Another Trick of the Trade?

Earlier this week, we wrote about the tricks of the trade that for-profit colleges use to inflate the job placement rates they report to prospective students and regulators.

But here’s one we haven’t heard before. According to an article that ran in the Los Angeles Times yesterday, the University of Antelope Valley, a for-profit college in Lancaster, CA, has offered to pay companies to employ their graduates. Under the deal, local employers can receive $2,000 for each graduate they hire this month, as long as the former students are placed in jobs related to their field of study.

The school’s owners say they are offering this promotion for only the most philanthropic of reasons. According to the article:

Marco and Sandra Johnson, the husband and wife owners of the college, said the initiative was dreamed up a few weeks ago as a way to kick-start the flailing local economy. Since early 2009, unemployment in Lancaster has been 15% and higher, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“A lot of companies and employers are on the fence about hiring someone new, and this could be the incentive they need to do it,” said Marco Johnson, a former firefighter and paramedic whose school, which began as the Antelope Valley Medical College, stemmed from the CPR courses he began teaching in 1997. Currently, there are about 850 students enrolled in the school, which also offers online programs.

However, as the article points out, the school’s motives are not entirely selfless:

Job placement is the lifeblood of for-profit colleges, said Jeffrey Silber, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets. The schools attract fresh students, and their wallets, by touting their future job and salary prospects, he said.

“This is certainly one of the most interesting approaches I’ve heard for attracting employers,” Silber said. “But any way they can make a valid job placement only enhances their value to prospective students.”

Yes, but will these prospective students be told that the school had to bribe companies to employ their graduates?

At Higher Ed Watch, we recognize that this practice is probably unique to this school, which, to be fair, is in a region in which jobs are scarce.

But it also shows the lengths school officials will go to pump up their rates — which are not only vital to their marketing efforts but also to keeping the federal student aid dollars flowing to their institutions. As we’ve said before, this is an area that is crying out for greater scrutiny.