Maryland Higher Education Commission

December 2007 Press Release

 

 

 

MARYLAND HIGHER EDUCATION COMMISSION

SERVES MORE THAN COLLEGES, UNIVERSITIES

Private career, trade schools fall under agency’s oversight

 

 

(December 6, 2007 – Annapolis, MD) Maryland Higher Education Commission announced today that many students interested in attending private career schools are eligible to receive financial aid.

“Some students choose not to go to traditional colleges and universities,” Maryland Higher Education Secretary James Lyons, Sr. said. “If they want to be cosmetologists, bartenders, real estate agents, dry cleaners or something else not offered by two or four year traditional colleges and universities, we can also accommodate them.”

There’s a common perception that Maryland’s Higher Education Commission simply has oversight over Maryland’s public and private colleges and universities and higher education centers, but MHEC also oversees private career schools.

MHEC provides financial aid and oversight to private career and trade schools ranging from beauty academies, bartending schools, computer schools, construction trades, and dry cleaning schools among many others. Overall, there are nearly 160 private career schools in Maryland.

Thousands of Marylanders hold rewarding jobs because of training they received at private career schools.

Bartender?

MHEC regulates four such private career schools: Authentic Bartending School of Maryland (Hyattsville); Baltimore Bartender School; Bartender of America Bartending School (College Park) and the Maryland Bartending Academy (Glen Burnie).

Cosmetologist?

There are 29 such schools that teach this trade.

Culinary Arts?

There’s a decidedly French touch at the L’Academie de Cuisine – Gaithersburg or there’s the Lincoln Technical Institute.

And for dog lovers, there is the Baltimore School of Dog Grooming.

For more information on financial aid to Maryland’s Private Career Schools that are regulated by MHEC, contact the Office of Student Financial Service at (800) 974-0203 or visit the MHEC website at www.mhec.state.md.us. Also, be sure to contact the private career school you plan to attend.

The Maryland Higher Education Commission is a 12-member coordinating board responsible for establishing statewide policies for Maryland public and independent colleges and universities and private career schools. It serves as an advocate for more than 300,000 college students in Maryland, for the State and its needs, and for business and industry in Maryland.