Complaint Review: Florida Technical College - Deland Florida

Florida Technical College is a for-profit college, owned by EduK out of Puerto Rico, who is owned by Leeds Equity Group out of New York.  Leeds Board of Directors is very impressive -- Colin Powell is one, along with many other well-known business and education leaders.  Florida Technical College is Accredited through the Accrediting Commission for Independent Colleges and Schools and Licensed by the State of Florida.  They meet all accrediting and legal requirements to operate as a college, even a college that is seeking profit for their corporation and directors.

However, the Deland campus has absolutely no screening requirements for admitting students.  No entrance exam, no application fee, no transcript requirements -- just a copy of a high school diploma or GED.  No test to determine technology skills even though they are given tablets for their books.  Anyone can go to school here ... even if they speak little english, cannot read well enough to apply for a job, or spell or write well enough to complete a job application, or use a computer to do an online application or even know how to attach a resume for an employer.  They are coached through their classea and if they don't like their grade, they can appeal it and get it changed.  If teachers gets tough, then the VP of the Orlando Corporate Team steps in to yell at them and tell them that the dropout rate (Which is really high) is their fault.

The verbal abuse of staff is ridiculous.  Screamed at, cussed at, jobs threatened constantly, pressure that never lets up, condescending manners ... the morale of the employees at this school is terrible and the turnover is tremendous.  Teachers leaving, Directors leaving, Financial Aid employees leaving, people fired, career services staff a skeleton crew ... and it still goes on.

This school has lied about their practices and how they do things.  They have skirted the lines of ethics and decent treatment of thier employess over and over again and they still get away with it.  I only hope one day someone will have the courage, like I don't, to finally stand up to them, report it to the proper authorities and get a proper investigation going.

I'm sure Dave Ruggeri will jump on this website to once again justify what in his opinion are false statements.  The reality is, Dave, you have no clue what goes on at each school on a daily level.  The complete disregard for your employees, the unethical manner in which people are recruited, the constant and never-ending issues with financial aid, faculty, staff .... you have this idea in your head of what is reality when in fact what truly occurs I don't think you ever hear about.

It's a sad, sad thing and the people I feel most sorry for are the students.  The market is flooded with medical assistants and without proper certification, even coders are having a hard time finding a job.  I hope all these new degrees work out for the school, but your adminstration has given up and just doesn't seem to care one way or the other what happens. 

I still work there.  I am exhausted, worn out from all of the problems, and just want to get as far away from there as I can.  Just as soon as something comes along, I will leave.  I just wish the best to those left behind.  I am not going to identify myself because I don't want to deal with the abuse that would rain down on me for simply telling the truth.