SIC 8244
BUSINESS AND SECRETARIAL SCHOOLS



This category includes establishments offering courses in business machine operation, office procedures, and secretarial and stenographic skills. Schools offering academic degrees are classified in Industry Groups 821 and 822.

NAICS Code(s)

611410 (Business and Secretarial Schools)

Industry Snapshot

Independent business and secretarial schools, once widespread, have steadily decreased in number since the 1950s as business education has migrated to colleges and universities and secretarial training has undergone a transformation. Where secretaries were once responsible for typing, filing, and taking dictation, their tasks have grown to encompass computerized business systems. Secretarial training is typically part of vocational training offered at technical and community colleges, which have the financial resources to purchase business equipment for students. The term "secretarial school" itself has become antiquated in the United States; today most business and secretarial schools leave the word "secretarial" out of their name.

In the mid 1990s, there were 581 business and secretarial schools operating in the United States, employing 10,900 people and earning $554 million in revenues.

Background and Development

For centuries the profession of secretary was dominated by educated, economically lower-class males. Because there was no specialized equipment, a liberal arts education was considered adequate for a secretary's schooling. When the English gunsmith firm E. Remington and Sons began to produce typewriters in 1873, they employed young women to demonstrate the machines. As a result, the secretarial profession became associated with females. Remington and other companies established schools that offered typing instruction. These schools later evolved into secretarial schools. The Katharine Gibbs School—founded in 1911 in Providence, Rhode Island—became one of the most noteworthy names in the industry, branching into 11 separate locations by 1985. In the 1990s, Gibbs offered a one-year program, a two-year program, an Entre program for college graduates, and an Options program for those who were returning to work and wanted to improve particular skills.

Because some American executives believed that British secretaries were a status symbol, firms such as England's Brook Street Bureau of Mayfair, Ltd. trained secretaries and placed them in U.S. companies. Changes in immigration laws in the 1960s restricted such placement, and Brook Street established its own secretarial schools in the United States. The 1960s also saw the return of men into the American secretarial work force. Men trained in secretarial schools were often hired by female executives who were eager to reverse conventional gender roles.

Secretarial training became a common facet of community college systems as these institutions grew in number and stature during the 1960s and 1970s. Government funding for community colleges provided all members of the community the opportunity to acquire valuable skills. As Charles Myers wrote in 1970 of a secretarial training program at the Southern Nevada Vocational Technical Center, "The secretarial student who completes her course at the Las Vegas Vocational Center is entering the business world better equipped to handle today's modern business equipment than were any of her predecessors…. Thus, the community which has invested in her training gets its return at a higher interest rate than ever before."

The 1980s brought sweeping changes to business and secretarial schools as new or refined technologies—photocopiers, fax machines, and personal computers—entered business offices. While technology eliminated or improved many secretarial tasks, they also required that secretaries receive new types of training. In 1981, Katharine Gibbs School Inc., then a subsidiary of Macmillan Inc., announced the formation of Gibbs Consulting Group, whose role included office-automation training. Recognizing that the role of secretaries had changed, Gibbs also focused on training managers to utilize their secretaries most effectively. In 1985, the publishing magnate Robert Maxwell acquired Macmillan and proceeded to rid the company of all non-publishing operations, including the Katharine Gibbs Schools.

Current Conditions

E-commerce was the buzz word at business schools during the late 1990s, and those that offered courses in e-commerce and Internet business strategies had students lined up to register. Overall, technology courses such as MIS and computer science were most in demand, causing business schools to continue to move away from secretarial skills and move toward office automation and computer technology, accounting programs, court reporting programs, paralegal training, administrative training, legal (secretarial) programs, medical (secretarial) programs, and travel agent training in their curricula. Institutes offering these curricula include the Academy of Court Reporting, Michigan-based Dorsey Business Schools, and the renowned Wharton Business School.

According to a study completed by the Babson School of Executive Training in Massachusetts and the London School of Economics, in 1999, one in 12 persons in the United States was engaged in an entrepreneurial activity, compared to one in 30 in Britain. Consultants Ernst & Young believe that entrepreneurial activity in America will be the "defining economic event" of the millennium's first decade.

By catering to the needs of entrepreneurs in their curricular development, business schools may be able to create a niche for themselves in a market of educational services clamoring to gain the competitive edge over traditional institutions for the training of business and corporate skills.

Industry Leaders

Dale Carnegie & Associates Inc., headquartered in Garden City, New York, is the provider of the well-known Dale Carnegie Courses. Founded in 1912 by Dale Carnegie, the company offers eight courses that have been translated in 20 different languages and made available in 70 countries. The firm has an annual average of more than 150,000 participants taught by approximately 2,700 instructors. Dale Carnegie Courses provide a unique type of business skills training that can be targeted to any employee at a business, management or non-management. Training is available at either a Dale Carnegie facility or on-site. The company offers courses that are designed to improve management and employee performance in areas such as sales presentation, public speaking, organizational planning, goal setting, working in teams, customer relations, and problem-solving.

DeVry Inc., headquartered in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois, is another industry leader. It offers courses in electronics, data processing, accounting, telecommunications, and business. DeVry has 30 schools in seven states, an enrollment of 30,000 students, and 850 faculty members. It owns DeVry Institute, Keller Graduate School of Management, and Corporate Educational Services. In 1998, DeVry had sales of $308 million.

Further Reading

Brennan, Anne. "Business Schools, Students Jump on the E-Commerce Bandwagon." Chicago Tribune, 9 November 1999.

Chambliss, Lauren. "American Business Schools Supply Firms With Highly Skilled Workers." Evening Standard, London. 19 October 1999.

Dale Carnegie & Associates, Inc. , 1999. Available from http://www.dale-carnegies.com .

Slater, Pamela. "Business Schools Face Growing Demand for E-Commerce, Technology Courses." The Sacramento Bee, 13 November 1999.

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