Jun 11th 10 Posted by Brenda Harms in Adult Students, Featured Articles

For-Profit Institutions Serving Adult Students

This week I will have the pleasure of attending the Career College Association (CCA) Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. I attend this conference each year to keep an eye on what is happening in for-profit education and how it will impact the public and private institutions that I spend the majority of my time with. This is a large group. According to their website CCA has 1,400 member institutions, and will offer a number of breakout sessions that offer topics regarding how for-profits go about the business of marketing and recruiting adult students.

So I ask you to think about this question, how big is the career college marketplace? According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, nearly two and a quarter million students attended accredited career colleges in 2006-2007, which represents 9% of the total market of 25 million students. Enrollment at career colleges between 2003-2004 and 2006-2007 increased 12% in less-than-two-year programs, 18% in 2-4 year programs and 48 percent in 4-year or more programs.

I know many institutions do not believe they compete with for-profit institutions. For a select few, yes, I believe that to absolutely be true. But when I consider this data I can’t help but think some of the students attending these institutions may have also considered a public or private as well. In my next blog I will be reporting back on some of what I have learned from this conference. Will it apply to your institution directly? I’m not certain. But I am sure that higher education needs to be keeping a close eye on what this group is doing, and learn the lessons that they can!

Photo by Great Beyond

Visit Brenda at Stamats Integrated Marketing: Graduate School Marketing Conference this July in Chicago! More information at www.stamats.com/simgrad2010.