It seems that every decade brings with it a “hot” career field-and a number of for-profit trade schools catering to students interested in joining that profession.
Back in the 1960s, trade schools promised to get students jobs as flight attendants, though few airlines hired from such institutions. In the 1970s, it was real estate. And, more recently, schools purporting to train students for the beauty and medical records fields have been popular.
While a number of very good proprietary, or for-profit, training schools do exist, there also are those that promise a great deal more than they deliver.
In 1989, for example, the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago, a federally funded legal services organization representing the poor in civil matters, successfully prosecuted the owners of the D’Or beauty schools in Chicago.
“Of 1,400 graduates of the schools, exactly two had found work in the beauty field,” recalls Alan Alop, director of consumer litigation with the organization. “And one of those students had connections through her family that helped her get the job.”
During a four-week trial in federal court in Chicago, a jury found that students had been defrauded, and the schools were shut down.
All of this begs the question: What can people contemplating enrollment in such schools do to make sure that the time and money they invest will result in a real job?
Alop and others who closely watch proprietary trade schools have plenty of suggestions.
“There are several things they can do,” says Alop. “The first is to ask the school to provide them with names and phone numbers of five recent graduates. Then call those people and ask them whether they are working in the trade they trained for, and whether the school helped get them the job.”
Alop says this inquiry is perhaps the most important check on a school. “I tell students that if school representatives won’t give them names and numbers, or if they claim they’re not permitted to do this, look elsewhere,” he says. “If the school is legitimate, they should have a hundred names they can give out.”
The second move prospective students should make is to ask the school for statistics on how many students enter each year, and how many get jobs.
“All trade schools are mandated to provide this information in writing before the student enters,” Alop says.
He says he’s found that many for-profit trade schools have job placement rates of less than 10 percent. “Anything less than 50 percent should be considered a red flag,” he adds.
He also urges students to look into the loan default rates of the schools, which indicate how many students did not get jobs and therefore could not repay government-guaranteed loans. This is public record and is on file with the U.S. Department of Education’s post-secondary education division.
The division’s office in Chicago is 401 S. State St., telephone 353-3865. Prospective students should ask for the “cohort default rate” of the schools they’re considering.
But people who’ve sought such information warn it’s not always easy to get. Even though the data is, by law, public, many people say it takes repeated telephone calls and letters to get the records. One person says he was forced to file a Freedom of Information request before he could get the Depatment of Education to supply the data.
The moral: Be prepared to spend some time and don’t wait until the last minute to begin researching schools.
If a person is interested in obtaining medical training through a proprietary trade school, Alop recommends asking school representatives if the training received leads toward a state license.
“There is no license in Illinois that will get you a job in a doctor’s office,” he says. “And that’s the answer they should receive from the school.”
Douglas Parrott, the institutional branch chief with the Chicago office of the U.S. Department of Education, highly recommends investigating the school’s reputation with local businesses that might be expected to hire grads.
“Talk to local employers, and ask if they hire the school’s graduates,” he suggests. “Talk to the personnel offices of businesses that do the work you’re interested in doing. And ask the businesses that do hire graduates of the school whether the training provided by the school was useful.”
Parrott also recommends that prospective students read “School Shopping Tips,” a booklet published by the Department of Education. It provides tips on choosing a school and obtaining financial aid.
The booklet is free, and can be obtained by calling the Department of Education at 800-4 FED AID.
Another possible source of information is the Chicago office of the Better Business Bureau, 312-444-1188. Steve Bernas, assistant director of operations, says the BBB can provide information on the school’s record in the community.
“First, we can tell students when the school started operations, which is important because some of these schools claim to be more established than they are,” he says.
“We can also tell them who the principal owners are, when our files on the school opened, whether their business practices and advertising meet our stan-dards, and whether there’s been a pattern of complaints against the school.”
People who can’t find a for-profit program that meets their needs may be better off checking into city or community colleges. Many of these schools-such as Malcolm X College and Truman College in the City Colleges system-offer courses similar to those provided by the proprietary trade schools.
