A paid work-experience is called a Career Technical Experience (CTE). A CTE is a long term, paid arrangement where the student immerses themselves into a work experience in order to learn or refine their skills related to the field they are studying.

Although a CTE experience can be as short as a week or two, they are more commonly a semester or even yearlong placement. Many co-op students go right into full time employment at the company they are working for after graduating high school.