911: LIVE From the 2024 ⁠Career Education Convention⁠ - with Charlie Parker & Mike Lanouette, Centura College

Joe Sallustio: Welcome back, everybody. It's your time to EdUp on the EdUp Experience podcast where we make education your business. We're doing that here again at the Career Education Conference put on by our great friends at the Career Education College and University Group. That's CEC or CQ, depending on how you want to say it. Of course, my name is Dr. Joe Sallustio. It's the first time I've introduced myself today after three podcasts where I'm just hoping everybody knows my voice by now. I've done enough of these, but not enough podcasts celebrating the great work that our colleagues do in the career college sector. And that's why we're here. We really want to celebrate this sector of higher education and give some light to the great work that's being done.

Of course, with me by my side is Douglas Carlson. He is head of partnerships at Lead Squared. And he jacked up my microphone that I can't seem to fix. Douglas, welcome. And then I'm going to kick you off in a minute if you touch my mic again.

Douglas Carlson: I think that's fair. Just for everyone's sake, I literally just kicked the mic off the desk. It was not great.

Joe Sallustio: It was not great and I can't seem to get it back where it is. So if it falls, you need to take over this episode with these amazing guests that we have and do as well or better than I do. Fair enough?

Douglas Carlson: Deal.

Joe Sallustio: Alright, that's Douglas, everybody. Let's bring in our guests right now. We're going to bring in one at a time. This gentleman, has he ever done a podcast or has he done some voiceover work, it sounds like, or at least a first-time caller? First-time caller. Here he is. He's Mike Lanouette. He's the VP of Administration at Centura College. You like this beat, Mike?

Mike Lanouette: Good morning, everyone. How are you?

Joe Sallustio: Welcome to the podcast.

Mike Lanouette: Thank you.

Joe Sallustio: You brought another gentleman, actually, I think maybe he brought you. I don't know how it works.

Mike Lanouette: No, no, no. Now he brings me everywhere. The honor is mine.

Joe Sallustio: All right, here we go. Let's get him in here, too. There he is. Here he comes. Let me give him something. Give him something good.

Charlie Parker: Yeah, give me something huge. Fireworks. I feel like I'm the Dr. Dre of admissions.

Joe Sallustio: Aftermath though. He's Charlie Parker. He's chief branding and enrollment officer at Centura College. What's up guys? How are you?

Charlie Parker: Hey, how you guys doing?

Joe Sallustio: Welcome to the EdUp Podcast. Charlie again for an hour, for a second time. I think the last time we interviewed you was literally in the middle of COVID. It was a while back.

Charlie Parker: I think I wore a mask even though we were on mics.

Joe Sallustio: I think that's very possible. You could. So this is the first time I've ever seen your face.

Charlie Parker: That's right.

Joe Sallustio: You're a good-looking dude, man. Guys, set the tone for us. Tell us about Centura College. Who would like to go first?

Charlie Parker: You know, I'm going to give that to Mike. He does it so well.

Mike Lanouette: Thank you, Charlie.

Charlie Parker: You're welcome, Mike.

Mike Lanouette: So yeah, Centura College, Tidewater Tech, and Aviation Institute of Maintenance. We have 20 campuses all the way from Florida to California, and just excited to be part of this.

Joe Sallustio: Amazing. What kind of students do you serve? Tell us a little bit about the type of student, how you serve them, that kind of thing.

Mike Lanouette: I mean, the classic response is the underemployed and the unemployed. But I always like to say we're a school of second chances. You know, the students that the major universities aren't really interested in, but you know, the backbone of what we, the backbone of the country, the backbone of the technicians.

Charlie Parker: You said it before.

Joe Sallustio: Excellent. So I brought that one for you.

Mike Lanouette: Thank you.

Joe Sallustio: And there's, and forgive me, you may know the stat off the top of your head, but I've seen it as something like if you've flown on a plane in the United States, a member of the AIM family that you've educated has probably worked on that plane. Is that fair?

Charlie Parker: It's a real, it's a, say it our way. We work on that statement. Yeah, we're working on a new marketing, which is a real marketing slogan, which says, "Try flying without us."

Joe Sallustio: I like that. You like that? A little edgy?

Charlie Parker: Yikes, yikes, yikes. But yeah, man, you got one in four chance keeping that bird in the air as one of our guys.

Joe Sallustio: That's incredible. 25%. That's literally corner of the market. That's amazing.

Charlie Parker: 25% that will be working on the plane or 25% in the workforce. Wow, that's incredible. I mean it's niche-driven, right? I mean we definitely serve the trade population. We have a little allied health and other brands, but I mean we're getting to a point now where you never expected where the airlines are calling us going, "We need your help."

Joe Sallustio: You know, since we were just talking to a gentleman before and I said, you know, one of the most interesting shifts that has happened for a career college is as of late, I don't know what year maybe, is there was a hustling that would have to happen, right? You got to get the placements. Let's call this place. Let's call that place. We need to get the placements. We got to get. And now it's reversing. And, you know, companies cannot find workers so they're reaching out to the colleges now to say can you produce this workforce for us. Have you seen that shift?

Mike Lanouette: It's a little more bizarre than that. What's happening is like I say, the major airlines are calling us and we're saying, "Well, you guys have training facilities." Yeah, I know. But we need you guys to train our people. It's bizarre.

Joe Sallustio: You know, it's also interesting. And I don't know what you think about Mike. And I was talking to someone last night and Douglas, you may have been with us. But right now, we are the conversation, by the way. No, anti-fuzz. It's because he kicked your mic earlier and that was fun to watch. But we're the shiny object now before it was Publics. And now media, people, parents, educated buyers, wanting outcomes. I mean, I feel like we're in the driver's seat for the first time for all the right reasons in the industry that we serve.

Charlie Parker: Yeah, I couldn't agree with that more.

Douglas Carlson: And I'm wondering, and my guess is the answer is yes, but I'd be interested to hear it from your words, is trades have historically not been maybe like the coolest thing. So there's both ends of the spectrum, right? Like there's the industry that's just demanding your students, but on the student front, it was kind of like, well, I don't know if I want to go into the trades. I'm getting pushed into this four-year world whether I want it or not. It seems like that has changed big time. I'm really curious about the experience of that. What are students saying? What do you see from them?

Mike Lanouette: Yeah, when I went to high school, I had good GPA and all that.

Joe Sallustio: When was that?

Mike Lanouette: I remember back in the day.

Joe Sallustio: When you were barefoot walking down a hill in snow.

Mike Lanouette: Are you kidding me? You got a good GPA. You're what we just call college prep. You're going to university. And if you didn't have a good GPA, you went to the other school, we called it Vo-Tech back then. And they don't call it Vo-Tech now, but they still go on a bus and they go somewhere else. Well, these students now are going, and I was the smart one, those were the dumb ones or the slow ones. But now you're finding out the smart ones are going to university, they're spending $60,000, $80,000, $100,000 for a degree. And they're working at TGIF and the dumb ones, the slow ones are going to a nine-month program in welding or HVAC or construction trades or aviation and they're making $80,000 right off the bat. So, you know, who's the slow one now?

Charlie Parker: Yeah. You know, and I think of the, remember in high school, maybe you guys were already there, but the cool table?

Joe Sallustio: Well, I was always at the cool table.

Charlie Parker: I figured that. You were always at the cool table. You were throwing tater tots.

Joe Sallustio: Yeah. I was.

Charlie Parker: So the cool table was more traditional based, you know, UVA, James Madison, or wherever your locale is, state school, even private, but on the for-profit side. Now the cool table is switched. Trades is cool. It's got to be a zazz. It's like you said that before today. Trades are cool.

Joe Sallustio: Thank you. That's my trademark. So we're all tees are given. I'll send you feedback. Just knock his mic off.

Charlie Parker: But you know what I mean though? It's like I call it the preppy skater now. It's like the dress, the things that go with it. People are starting to understand, hey, I can do this. I can be different and I'm going to value that and take a part of that. And I think parents are a little bit that generation's gone and now we're getting younger. So yeah, man, there's a huge cool factor to it too.

Douglas Carlson: There's an elevated cost consciousness that's driving it too. Like, you know, look, I don't want debt. I'm going to go and get something in the trades. Maybe I'll earn my way to my degree if I want to go get that later. You know, but I'm going to pay it as I go instead of incurring all this debt. And so do you think that students have their radar for costs as much more sensitive?

Charlie Parker: Well, more conscious than that. In fact, there's been a lot of studies done now. I mean, even spending money just going to lunch or hanging out with their friends, there's a lot of people seem to have more fiduciary responsibility than before and conscious of it. But they want to get into a career and have good balance in life. And trades can do that for them in various ways. You know, me, political science, I mean, you get your book and limo drivers at the top and some other things and you're like, I didn't want to do that. That's not something I was interested in. And now they can find their niche. They can be outdoors. They can rub shoulders with people they like, get their thing. It's just... It's cool to be in this industry as long as we have and see the involvement in what's happened.

Douglas Carlson: Well, I'm really curious. And forgive me. This is also a little bit my aviation nerdiness. So forgive my digression here.

Joe Sallustio: Wait for it.

Charlie Parker: No, general nerdiness.

Joe Sallustio: Yeah, I think general nerdiness as well. And continual.

Douglas Carlson: There's no sound effects for that.

Joe Sallustio: Man. That should be it. I got all sorts of stuff for him.

Douglas Carlson: Can you walk me through a day in the life of a technician? What does school look like for them as far as how often they go, how long that program is, where are their options? It sounds like a lot of the major carriers, what do they make? I just would be really curious to kind of paint that picture.

Mike Lanouette: Sure, sure. I mean, the thing about the program is it's basically designed by the FAA. You have to have certain requirements. So our particular program's 21 months. Some schools are a little shorter, some are a little bit longer. But to get all the requirements, the competencies that the FAA requires, takes about 21 months. And then they learn pretty much everything you can about an aircraft. We call it airframe, which is kind of the outside of it. And then power plant, which is the engines. But you get mechanical, you got pneumatic, you got hydraulic, electrical, you get all of it.

Charlie Parker: More than you would ever know.

Mike Lanouette: More than you would ever know.

Douglas Carlson: That's incredible. Well, I also love the 21 months because you're like, yeah, it's under two years. That's great.

Mike Lanouette: Exactly.

Douglas Carlson: Well, and where to then the next step as well. So where, what airlines are handling probably all of them. Can people just, you know, the school they go to, and you have a lot of schools near airports, do they just kind of move across the road and all of a sudden work in? Are they going to new locations? What's that look like?

Mike Lanouette: We've seen a shift in the last couple of years where a few years ago there were the private, smaller, regional airlines. We're picking them up because nobody's going to want somebody's fresh out of school working on their 777.

Douglas Carlson: Sure, yeah.

Mike Lanouette: You know, they don't want them working on that. And it takes time, but we're finding more and more now the major airlines are starting to hire them because they need them. They need aircraft mechanics. They can't find anybody. They can't find them so they're hiring them up. Our number one employer last year was Boeing.

Douglas Carlson: No kidding.

Mike Lanouette: And they visited every one of our campuses multiple times. I mean they're branding our schools. They are invested in us.

Charlie Parker: And if you remember, I mean you're a marketer. I feel like a lot of schools, they market their school in a narcissistic way and it's not rude. It's just how it is or their program. And we spent a conscious effort on talking about our partners and what you're going to be doing after, how you're going to be in the flight line. We're just a little blip in their career catapult type thing. And also, Mike, I want you to hit on welding. Let's not sleep on welding because the Hampton Roads, we've got some great things going on. Welding, HVAC, and some other things.

Mike Lanouette: Yeah, and Hampton Roads, it's amazing. Senator Kaine a few years ago basically said they've got to build 300 ships in the next 10 years. Who's going to do it? Who's going to do it? So yeah, we're working very, very closely with a lot of the shipyards there to provide as many welders as they need, and they need a bunch of them. Our school there, Tidewater Tech, has about 250 welding students.

Douglas Carlson: 250?

Mike Lanouette: 250 welding students going non-stop. Morning, afternoon, evening, weekends.

Joe Sallustio: Dude, take that in. Around the clock.

Charlie Parker: Around the clock. Welders.

Joe Sallustio: That is incredible. What's a welder earn in one of these shipyards?

Mike Lanouette: Yeah, I mean they can earn up to, they can get six figures depending on what they're doing. There's like, you get like probably premium pay for the safety concerns and all of that.

Charlie Parker: And the female, you can't sleep on females with us in the traditional male-driven occupation, but you know, we've made some great strides in breaking that ceiling and not only on the aviation side, but even on the welding, the HVAC and the trade side. And it's really cool to see the acceptance and they're pretty dang good too.

Mike Lanouette: Yeah, they're fantastic. On the aviation side, I believe they say there's 2% of the aviation mechanics for females.

Charlie Parker: Wow.

Mike Lanouette: At our schools, 12% of the student population in aviation is females.

Joe Sallustio: That's incredibly open. Close that gap.

Mike Lanouette: We made a real concerted effort to tell you that.

Joe Sallustio: Where do you think that comes from, that increase in female skilled trade workers? Do you think there's just moms had their kids and say, hey, I want to go back to work. I'm going to get something in the skilled trade. Is it a 18-year-old that says, I'm not going to college? Is it both? What kind of age group?

Charlie Parker: I think it's everywhere, man. I think we've done a really good job. And it's not we, as in staff and faculty, I think the students have done a really good job and the graduates of talking about the programs and it's gravitated across gender lines. I can think of five females that we have in Chicago and their dads. Their dads were mechanics or dads were something. They had them in the shop and now they're accepted in a way where it wasn't like, you need to go to Cosmo or you need to do something like that. So I think there's a lot of variables, but I will give it to our graduates. Very accepting, very understanding, bringing them in. They do really good work. They're very conscientious in a different way than a male, you know, so there's a give and take to that. And it's just from our perspective, especially being in the industry so long, it's really cool to see the involvement, not involvement, but evolvement.

Joe Sallustio: Do you think, you know, to your point, and somebody said this earlier yesterday, I can't remember who it was, but I wonder, do you believe social media has given part of the cool factor like, hey, I'm going to be welding this sucker. I'm putting it on TikTok. Watch me. Look how stinking cool this looks. You get the views. Somebody goes, wow, that's pretty awesome. Right. Put some music to it. It just changes the whole outlook.

Charlie Parker: Everything, everything, man. It's good. We have gone from, you know, PPL, PPC, paper, lead, paper, click for those digital and things like that. And we're trying to do less of that and more what I would call it's there's pay involved, but I call organic unpaid and give that real life of what you're going to be doing. And you have females and let's face it, guys like going to school when females are there. So we have females for dual purpose. We're showing their outcomes, showing their work. They're in short form in 10 seconds. You've got a podcast. I started, you're the Coke of podcasts. I'm kind of like the diet Coke, maybe sugar free, I guess. But we have our own show. And the reason why we started for culture and students are chiming in, they're saying, Hey, I want to rub shoulders with you guys. You guys are not stuffy corporate guys that wear ties and suits and just come in and worry about numbers. You're out there mixing it with us, playing basketball with them, hanging out with them. So I think all that vibe is transcending down to that demo that we serve.

Joe Sallustio: We talked about the cool factor. We talked about that aviation repair and maintenance sounds cool. But if you could see it, if you could get somebody on a camera doing it. And you're up on YouTube and you're going, hey man, look how cool this is. Look what I learned. That is the ultimate marketing, isn't it?

Charlie Parker: That's where they go. Go where the puck is like in hockey. That was for you brother.

Douglas Carlson: Thank you.

Charlie Parker: You're welcome. But you go where they're at and show them the relevancy of that. You know what I mean?

Joe Sallustio: Gretzky, yeah. Going out there.

Charlie Parker: And then Mike's got a good thing only internal. Like what we do, what we call, you know, in the front end piece and using our hangar, do you want to go into that a little bit, that we don't do the traditional, you know, four white walls, a cat hanging from a tree that says hang on, and there's a computer in there to do your application. I mean, we've got a different philosophy with that.

Mike Lanouette: Yeah, we call them DHAs, daily hangar activities. You are in that lab, you are in that hangar every day. You're not just listening to somebody drone on about landing gear. You're actually working on landing gear.

Joe Sallustio: Yeah. It's the hands-on power of hands-on in this digital world still holds so much weight, doesn't it? I mean, yes, we talked about it in COVID and you know, what are you going to do? Who's going to do this? You're going online, going on ground. There's just some things that half you have to get your hands dirty.

Charlie Parker: Yeah. Like the better way to say it. You know, and I want to make a comment during COVID. We made a deliberate choice. I was actually with a different school group right before I came on. That's when you and I first met really was it was right there in COVID. Everybody, if you guys remember reps were going remote, classes remote, everybody was like trying to pivot real quick. I am not exaggerating. We held the line. We still held interviews. We kept our percent of population based on states. We did not deviate and our enrollments were better than any colleague I talked to. And there's something to learn from that shiny object rush in doing these things. Stick to who you are. Like the other statement, you know, you brought up. You got to know your audience. I mean, when they can start fixing planes remotely and through a video, then then we'll change. But right now that ain't going to happen. So yeah.

Joe Sallustio: And you're not going to get on that plane, right?

Charlie Parker: Well, maybe some people will, but I'm sure Douglas, you're too much.

Douglas Carlson: Well, and I'm also curious about what your growth looks like. It seems like there's so much opportunity in this space and so much actually even flipping it. There's so many students to serve. You have a growth trajectory, you're thinking international, like what are, what's the crystal ball look like for you for the next two to five years?

Mike Lanouette: Yeah, I mean we are definitely in growth mode.

Charlie Parker: Yeah. And all of our trades are showing it because there's, you know, I haven't been to an airport now that isn't growing.

Joe Sallustio: I'm telling you like it is.

Charlie Parker: Thank you.

Joe Sallustio: I haven't been, I thought that was your voice. I thought so too. I'm really through it.

Charlie Parker: No, I mean, you can't go in an airport that's not building another, another concourse. I mean, just.

Joe Sallustio: Yeah. No, I suffer with that with DIA every day.

Charlie Parker: Absolutely. And deliberate growth too. I mean, we are less interested, I'd say Mike, than, you know, a bottom line or an EBITDA. We're more interested in serving our population and making sure those partners are served. And if that makes us move GI... And everybody says that. I'm not saying they don't. But I've lived this for four years. You've been here six years. And that is our culture. I mean, from the top down. And I do feel like we run a different ship. It's really hard for someone that's been in the industry when they come over to us to get kind of AMAified, if you will, and understand that.

Joe Sallustio: AMAified. AMAified.

Charlie Parker: But when they get there, man, the culture is just so, so lasting. And I think that transcends to our students. It's great to have waiting lists. It's been a long time. I've been in the industry a long time. It's been a long time since we had waiting lists, but that's a certain value there. And not to just open it up to be a little more selective and make sure people are ready.

Joe Sallustio: Well, as we get to the end of this episode, I would be remiss if I didn't mention Chats with Charlie and wondering what is this business of Chats with Charlie about?

Charlie Parker: Well, this Diet Coke show, other than the Coke, is Chats with Charlie and Frangie. And check us out on YouTube, Spotify. We're definitely all over LinkedIn. We try to be involved with that. And it's a show. Douglas has been on. I got to get you on.

Joe Sallustio: I was going to say, I mean, you know.

Charlie Parker: Give Rustem a shout out. Right? Yeah. Jonathan, Jen Lyles, Eric Cade. So many people have been on. And it's more of a show of just talk.

Mike Lanouette: Well, Mike's a little bitter. I'm getting it.

Charlie Parker: All in good time, man. It's like that fine wine. You'll be the guest that he comes to when he can't get another guest.

Mike Lanouette: Michael, let's just be honest. He won't tell you the truth.

Charlie Parker: Come on, man. Anyways, please check us out. Ed Up was a reason for this. And dude, we got started because we have, like I say, Camps of the Atlantic to the Pacific, and we couldn't do training. It was hard to get the message out. So we started out like that, and we started to get responses. And we're like, it just kind of organically grew to what it is today. But I appreciate you giving a shout out. Please check us out.

Joe Sallustio: Check it out. Anywhere you get your podcast feed, right?

Charlie Parker: There you go. And YouTube. Anywhere. If you're at it, we're like the, I'm trying to think, who chases who with the Trader Joe's and then Whole Foods chases them on wherever they're at. So.

Joe Sallustio: No, no. I always say the audience will listen to more than one good podcast if they're a podcast listener and.

Charlie Parker: You're doing a great job. I appreciate it, brother.

Joe Sallustio: I love the conversations. You know, highlighting the space is critical. That's why we're here. We've got to, we serve a lot of students in career colleges and we do it. There's a lot of great A players out there doing it in the right way and we got to highlight their work. So unbelievably well. Having you guys on as an honor. Douglas, what'd you think about this conversation, my friend?

Douglas Carlson: I was looking forward to this one. This was met and exceeded all expectations. And again, like the inner aviation nerd just is so appreciative of the conversation.

Charlie Parker: So yeah, man, we got to get you out to the museum to tell us about that.

Joe Sallustio: Yeah, we need to do that. That'd be fun. Watch out for any microphones you have. He'll kick them off. He's Douglas Carlson. He is head of partnerships at Lead Squared. Douglas, thanks for inviting these guys on the podcast. Charlie, you're always welcome back. And in fact, you ought to come cohost with me sometime. It'd be a ball. Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to give them one outro since Charlie said he's the Dr. Dre guy. So here we go. Charlie Parker, Chief Branding and Enrollment Officer of Centura College and VP of Admin Mike Lanouette from Centura College. Guys, it's been an honor. Thanks for coming on.

Mike Lanouette: Our pleasure.

Charlie Parker: Thank you so much.

Joe Sallustio: Ladies and gentlemen, keep your feet under the table. You've just had EdUp. I called you Jonathan Douglas. I got Jonathan on one. That's Jonathan Alexander. Hello, buddy. Douglas, keep your feet on the table. And you've still had EdUp.