Targeting the Enthusiast: Educational Options Outside of the $20K+ Degree

Now, for-profit educators have a simple enough model. The model is profitable - high touch and high cost. Educators generate a lead from TV, radio, direct mail or the Internet. Then they call the lead or receive an inbound 800# call and try to get that student to enroll in school. Once the student enrolls, he/she works with a financial aid advisor and academic advisor to plan out a degree program. Once in class, for a culinary or design program, students use top of the line equipment with a huge capex.

So how about the enthusiast - the person who might want to be a great home cook but does not want a $20K culinary education, or the art enthusiast who wants to learn graphic design, but doesn't want or need a degree. As the baby boomers age and retire, there will be many of these enthusiasts who have disposable income, and may want to spend $3K or $4K to learn a new skill. Right now, there is no way a for-profit education company could be profitable serving this market.

There is a huge opportunity if someone can target these enthusiasts effectively - with a low touch, self-service sales process and no reliance on Title IV federal aid. For-profit educators buy millions of leads and may convert 1-5% of them - they have to be able to find a way to profitably target these enthusiasts and the 95-99% of leads that do not convert. They also have to find lower capex models that use less sophisticated, lower cost equipment (e.g. consumer rather than commercial kitchens) aimed at the enthusiast rather than future professionals.

I envy the person or company that figures out a model to profitably serve these enthusiasts - my gut tells me it is a multi-billion dollar opportunity.