A descriptive study concerning adult cooperative education was conducted to identify types of cooperative agreements, some of the most common elements found on written agreement forms and whether these elements can be considered essential to any agreement, discrepancy between what is advocated in the literature concerning cooperative agreements and what is being practiced, and alternatives to writing formal written agreements. Sixty-three agreement forms were collected through (1) interviews and surveys of representatives from various agencies, postsecondary institutions having adult cooperative education programs, and proprietary schools in Colorado, (2) a national survey of postsecondary cooperative education directors, and (3) the literature review. The conclusions were as follows: (1) Five types of postsecondary level cooperative education agreements exist: apprenticeship, work-study, traditional, behavioral objective, and Civil Service; (2) although the essential characteristics which constitute an agreement were not determined, ten related categories were developed which could serve as a guide for constructing agreement forms; (3) the literature advocates that agreements be written but a substantial number of cooperative education programs rely on oral agreements; and (4) alternatives to writing agreements include the matching of the students' competencies to the employer's job description. (The survey forms, a frequency chart of agreement characteristics, and several agreement forms are appended.) (EM)