A New Direction for the Career School Industry

The Trump Administration is making a move to help employers fill the 6.6 million job openings currently available in the U.S. today. To facilitate the initiative, the Administration has formed the National Council on the American Worker whose mandate is to “modernize our nation’s education and job training system.”

Workforce Curricula

Career schools would be remiss if the industry failed to lean in and fill the gap that has been exposed in the education system. Many of the jobs require skills-training but not a college degree, and the businesses best prepared to train or re-train this population are career schools. Unlike traditional colleges, career schools are used to teaching the adult learner.

In addition, career schools already deliver focused programs consisting of the type of workforce training needed to fill these jobs – hands-on workforce training directly related to known job duties and that includes a practical component. Nursing programs, with their clinical rotations, are an example of the type of practical curriculum needed.

How Schools Will Make Money

            These focused workforce training programs will be shorter in length than degree programs and will include no general education or other content not specifically-related to job performance. While schools offering degree programs derive their revenue primarily from financial aid programs overseen by the U.S. Department of Education, the Council seems to have access to a different payment source within the government.

In addition, some large employers are expected to pay to have workers trained to the specifications of their unfilled jobs. A number of these companies, including Walmart, The Home Depot, Microsoft, General Motors, FedEx, UPS, Raytheon, IBM, Foxconn, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, United Airlines, and Mastercard, have pledged to fill or create jobs. And Oracle is among companies that already have robust job training programs delivered by career schools.

Trade associations may be another link to employer-paid workforce training programs.  Some groups already involved include with the Council are Signatory Wall and Ceiling Contractors Alliance, the Society for Human Resource Management, the National Retail Federation, the National Restaurant Association, American Trucking Association, Associated General Contractors, Associated Builders and Contractors, North America’s Building Trades Unions, Internet Association, and the National Association of Homebuilders.

Results-Orientation

The Council has a mandate to produce results which I take to mean job-ready graduates as measured by the number of openings that are filled within the next 5 years. The Council plans to use data to connect employers, workers, and educational institutions offering relevant training programs as a way to fill jobs in “high-demand industries.” The proactive entrepreneur in the career school space might allocate budget and time into exploring an opportunity to partner with corporate America in an endeavor that will surely survive regardless of whatever happens in Washington.