Technical Colleges Good For Technology Based Career Training

Technical colleges can be a great place to pick up education related to the more technical occupations. They are also generally more affordable than other colleges and classes focus more on specific skills with the general classes being average or somewhat easier than non community colleges.

Though technical colleges can be great for technology dependent careers, for everything from A/C repair and maintenance, truck driving, computer hardware and auto body careers, there are some technical colleges that offer degrees in areas that are not as well suited for technical college education.

My own experience with attending a technical college showed me that the last statement is true and how expensive learning it ended up being. I attended a technical school in Waco, TX to learn how to fly airplanes. I was excited to discover that I would be able to attend flight school even though I did not have enough cash to pay for it. Of course this was possible because the school received federal accreditation and so I could apply for student loans.

I enjoyed flying so much that it took me some time to discover what a terrible program it really was. For about $5000 - $6000 you can get a private pilot’s license. This program promised a private pilot license, instrument rating, flight instructor license and multi-engine as part of the two year program, yet at nearly the two year mark I had racked up over $40,000 in student loan debt and had yet to get my private pilot’s license.

There were never enough planes to compete my cross country flights, but according to the department there was something preposterous on record like 52% fleet efficiency quoted as the reason they couldn’t buy more planes. I finally had to cut my losses and quit attending school there. So, my warning is to find out what other graduates and non-graduates experienced before attending a school. As it turns out, my own instructor only knew of 3 people (including himself) that had completed the program in anywhere near two years. TSTC and many other technical colleges offering flight training are simply a rip off. Do your homework.