A Recruiting Firm Weighs In on Online Degrees

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


A Recruiting Firm Weighs In on Online Degrees

“Online College Degrees are Growing, But Are They Better?”

Blue Bell, PA, February 8, 2011 — Right Recruiting LLC, a Blue Bell based recruiting firm with 30 plus years of experience recruiting professionals and executives for small and mid-sized regionally based firms surveyed 195 managers and executives at manufacturing companies in the Philadelphia area. The survey sought to determine if online degrees were effective substitutes for traditional college degrees in the workplace. The survey included a variety of industries from general manufacturing to foods to medical products. The people surveyed have direct hiring experience.

• Received 48 responses from separate companies
• 44 responses came from people who work/manage those with online degrees

The survey shows the popularity of online degrees has increased in just as little as five years. Founder & CEO, Jeff Zinser said, “Online for profit, college programs have grown, and are often cheaper than traditional schools. The number of resumes Right Recruiting has seen of people with online degrees has increased exponentially. There are concerns about the amount of debt students take on to get these credentials and concerns about their actual job prospects upon graduation. Are these schools promising too much?”

Results:
• 25% felt that people with credentials from online, for-profit programs were as good as those with educational credentials from traditional schools
• 68% felt that people with credentials from online, for-profit schools were better than
people with no college but not as good as those with traditional backgrounds.
• 7% felt that people with credentials from online, for-profit programs were no better than people with no college background at all.
• 93% thought that online degrees added value, but most managers would have preferred a more traditional background.
• 68% thought that their online, for profit staff was weak in the ability to communicate and work in teams.

One manager who requested to remain anonymous said, “Years ago the saying was a person’s “EQ” was the best predictor of a person’s success. EQ was the combination of technical and interpersonal skills. I firmly believe that the interpersonal skills (leadership, teamwork, courage, risk taking, getting things done, influencing others, etc.) is so much more important than the technical experience.”

Zinser adds, “To become an affordable substitute for a traditional degree, students and providers of online educations should find a way to overcome a perceived distance gap and create projects in which teams must work together in a face-to-face setting. This seems important to many companies and can often be overlooked by students and educators. Without addressing this gap, those with online educations will remain at a competitive disadvantage to those with more traditional educations.”

Please contact Jeff Zinser at jeffzinser@rightrecruiting.com or at (215) 641-9300.
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Media Contact: Jennifer Sherlock/609-369-3482/jsherlock@jennacommunications.com

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