Plugged In -- A Sure Thing

In the years Quick Strike Certification and Training has been offering classroom-based IT courses, company officials have become painfully aware of one thing: Once class is over, learners? tenure with their employer may soon be over, too.



Tired of hearing about clients spending thousands of dollars to educate their workers only to see them leave for greener pastures once they obtain a sought-after IT certification, the suburban Houston company began offering training insurance in September.



Companies pay $795 for the insurance in addition to the course fees, which run about $1,000 for a week of training, according to Greg Englund, director of technology education with Quick Strike. If a newly trained employee decides to grab the brass ring elsewhere within a year of finishing the Quick Strike courses, the insurance allows the company to train another employee at no cost.



In another departure from traditional training services, Quick Strike got into the loan business in November, working with USA Education (commonly known as Sallie Mae), a publicly traded lending institution for students and consumers. If an employer is hesitant to pay employees? tuition at Quick Strike, USA Education can lend the workers money for tuition. When employees complete the training and stay with the company for a given period of time, their employer repays the loans. People who leave earlier must pay off the loan themselves.



The idea of training loans and insurance is off to a slow start, however. As of late February, Quick Strike had yet to sell an insurance policy or issue a loan. "We're trying to get the word out," Englund says.



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