Sally Strothers: "Would you like to make more money? Sure, we all would..."

October 30, 2006 2:40 PM

Have you ever taken correspondence courses?

I remember the late-nite infomercials with Sally Strothers pushing the chance to learn gun repair and notary certifications. Have any of you ever taken one of these courses? Do they actually teach usable skills or are they just a means of selling study materials to the desperate unemployed? I'm interested in broadening my skill-set, maybe watch repair or locksmithing, and if these programs are legit they could be just what I'm looking for. Please share any anecdotes, tangental info, hearsay or rumor you've heard. Fact and direct personal experience is accepted as well.

posted by lekvar to education (5 comments total)

My mum took an interior design course through Sheffield (I think that's the name) many years ago. She quite enjoyed the course and still uses the materials for reference.

It might depend on the actual program though.
posted by divabat at 4:20 PM on October 30, 2006

I don't have anything on vocational courses, but the Open University has a great reputation for degree-level adult learning. It takes a power of discipline, though.
posted by bonaldi at 6:19 PM on October 30, 2006

Are you specifically asking about the courses offered by ICS (the one with the Struthers commercials)? Or just correspondence courses in general? The previous answers are other correspondence programs, not ICS courses.

It looks as if ICS in the US is now known as Penn Foster Career School -- you might be able to get some info if you search for that name specifically. Unfortunately searching gets you a lot of affiliate spam sites and such, but here's a discussion thread about the program. (I don't see that they have watch repair instruction any more. Sadly, I imagine that's a skill that is disappearing these days. But they do have a locksmith program. North Seattle Community College still has a watch repair program, but as far as I can tell it's not correspondence.)

My sister enrolled in an ICS program, mostly to get the computer that came with it, and did not complete it, though I don't know if she just never got around to it or if the course was any good.

I'm enrolled in an MA program that is essentially done by correspondence, but I think your question is more about the ICS/Penn Foster sort of thing.
posted by litlnemo at 6:54 PM on October 30, 2006

Yeah, I'm thinking more along the lines of ICS and other correspondence trades schools as opposed to degree-oriented distance learning.
posted by lekvar at 7:31 PM on October 30, 2006

If your goal is to land a job with these skills, and if you live in a city that has these type of classes live, I might lean towards a live class. Maybe a vocational college or a night class over a few weeks?

You'd have the opportunity to meet others in your area who do what you want to do, and the instructor could point you in the right direction.

(I've also done a Master's mostly online and I think it's a worthwhile method to learn, but it sounds like you're looking for something different.)
posted by powpow at 8:10 PM on October 30, 2006