Despite the sluggish economy, more than 2,000 students in Drexel University’s co-op job program managed to score positions for the fall semester.

KYW’s Mark Abrams reports that Peter Franks, who oversees the Drexel co-op program, says companies still see the value of participating in co-op internships because of what he calls the “pipe-line effect.”

“Employers are primarily hiring co-op students because of their ability for trial employment. They’re able to see how young people are going to perform within their own organization and to make judgments on whether these are young people they might want to hire when they graduate.”

And, Franks says, since the companies are not looking to hire for at least a year or two down the road, an organization can build up a potentially rich pool of talent from which to choose when the time is right to add positions.