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Tech Training Schools Going Bust

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the make-money-fast dept.

superflippy writes "The Associated Press reports that many tech training schools which opened during the last few years are now shutting their doors. During the dot-com boom, there was the perception that a few months of computer training could lead to a fabulous job. Now, it seems all these schools have produced are unemployed people with student loans and dubious certifications."

10 of 651 comments (clear)

  1. Classic example: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    1. Kid goes through course
    2. Kid does well, but doesn't really learn
    3. Kid gets job $63,000/year
    4. Kid has no idea what to do, but was able to talk his shit up.
    5. Kid goes to teacher and begs him to help
    6. Company pays teacher to do kids job $15,000

    Cost to company $75,000
    I know of this personally. Pretty annoying if you ask me. The kid actually still has his job too.

  2. Rightly So! These Schools are Crap! by ChopsMIDI · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A friend of a friend asked me to help him with a final project for one of his classes at ITT Tech. This was a project in ASP for an online bookstore. He was nearing completion of his associates degree in Web Design, and when I got there to show him things, he knew nothing at all. Not even HTML... When I asked him about that, he said he "sorta learned it a while ago". Last I checked, HTML was the staple of Web Development, no? All of his pages that he had made so far were all autogenerated by FrontPage. Goes to show you what good a $30,000 2-year associates degree at ITT Tech is worth.....or rather worthless.

    --

    How could I say to men: "Speak louder, shout! For I am deaf!"? -Ludwig van Beethoven
    1. Re:Rightly So! These Schools are Crap! by SilverTab · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Yeah, tech training can't make you a real computer geek. You have to actually be INTERESTED in computers. I've learned more ON MY OWN than I have from formal techie education. Those folx who pursue an IT education because "it's a good field to be in" will always suck because they're not actually interested enough in computers to learn anything on their own. So they don't know any more than their instructors tell them...which just isn't enough. There's A LOT to learn in order to do a decent job in any tech field. If you don't have the aptitude to seek out that which you do not know (or even to REALIZE what you do not know), you're gonna suck. That guy probably didn't even realize that he needed to know HTML.

      What somebody needs to do is design a course that will actually teach you all you need to know. I wonder if a CS degree program at an actual acredited university does?.... anybody know?

  3. Amen. These schools blow. by Stupid+White+Man · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I spent 10 months at "The Chubb Institute" gaining a certificate in Network and System Security. During the 10 months, we started with basic A+ cert type information, and worked our way up through Linux and MS ISA Server... none of each in enough detail to actually get a job done.

    In fact, we spent 1 week learning Redhat where we installed the OS, Installed Samba, and FTP.

    Then we spent 4 weeks (5 hours a day 5 days a week) learning how to write resumes and interview.

    Somehow I feel like Linux is more important then what color my suit is for the interview. (blue vs. grey)

    Lastly, they promised "Job Placement" - however, the only calls that the Graduating Security Class received were helpdesk positions.

    My question is... if the Network Security class... the most esteemed program at the Chubb Institute is getting calls for Helpdesk positions... what positions are the helpdesk classes getting?

    Janitorial?

  4. 8-year old MCSE by shoppa · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Speaking of the original dubious certification, a 8-year old just got certified as an MCSE.

  5. It's about Darn Time!! by Ask-A-Nerd · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Finally I'm starting to see some justice! I have 18 years experience but have been out of work due to all the outsourcing and dumping of jobs overseas for the last 10 months. Nothing has ticked me off more than seeing so called private schools like ECPI and others advertising in the paper for IT and Cert courses. They advertise like there is a shortage for jobs, that they cant fill them fast enough... when all they have done is dumped untrained memorizers on the market and created a glut of available personnel. And if a business or HR department doesn't know better, the fancy paper gets these really untrained workers the jobs at cheap salaries (because they have to pay those 30K college course fees) I wish they all would shut down and go back to just being Testing centers like back in the Drake days... or am I showing my age again.

  6. The problem with the schools by neilcSD · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The downward spiral of recent years, beyond anyone's direct control: 1) The economy going to hell 2) The resulting layoffs 3) People with years of experience competing for entry level jobs 4) A lack of entry level jobs (why hire someone fresh out of school when you can hire a former sysadmin for Dell tech support?) 5) Companies not paying nearly enough as they used to for tech positions This is not the schools' fault. A previous poster used the term 'dubious certs,' and this is completely accurate. The problem however is not the curriculum, it is the way the students study. When I attended a comp training school a couple years ago, I cannot tell you how many students used mcsebraindumps.com and other sites where they can get test questions. The percentage was huge. As a result, these people just memorized answers and did not know how to apply anything they learned (if they did at all) to real world situations. When they got out into the real world, they broke more than they fixed. As a result, companies now view these certifications with a skeptical eye. Sure, you passed the test - but what do you really know? Prove to me you can make it - but how do you get the shot if a sysadmin with ten years of experience wants that tech support job too? Answer: you don't. These schools have tried to hide this and have been largely successful, but the truth is finally coming out.

  7. Glut of IT courses means market saturation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I was involved as a lead instructor in the first 1 year full-time Network Technician program in Canada which started in 1994. The program was oriented to PCs and LANs. Typically, it graduated between 15 and 25 students per year for the next 7 years. The graduates were fairly quickly employed and for a city of close to 1 million, it was well respected and supported by the IT community. 15-25 graduates per year was a good balance for employment opportunities, the job market was not saturated and the starting salaries were reasonable.

    It was interesting to watch as other post secondary institutes and even other departments at our institute jumped on the IT bandwagon. When I left the program in 2001, our institute was graduating close to 500 IT grads/year, not to mention the local University and College graduating an equal amount. Then there were the private schools were pumping out MSCEs and CNEs and now Cisco engineers.

    The fact is that the market is saturated and the gravy train is over. Our school is hurting because we receive funding from the provincial government based on graduate's employment placement rate (for example: 93% employed after 6 months in their field of study). For the first time in 10 years, I've noticed that the placement rate description has changed from 6 months to 1 year and they've dropped the reference to "field of study" from the statistics. The IT programs are really hurting for enrollment also. People are wising up to the fact that it is difficult to get a job in IT with just a piece of paper.

  8. Re:Serves them right. by lucabrasi999 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    must students expected a passing grade just for the fact that they paid a lot of money

    Sounds like Graduate School. I'd receive a "B" just for showing up.

  9. Re:certifications mean nothing by raju1kabir · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Shredding someone's resume because they got an MCSE is pretty ignorant I might add anyway. Why not shred it if they have a Mexican sounding name, after all.. are Mexicans known for their outstanding tech skills?

    Count me among the MCSE-shredders.

    I have observed a strong correlation between trumpeting MCSE and being a totally ignorant useless waste of skin, at least at the keyboard.

    I have not observed that same correlation with Mexican last names (e.g., de Icaza).

    YMMV. There is no need to remind me that there are exceptions; I believe you. When I have 1000 resumes to sift through, a quick filter like that is helpful. No way all 1000 are going to get a full read.

    --
    "Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it." -- GBS