The fast pace of product development has caused a need for both managerial and technical graduates who are able to solve problems. In the area of Industrial Education, new methods are needed to enhance problem-solving skills. Industry generated product ideas are turned over to Engineering Technology and Technical Graphics students for design, drawing, and prototyping. This presentation examines the value of Industry/Education cooperation in regard to improving product development and sales as well as examining it’s effect on student scores, skills, and self esteem. Both beneficial and detrimental factors to industrial and educational cooperation are discussed. Various groups of students were tested at different levels of instruction before and after being assigned industry partners in the development of new products. Significant increases in standardized test scores and design skills were noted after the cooperative development of these designs and prototypes. Various uses for product design and prototyping partnerships in education and industry are examined and their benefits to students, educators, administrators, and industry are examined. While the time constraints placed on both the students and the instructors is a problem, the benefits are great enough to make this cooperation worthwhile. The use of advanced technology is expensive but there are various ways to defray the cost of this technology to both education and industry. Cooperative ventures of this kind result in more ideas going into production, increase student learning, and help small-scale production facilities increase their profitability.