The rigidity of teaching for a specific purpose facilitates the use of computer-aided training because the curriculum can be programmed. This reduces the depth and knowledge required of the classroom instructor. The niche for proprietary education is defined by its ability to quickly train and retrain the population to meet the job requirements of potential employers. In 1993 alone, over 10 million employees or nearly 10 percent of the U.S. work force wilf be made redundant through economic reverses or technological developments. All of these in some way or another require training.
Proprietary education is a cost-effiective way to provide it.
To understand why requires a basic comprehension of how proprietary schools differ from other institutions of higher education. For proprietary schools, the applicant population is confined to only those who are focused on a specific course of study. To find these students proprietary schools spend more for promotion and marketing than their non-profit colleagues. The dropout rate may reach as high as 4 percent per month, reflecting the vocational student's lack of commitment, financial resources or inability to master the required academic disciplines. Vocational courses such as aviation, computer operations, and electronics often require a knowledge of math and physics beyond the capability of the proprietary school student.