The recession made a negative impact not only in the US, but also to several countries around the globe. Businesses affected by this unfortunate event are insurance, real-estate, automotive, construction, manufacturing, and retail. There are industries which are said to be recession-proof like Health Services, Education, Government, Agriculture, Legal Services, and Financial Services such as accounting.
I mentioned that education is one of the "so called" recession-proof industries, and vocational or trade schools falls under this category. It seems that trade schools are doing great during recession. Why is this?
It's not true that there are no available jobs today. In fact, there are quite a number of high paying jobs available out there. The only problem is that most of the job seekers lack the necessary skills for the job being offered. This is where trade schools come in. Job seekers enroll to vocational schools to learn the necessary skills needed for the job they are interested to get into.
Laid-off workers are finding new careers as a massage therapists, bartenders, care givers.. etc. Thanks to vocational schools some employees, who lost their old jobs, were able to get back on their feet again.
But the road to success is usually peppered with obstacles. Despite high demand for vocational schools, the recession starved state budgets which means there won't be any significant funding increases in the near future.
For-profit colleges and trade schools also caught the critics' attention. Critics believe there are schools that exaggerate the value of their degree programs. For-profits trade schools have been accused that they over promise and under deliver, that these schools have exploited the recession as a lucrative recruiting tool while tapping a larger pool of federal student aid.
The Obama administration is concerned about these for-profit colleges' aggressive marketing practices. They have toughened rules which now restricts institutions that receive federal student aids from paying their admissions recruiters on the basis of the number of enrollees. The administration is also tightening regulations to make sure that vocational schools receiving aid dollars will prepare students for meaningful employment so that they can generate income to pay back their loans and not end up in financial distress."
Vocational or Trade Schools and For-profit colleges are one of the fast-growing American industry and has become a beneficiary of the recession. Enrolling to these schools won't guarantee immediate employment, but students flock these establishments to gain the necessary skills they needed to land a decent paying job.