You always learn most of what you need on the job. The certificate is more of a proof you can learn than a proof you know the job. I graduated knowing enough to be dangerous.
I like to tell the young'ins coming up in the business that they pay me the big bucks not for what I can do, but for what I know not to do.
Are you trying to call me a liar?
I said that Glendale Career College was one of a gazillion diploma mills under investigation.
They promised training in an IT career and all they did was teach a few people how to do a basic web page.
The brochure talked a lot about data centers, server management, infrastructure, software design.
They did a two week "intro" that devoted about twenty minutes and a few paragraphs about those items, the third week was a test to see if we remember the intro, the fourth week was a beginning HTML class and by that time your 30 day grace period was up and you were locked into your loans. That is how a diploma mill does what they do.
The rest of the eight month curriculum consisted of nonsense devoted to orphan equipment, multimedia presentations from companies that "forecast" stuff and "contests" to see who had the best web pages.
The last month the job placement dept helped a few people get on at part time help desk gigs in fields they knew nothing about.
Yes, of course you learn A LOT of what you need on the job. But for instance, when I went to film school, I emerged with the ability to figure out ANY flatbed film system, (Kem, Steenbeck, Moviola) any nonlinear system and any videotape system, and I had a lot of experience operating them all.
I walked into Laser Pacific and figured out LaserEdit in FOUR HOURS when it was taking most of the older guys four WEEKS.
I walked into American-Russian TV and was up and running on a NewTek Toaster system in two days with a week to spare.
I learned how to use a Grass Valley system
LITERALLY in ten minutes as the broadcast was HAPPENING...I simply sat down and KNEW what to do thanks to my training.
I learned ON THE AIR, did not make ONE mistake.
On the contrary, I had to learn the 568B pinout from a drunken electrician who marveled that I had emerged from an IT school not knowing how to wire an RJ-45 jack. They TALKED about ethernet a lot, they TALKED about it and talked about it.
We never even saw so much as a SLIDE and the "handouts" they gave us (instead of books) didn't cover it, they just TALKED about it.
That's NOT a trade school, not by ANY standards.
Similar story: MY DAUGHTER.
She enrolled in
Marinello Beauty Academy.
Three weeks in, she told us that the teachers weren't even TEACHING anything, just sitting around in class and babbling.
And they weren't CUTTING HAIR.
Three MONTHS in she was supposed to be getting ready to take her state exams for her cosmetology license and she was freaking out. We had TO SUE THEM. I recorded our conversations with Financial Aid and, knowing that I might not be able to use the recordings directly in court, I still was able to arm our attorney with all she needed.
They SETTLED and our daughter did not owe a dime and we re-enrolled her in
Toni&Guy Hairdressing Academy Los Angeles. She graduated top of her class, had her license a week later and a job a week after that and is now a senior stylist at one of the top men's salons in Los Angeles. And she has managed to pay off her loan.
Sorry J, you don't get to control the messaging by putting lipstick on a pig you don't own. Just think of yourself as lucky, you didn't get burned. But PEOPLE DO, and unfortunately in the Age of Trump, the folks who operate shady fly by night operations are now back in the clear again.
In other words, if we were to try and sue Marinello today, we would be S.O.L.