The New York Times takes a look at one dubious beneficiary of the recession, the for-profit trade school. These places offer training in fields like health care, computers and food service …and enrollment is soaring.

The sales pitch says that students will be able to find gainful employment and pay back the massive students loans they take out to pay for the trade school — but that’s not always the case. And the recruiters apparently know it.

From the NYT:

Ms. Wallace left her job at ITT in 2008 after five years because she was uncomfortable with what she considered deceptive recruiting, which she said masked the likelihood that graduates would earn too little to repay their loans.

As a financial aid officer, Ms. Wallace was supposed to counsel students. But candid talk about job prospects and debt obligations risked the wrath of management, she said.

“If you said anything that went against what the recruiter said, they would threaten to fire you,” Ms. Wallace said. “The representatives would have already conned them into doing it, and you had to just keep your mouth shut.”

A spokeswoman for the school’s owner, ITT Educational Services, Lauren Littlefield, said the company had no comment.

In Hard Times, Lured Into Trade School and Debt [NYT]

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