[nfbcs] Trade schools

[John G. Heim]

By trade school do you mean for-profit tech schools  like the University 
of Phoenix   or Upper Iowa University? I think state-sponsored technical 
colleges are okay. But I have a story about the for-profit places.

A few years ago, I talked the owner of the small consulting business I 
was working for into contacting my state's Department of Vocational 
Rehab and having them send over someone to fill a vacancy. They sent 
over a middle-aged man who had lost his voice in a car accident and 
therefore had lost his job as a salesman. This man had gone back to 
school at one of these for-profit tech schools for a degree in computer 
programming. On his first day, I gave him an assignment and came back a 
few hours later to see how he was doing. He hadn't even gotten started. 
He didn't know how to get started. So I figured it was my mistake and 
I'd given too difficult of an assignment. So I gave him an easier one. 
When I came back a while later, he hadn't gotten started on that either. 
So I asked him to write a program counting from one to ten. Just display 
the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10.  He couldn't do that 
either. He was fired before the day was done.

It was heartbreaking. He already had to deal with the accident and it's 
aftermat. Now he was going to have to come to grips with the knowledge 
that the effort he'd put into putting his life back together  was 
wasted.  I have no idea what happened to him but I only hope he somehow 
managed to pick himself up off the mat one more time and give it another 
try.

There was no way I could excuse or even hide his lack of knowledge. It 
was embarrassing for me but mostly I just felt bad for the guy. And it 
was bad for Voc Rehab because there was no way my company was ever going 
to work with them again.

I talked to the guy toward the end of the day abouthow his lessons 
worked. It sounded pretty much like a normal classroom situation. He sat 
through lectures, got assignments, tests. It was unclear how he managed 
to pass without learning anything. Honestly, I  wanted to tell him that 
he should demand his money back.

I always say that life is like a vending machine, you don't get anything 
out of it unless you put something in. Maybe the school worked that way. 
I know the guy didn't deliberately avoid learning anything. But maybe he 
didn't try very hard either. But I do not think that is what happened. I 
think he was ripped off. I think the school was just a scam to seperate 
particularly vulnerable people from their money.

On 03/26/2013 09:38 AM, Tracy Carcione wrote:
> Pursuant to our discussion a few weeks ago about whether a 4-year CS
> degree is required to find employment, I wonder about the results from
> trade schools.  I hear ads for many places that say they will teach a
> person programming.  Are any of them worthwhile?
> I am trying to advise a young blind man who wants to get into programming.
>   My first piece of advice was that he should join this list, where he will
> get lots of different perspectives.  He's thinking he'll go to a community
> college, then get a 4-year CS degree.  Sounds fine.  But, with the huge
> cost of 4-year colleges these days, I was wondering if he might do equally
> well, and be less in debt, if he went the trade school route. Or is that
> all a huge scam?
> Tracy
>
>
>
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