Predatory educator

A Predatory Educator is an organization that exploits people by selling them education that cannot live up to the promises made. The sales pitch is frequently disguised as "career counselling".

Predatory educators encourage the vulnerable to purchase education that promises better employability, higher pay, and more rewarding work when there is little or no chance that the student could ever find employment in that field. At the very least the student spends their money on tuition fees. They also have to take time away from actually earning money to complete the program(s), and then more time to conduct the usually fruitless job searches afterwards.

One common example would be selling education in fields where jobs are extremely rare. Another example involves withholding vital information regarding apprenticeship availability, etc.

In many cases predatory educators are most expert at helping students access various forms of financial aid – helping them complete paperwork that will free up financial assistance that will allow the student to purchase more education.

In some cases the student will actually leave a job they don't love to pursue education that has no chance of helping them get a job they will enjoy more. The tragedy is two-fold – they leave a job and stop earning money so that they can spend the money they earned doing work they didn't like.

Like most businesses predatory educators understand that it is easier to sell more product to an existing customer than acquire a new customer, and frequently hard-sell more education to their students. What was promised as the gateway to a new career is later explained as having been just the first step, with more courses and tuition fees being required. The goal is to keep the student enrolled until their savings and/or access to financial aid are exhausted.