Professional Bartending School Of San Antonio ripoff San Antonio Texas
I went last month to Professional Bartending School of San Antonio, which is affiliated with Professional Bartending Schools of America. I am preparing to go back to college in January and decided that bartending would be a great way to make decent money while working at night while I am in school.
I met with Larry, the owner of the local school, and was told that his school was in oldest and the best in San Antonio. Now, of course, I expected him to boast his schools reputation, however, I did not expect to be mislead in the ways that I have been.
What sold me on the school was the promise of job placement and also that they were recognized by the Texas Workforce Commission. I felt that recognition by the Texas Workforce Commission meant that they had to provide a majority of the services that they boasted about.
The number one service that I was sold by was the job placement assistance. Larry and Rachel told me that they had a great track record of job placement. He read off of his most recent list of people looking to hire graduates. I was impressed. I decided at that point that if they could give me a little experience and help me get a job tending bar, I would more than happily cough up the $635 to attend the school.
The first week of class was ok, if you like self instruction. The instructor, Nancy, talked on the phone all night, and sat in the instructors office. Regardless, I understood the lesson and was comfortable with it.
Graduation came, and I was ready for the job placement. Rachel handed me a list, which had quite a few bars, clubs and restaurants named with contact information and times and places where to apply.
The next day, I hit the street looking for a job. Most of the bars told me that they had contacted the school months ago for help, and obviously they just had not been removed from the listings. A few of the bars just couldnt understand why they were on the list at all. The rest of the bars, clubs, hotels and restaurants that were listed were just pulled from the local newspaper help wanted section.
They also offer online listings for job placement, available at pbsa.com. The most recent job posting there is from August 2005. Wow, thats not much help.
I have voiced my concerns serveral times to the school, and they are unwilling to make contact with the bars to see who is hiring. This is not the service that was sold to me, and frankly I feel like I was scammed. This is not what job placement is. I used to run a staffing agency, and know what job placement is.
I have written to the Texas Workforce Commission and have also attempted to make contact with the corporate office of Professional Bartending School of America. I will gladly consider this issure resolved if they would live up to thier promise of job placement assistance.
Jeffrey
New Braunfels, Texas
U.S.A.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Jeffrey
New Braunfels,Texas,
U.S.A.
claims that they are selling an education, not job placement
#3Author of original report
Fri, December 16, 2005
I spoke with the President of Professional Bartending Schools of America. (Roger) and he says that he will talk to the school to see why they are not helping the students. He also claims that they are selling an education, not job placement. Those of us that have talked about our experience all felt that job placement was a part of the package. We dont feel like handing someone a list of bars in the area counts as job placement. (we all have a copy of the yellow pages) Here is some information from pbsa.com that explains the job placement program:
Local Job Placement Program:
Every one of our bartending schools offer local job placement assistance to all of our graduates. Upon graduation, the graduate may report to the job placement office for one-on-one job placement assistance. Our Job Placement Director works very hard to help each student find the job that they are looking for. Our schools have achieved a nationwide job placement rate of over 90% over the last five years.
During this placement interview, our placement director will fill out a graduate profile card that helps us keep the graduates wants and needs handy.
Our placement director will work to determine what type of bar the graduate wishes to work at. The placement director will recommend bars from our current list of available jobs to the student. In addition, the placement director calls students with new job openings as they come in to the school if they meet the student's requirements.
Our job placement director is responsible for maintaing a current list of job openings for our students. Bar owners and managers regularly call our schools when they have an opening for a bartender. In addition, our staff makes regular calls to bars and restaurants to help them meet their staffing needs. Our services are free to bars and restaurants, and we work very hard to help them meet their staffing goals.
Our bartending schools are very proud of the great bartending jobs our graduates have received. Our Graduates on-the-job pages show hundreds of pictures of our graduates working behind some of the best bars in the country. We routinely go to bars to see our graduates in action and meet with the bar managerment.
As you compare bartending schools on the internet, check to see if they show pictures of graduates on the job or simply talk about. It's a lot of work for us to call on our grads as they tend bar, but our students and bar manager really appreciate it!
Whether you want to work at a friendly neighborhood bar where everyone knows your name, or the fanciest hot spot downtown, we'll try hard to find the right bar for you. Our job placement director takes a personal interest in each student while they are in our school and understands that each student has a different need.
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Now you tell me if they should so more than furnish a list of bars in the community that may or may not be hiring.
Sean
Portland,Oregon,
U.S.A.
I went through the same thing
#3Consumer Comment
Fri, December 16, 2005
I went through the same thing as you. Read my report on "The Bartending Academy". It's a shame how these people are able to get away with all this. The bartending academy's excuse to my not finding a job was because I obviously had a poor attitude. Of course I was in a bad mood dealing with these guys when after 2 months of searching I couldn't find anything. And yes, this place went through the paper for job placement as well.
Best thing you can do is talk to bartenders, and get your name out that way.
Good luck with bartending and with College.