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Career schools a growing part of upper-level education
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BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Career and technical schools make up the fastest-growing segment of higher education as more adults decide four-year universities aren’t for them, and the stigma dismissing for-profit institutions as diploma mills fades.
From 2005 to 2006, the number of bachelor’s degrees granted at colleges grew 2 percent, while technical schools jumped 20 percent, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
“There is still a place for schools that teach liberal arts where students find out who they are, but for those people who know what they want to be, like a nurse, or a worker in hospitality or criminal justice, they see our schools as preparing them for that occupation,” said Harris Miller, president of the Career College Association.
Thomas Bien, 30, of Catonsville, enrolled at ITT Technical Institute in Owings Mills for the practical, hands-on experience of learning data communications and system technologies.
“We’re not just working from books; we have an overall knowledge of how it’s supposed to work,” he said. “It’s a laid-back atmosphere. I’m not scared to ask a question. The instructors are always available, and I can go to them at any time.”
Wanting to make more money, Dustin Witherite, 22, of Reisterstown, enrolled at ITT, where he studies information security systems.
Maryland has more than 100 career and technical schools, according to Kris Marino, executive manager of the Maryland Association of Private Colleges and Career Schools.
Nationally, most students attending for-profit schools are working adults in their mid-20s and 30s who want a career change or to earn more money by getting a post-secondary degree, industry leaders say. More than a third of them are minorities, totaling 37 percent, compared with traditional schools’ 24 percent.
kvolkmann@baltimoreexaminer.com
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2:16 PM MST on Tue., Jul. 29, 2008 re: "UM's business school ranks among best"
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frogseayouye said:
look water glass german are deliver
4 agree | 3 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Thier are two other companies in N.Y. harbor that offer school and a job.
324 agree | 326 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
These schools do not educate folks with degrees adequate for many BRAC jobs
367 agree | 357 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Please note that Judge Clifton Gordy is a Associte Judge in the Circuit Court for BALTIMORE CITY not Baltimore County.
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Q & A said:
Answer: Mudd, Mikulsi, and O'Malley. Question: Name three rteasons not to attend the U of Md.
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Julie Evans, University of Maryland, Baltimore said:
In your facts about UMB, you left out the majority of the students (4,837) on campus which are in graduate and professional degree programs: Physicians 621 Pharmacists 480 Dentists 456 Social Workers 840 Lawyers 830 Nurses 788 Physical therapists 194 Other graduate (PhDs) 628
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Examiner Reader said:
i think it is great hoping for nothing but success
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Ori Shabazz said:
If not solved in primary or secondary, Black males (Black people) must settle the identity question during post secondary work. Black male and female students in Baltimore must be INSPIRED to learn through innovative means. Black male students have to be taught the very basics of education and SOCIAL skills.
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Examiner Reader said:
I believe the problem with low attendence of black males in college is a cultural issue not a fairness issue.
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Examiner Reader said:
You mean all it takes to get black males to go to college is have black professors? Wow, I wish it was that easy. There is a nation-wide trend for more women than men in post-high school education; right now the gap is about 55% women and 45% men and getting wider. How does the issue of the race require different tactics than simply being a male?
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Examiner Reader said:
As a retired teacher, I am happy to see black young men with a continued positive influence post- high school. I do hope that the program developes with enormous success and extend itself to young black adolences prior to exiting High School. We need to give them a little motivation during the middle school experience. If that is not an option, well, I guess those wilth the inner drive will continue graduating for some institude beyond High School will do so! But, statistics are evidence, the we are losing them before High School! Grades 6th - 8th have been the points of deciding whether to lead or to follow. Our black youth need you, as a group positive black role models to implement some incentives to motivate their self-esteem and ethnocentric pride! May God bless you in this endeavor that may enlighten others to join your cause that can make difference in our city and others!
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