In what is considered to be a first for higher education in the United States, a Michigan community college has started a vocational certification program that offers a money-back guarantee should students not find a job within a year after completing the program (“A College Guarantees Job Offers — or Else a Refund,” TIME, April 7, 2010).
Beginning in May, Lansing Community College will offer six-week training courses in the four highest-demand technical jobs in the Lansing, Mich., area: call-center specialists, pharmacy technicians, quality inspectors, and computer machinists.
Each six-week course, which will grant students a certification upon completion, carries an average price tag of $2,400. The pilot program will prepare an initial batch of 61 students for jobs with hourly wages ranging from an average of $12.10 to $15.72.
The community college, which is the third largest in the state with about 30,000 students, sees this offer of “get a job, or get your money back” as a way to increase enrollment in a recession that has crushed the city’s economy and created 11.7 percent unemployment.
The program could also go a long way toward encouraging students to attend college who might otherwise stay away because of the cost. The money-back guarantee provides a safety net for those who may be hesitant to take on any debt from student loans, for fear of not being able to afford to repay.
Although the college hasn’t yet collaborated with local businesses to arrange for any sort of contracted job placement, Ellen Jones, the school’s director of public affairs, hasn’t ruled that out as a possible future arrangement. “We’ve had employers who’ve heard about [our program] call us,” she says. “They want these people.”
And with good reason. The 61 students in Lansing’s pilot program are expected to be highly qualified, which is good for lean companies looking to maximize employee value amid the lingering recession. All students in the program must have a high school degree, they won’t be allowed to miss any classes or assignments, and they’ll be required to undergo employability skill training.
However, Russ Whitehurst, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, takes issue with the program for its lack of sustainability. “If every community college in America did something like that,” he says, “they’d all be broke. They’d be refunding all their tuition.”
He also questions Lansing’s approach in terms of its failure to help students understand the value of tuition costs, student loans, and how much students receive in return for the amount of money they end up paying to obtain their higher education. He’d prefer schools to offer more transparency and disclosure, divulging program completion rates and graduates’ post-program employment outcomes, so that prospective students can make better, more-informed decisions. “Currently we just don't have that [kind of transparency] in post-secondary education,” he says.
Jones, for her part, views her school’s program as more than a marketing gimmick. She sees the money-back guarantee as a way to get people who never thought of themselves as college material or who are intimidated by student loan debt to reconsider things and give college a try.
“What we really want,” she says, “ … is [for] them to get comfortable with higher education. And maybe they’d like to continue.”
No comments:
Post a Comment