Any comments on Ashworth (graduate degree)?

Like I said, I don't know that you're wrong. It might be interesting to figure out if there's any real data on such things but this board is filled with people who are trying to get ahead in their careers and their lives and it seems that, now more than ever, any competitive advantage counts. Now if we wanted to debate about whether the advantage is worth the cost, well, that's another thing altogether.

 

As an employer I'm constantly looking for people that take the initiative to better themselves; despite their situation: employed or unemployed, rich or poor. And if that's done by taking a course you really wouldn't have thought about, so much the better. We all become better educated about it (whatever "it" is). Unfortunately, there are a lot of people that rest on their laurels and expect to be lauded for them for a lifetime.

Also, not everyone is cut out to be a programmer or property manager and to take courses just to get "the job" without a passion for the work is setting yourself up for failure. If you're a sales professional and you want to show a potential or current employer that you are indeed trying to improve your skills, perhaps taking a course like "essentials of sales" might accomplish this. At the very least you'll learn something to add to your arsenal of knowledge, and who knows, it might inspire you to set out on a degree path.

 

I agree totally. I wasn't suggesting that someone should go into something that isn't right for them, or something they have no passion for, because that would be a big mistake. I'm just saying that certain diplomas will probably give you a better chance at a job in their respective fields than other diplomas will in their respective fields. It'll be even harder in a number of the fields Ashworth offers, because a number of them require additional training and licensing, which is something a lot of students getting into those programs don't pay attention to and wind up blowing up on the school after completion.

This I agree with as well. I know we all hate to look at names of things as being a determining factor on the education we pursue, but for many people decisions are made based on it. Much like the case of many students avoiding schools with strange/unappealing names, I kind of feel a similar way about the name of a program of study that leads to a diploma. "Essentials of Sales" or "Principles of Sales" sounds more in-depth and closer to what a college diploma's program of study would be expected to sound like. I'd imagine the general perception is that "Intro" to anything isn't as detailed as other designations regardless of whether that perception is based in truth or not.

 

I think this could be said about many students at many schools, not just Ashworth.

 

I would think Ashworth's academic programs would carry more weight with prospective employers than the vocational ones, in general. The vocational ones are too narrow, and don't have any attendant liberal arts competencies. For example, a veterinary tech might be able to give medicine to a sick calf in the office, but you have no idea whether that person could write a competent memo or speak competently when describing a medical issue to another vet.

I'm also thinking the academic programs would look better if they weren't tied so closely to the vocational and high school programs, because the other programs give the whole school a "trade school" look. Penn Foster gets around this by putting some visible distinction between the academic, vocational and high school programs.

 

Certainly. I just thought we were looking at this squarely from an Ashworth view. But in a broad sense, sure, you could definitely find lots of angry former students in this same boat from other schools. But from what I can tell, most of those students are angry coming off of a degree program which cost them tens of thousands of dollars. I have a harder time equating the anger of an Ashworth diploma student who can't find a job with a diploma in a certain field that cost between $495 and $698 total in tuition with all books included, versus the guy who just spent $40,000+ for a degree in addition to the cost of textbooks in the same field and is buried under that debt, and then on top of it can't find a job in the field his degree is in. I'd say that students of diploma programs from schools with diploma programs that are more demanding time-wise and cost many times more money, would move ahead of Ashworth's in the impact scale when those students are upset over not being able to find work.

That's not to say that the Ashworth diploma student's disappointment is totally invalid, but it doesn't seem realistic to expect a whole lot.