceted perspectives and logical thinking abilities to write more practical code.

Raito Tsutsumi (Host Company: DreamArts Corporation)

Important opportunity for improving skills required for a professional

I not only developed skills regarding programing languages but also acquired the decency of a professional and schedule management skills. I was delegated the debugging task and it was a valuable opportunity for taking responsibility for the job. In addition, I realized how the information technologies that I learned in the university are linked to the real life. I will continuously improve my professional knowledge and skills to produce products and services that contribute to solving problems in the real life in the future.

Ryota Noda (Host Company: Hiroshima Bank, Ltd.)

Importance of a sense of purpose in a company

When working on tasks, we are easy to confuse between the goal and the means. The development of the generative AI assistant that I worked on this time originally aimed at the goal of "improving work efficiency." However, as the project progressed, I found myself intending to "create a perfect, error-free AI assistant." As a result, I became too focused on fixing minor mistakes that didn’t significantly affect the overall outcome. I realized that it is important to stay focused on the goal to avoid wasting time and costs in a company setting, where productivity is highly valued.

Haruya Yoshida (Host Company: FUKKEN CO. LTD.)

Outputting what I learned up to now

I learned about the semiconductor manufacturing process in multiple departments and then was engaged in tasks such as analyzing product data and improving operational efficiency. I had frequent opportunities for giving presentations in the course of my work and I learned that it is important to clearly communicate things like analysis results and the benefits of implementations. Through the internship, I developed my ability to apply and effectively output what I had learned. Thanks to the long-term internship, I also gained insights into such as company culture and had substantial fieldwork experience.

Mizuki Hashimura (Host Company: Micron Memory Japan, K.K.)

Experienced difficulties in applying theory into practice

The appeal of this program lies in the opportunity to enhance the knowledge and skills in the first semester of the fourth year grade on the experiences and challenges gained in the real workplace and then further build up practical experiences in the second round of long-term. I was engaged in the project for improvement of a chat bot system this time. While I developed my skills by experiencing the process of solving challenges that I faced in the real work, I also realized how difficult it can be to apply knowledge to practical work. To prepare for the next long-term internship, I will continue to strengthen my foundational skills while maintaining a proactive attitude toward learning.

Yuuya Kuretoko (Host Company: Mazda Motor Corporation)

On February 13, the briefing meeting for the first Long-term Fieldwork was held.

　On February 13, 2025, the debriefing presentation was held at the Library Hall of Hiroshima University’s Central Library to present the results of the students of the first generation of the fieldwork program. In this first Long-term Fieldwork, seven students were dispatched to serve internship in a total of six companies for approximately four months from October 2024. They each gained hands-on experience in real workplace settings.
　The presentation began with the opening remark by Professor Yumiko Suzuki ,Executive Vice President (in charge of Education and Peacebuilding), followed by Professor Tadashi Dohi, Dean of School of Informatics and Data Science, who spoke about the significance of the Co-op Education program, efforts to develop digital transformation (DX) talent in the local community, and prospects for the upcoming academic year. The students gave presentations on the work they carried out at their host companies and what they learned and showed their sense of achievement they gained in the hands-on experience. They also reflected on the gap they felt between the skills expected by companies and what they had learned at university.
　The event was attended by over 100 people from both inside and outside of the university, including representatives from the host companies. Participants shared comments such as “It was very inspiring” and “I felt it was a great initiative,” reflecting their expectations for the outcomes of the Co-op Education program and its future development. Further five companies will join the program in the next academic year to provide more various opportunities for learning.

Participate in our university's Co-op Education program

The school of Informatics and Data Science of Hiroshima University is currently recruiting companies to participate in the Co-op Education program. Positive feedback has been given by the participating companies regarding the benefit in securing talent and achievement in working with students. If you would like to participate, please contact us using the details below.

Contact for details

TEL：082-424-7888
MAIL：Email Address

  • We participated because we thought it would be a good opportunity to apply new ideas that the students provide for our work while advancing DX within the company. It was a good stimulus for our employees.

  • Thanks to this internship, we became aware of the importance of developing young talents within the company. We will continue to collaborate with the university to develop excellent digital talent.

  • To teach is to learn. Our young engineers gained a lot of learning through this internship. We are very grateful for this opportunity.

  • This initiative is beneficial for both companies and students. We hope that the number of participants will increase and the program will continuously evolve in the future.

  • It is pleasant that the students have realized that there are opportunities to work in industries that are unfamiliar to IT students. The talented students contributed to our business by making proposals based on their young sensibilities.

  • I think this is a groundbreaking initiative, which is the first case of its kind in a national university. We really appreciate such a wonderful program provided by Hiroshima University.