As Career College Enrollments Soar, Government Eyes Recruitment Crackdown
by Mark Sklarow, Executive Director, Independent Educational Consultants Association
While enrollment in traditional four-year colleges has edged up slowly in recent years, the numbers attending for-profit, post-secondary trade and technical schools has soared. In the last 10 years, enrollment in such ‘career colleges’ has increased by more than 200% with nearly 2 million students currently attending. Culinary, computer, forensics, and other programs have become especially popular as the economy soured and twenty-somethings looked to gain marketable skills.
With such growth comes greater scrutiny and the federal government is looking into allegations that some of the growth has been fueled by false or deceptive promotion, and recruitment strategies that skirt the law and burden students with high debt.
The proposed legislation, drafted by the Department of Education would require trade and technical schools and other for-profit colleges to fully disclose graduation and job placement rates. Anyone watching daytime television knows full well that many of these schools advertise heavily (the perfect time to reach the unemployed), promoting their schools as the path to a great career. Another part of the legislation being debated examines whether recruiters to for-profit schools target those unable to afford classes and burden students with unrealistic debt.
Recruitment to career colleges is examined in another section of the proposal. In many schools, salaries of recruiters are tied closely to incentives for success in enrolling students. While federal law prohibits direct fees based on per capita recruitment, many such vocational and for-profit schools skirt the law by providing bonuses for success without tying the fees paid to specific numbers of students registering. The proposal would tighten these rules, eliminating such incentives.
About a year ago I met with Harris Miller, president of the Career College Association, a group representing some 1,500 for-profit schools. It was clear in this meeting that post-secondary trade and technical schools provide a valuable alternative to traditional college settings. In many cases such schools have the latest equipment and turn out graduates fully prepared to enter the workforce in a chosen field. The growing numbers suggest the need for educational consultants to be aware of career colleges and know the strengths and weaknesses of those in their community. However, for-profit schools must ensure that their recruitment policies are ethical, honest, and fair to prospective students, in order to eliminate any concerns that they are purely in the business of generating income by making wildly impossible promises and rewarding recruiters to bring in students at all costs.
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Tagged: admissions, Career College Association, career colleges, debt, economy, educational consulting, ethics, for-profit colleges, Harris Miller, IECA members, recruitment, technical schools, trade schools