Jackson Free Press

BoneQweesha Jones: "I know that pink slip was a hard pill to swallow. Six months later, the anxiety and stress of landing a decent job in this economy has forced you to question yourself. Living from week to week gets a lot worse than working from paycheck to paycheck. For a brief moment, you and your reflection in the mirror have a pity party and philosophically conclude that you've wasted your life working at that manufacturing plant.

"The faculty and staff of Hair Did University College of Vocational Skills and Trades empathize with the jobless individuals seeking a new career in a poor economy.

"This coming fall semester, HDU wants to give the people what they need: a valuable skill or trade. Since the Ghetto Stimulus Package has been very, very good to us, we want to be very, very good to you so that you can do very, very well in the recession.

"Therefore, we're proud to announce our new and accessible branch campuses: Clubb Chicken Wing School of Hospitality and Culinary Arts (Clubb Chicken Wing Multipurpose Complex); Hustle Family School of Business and Information Technology (Brotha Hustle and Aunt Tee-Tee's basement); Nurse Tootie's School of Certified Nursing Assistant Training and Certification (Funky Ghetto Mall, Suite 300 1/3); and Hybrid Hoopty School of Automotive and Transportation Engineering Theory and Theology (Rev. Cletus Car Sales Church, adult Bible study classroom)

"As dean of Hair Did University, I look forward to seeing the jobless become the new work force in America."

Previous Comments

ID

149924

Comment

I think community college programs often do offer a legitimate career path leading to employment, but sadly, as in your satire, there are other "schools" and "colleges" which exploit peoples' need for a meaningful job by promoting and "selling" job training classes which may not lead anywhere at all. What aggravates me is that these schools very often post PHONY jobs in newspapers and on Craigslist. For example you will see a job for a "legal assistant needed" and an outrageously high salary posted, BUT the ad is really being posted by a "school" which offers to train you to be a legal assistant.

Author

Kosciusko

Date

2009-07-22T11:13:00-06:00

ID

150241

Comment

One the MDES web site job growth projections are made for the period of 2006 to 2016. I would think it reasonable to assume that the projections were made prior to 2006, possibly as early as 2005. It seems that much has changed in the employment market since 2005. For me personally, I had a job in 2005, unlike my status in 2009. I appears to me that jobs that were in high demand as little as 6 -9 months ago, particularly those in health related fields, have eased up on recruiting efforts and in some cases actually cutting staff. To me, it seems unwise to take on any type of debt to train for a job that may not be available when the training is completed.

Author

Jeffery R

Date

2009-07-29T10:36:40-06:00

ID

150249

Comment

I would be doubly cautious about schools such as ITT Technical, which has just recently opened a branch in Madison. ITT engages in nationwide advertising suggesting that with one of their degrees you'll easily land a 45,000 plus job. First of all, ITT's tuition is outrageous, many times over what one would pay for the very same courses at a community college. Secondly, ITT has a virtually open admissions policy and thirdly, ITT eagerly counsels students to take out and pay for its exhorbitantly priced educational programs by applying for and using student loans for X number of years--guaranteed to have you in a pickle when you graduate and don't walk right into that cushy well paying position.

Author

Kosciusko

Date

2009-07-29T12:35:50-06:00