‘Wasted money’: How career training companies scoop up federal funds with little oversight
Meredith Kolodner and Sarah Butrymowicz
February 25, 2025
The United States spends untold millions on workforce training programs. Many don’t help people find jobs
Dora Bray Magilke had been unemployed for over a month when someone from her local career center in Branson, Missouri, reached out in the summer of 2020 with an offer. Magilke qualified for a government grant to go back to school, she was told, at a place the center suggested: an online company called MedCerts.
Having previously worked as a certified nursing assistant, Magilke leapt at the chance to move up in the medical field with the full $4,000 tuition for a medical-assistant training program covered. But she said she was never told that she needed in-person clinical training — which MedCerts did not provide — to make her a viable candidate for a job as a medical assistant. After finishing the roughly seven-month-long program and passing her certification exam in late 2021, she found that no one would hire her. Would-be employers told her she lacked the experience they required.
