Private job retraining schools often charge more, are less regulated - Some are scams

I had posted this back on Friday in GD. It quickly sank over the holiday weekend. I felt that it deserves a second chance.


Last Updated: July 02. 2010 2:22PM
Assessing No Worker Left Behind: Part 2
Retraining boosts private schools
But for-profit programs often charge more, are less regulated
Marisa Schultz / The Detroit News


In a Southfield office park, the former ComputerTraining.edu suite is dark and empty. The desks, computers and servers were removed hastily months ago. Neat writing on a classroom whiteboard is the only remnant of the hopes of its students: "Microsoft IT Academy," it says, introducing the six-month course with "Graduation: 7/14/2010."

The private for-profit school once represented a fresh start for Senad Zukic, 24, a laid-off graphic design worker who qualified for tuition assistance through the state's $500 million retraining effort called No Worker Left Behind. But an abrupt e-mail to him and about 100 others on Dec. 31 announced the school would immediately close -- midway through his program.

Now Zukic is without a certification or a job and still on the hook to repay a $7,000 private loan he took out to help cover the cost of tuition.

"I felt really betrayed," said Zukic. "I was really disappointed. I had everything planned out. ... I was really confident that as one of the top students I was to get the best job."

The sudden closure of a school represents an extreme risk of the state's retraining program. No Worker Left Behind has been a boon to proprietary schools, which some argue are better equipped to quickly handle career-changers. They also typically charge and promise more than public schools, although they are sporadically accredited and loosely regulated by the state.

Proprietary schools are the No. 1 recipient of No Worker Left Behind dollars in Metro Detroit, ahead of community colleges, a Detroit News check of local Michigan Works! offices found. While the state could not provide figures on payments to propriety schools statewide, in suburban Metro Detroit alone private schools have collected $50 million in taxpayer money from 15,000 students in six counties. The figures exclude Detroit, which declined to provide financial information.

ComputerTraining.edu, also known as ComputerTraining.com, had been licensed in Michigan since 2005 but was not accredited. Zukic's six-month course cost $13,500 -- more than a year's worth of undergraduate tuition at the University of Michigan.


From The Detroit News: http://www.detnews.com/article/20100702/METRO/7020390/1...

They are total ripoffs - charging tens of THOUSANDS of dollars in tuition per year. They spring up like mushrooms after a spring rain, change their names and locations overnight, some aren't even accredited. Buyer BEWARE!

stage 1 primary/secondary ed
stage 2 state community colleges & voc schools
state 4 state colleges & universities