Special Correspondent

Enthusiastic community members consider IT courses in order to grab coveted online jobs. Tapping into this popular desire, some swindlers are claiming to be IT specialists to make a mint out of this 21st-century career trend.

The tricksters have unleashed several in-demand virtual courses with a good deal on the package. These deceivers guarantee jobs at the end of the curriculum and the courses are settled for a monthly fee. We have traced more than a dozen sprawling IT institutes located mainly in New York, Virginia, New Jersey, California, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and so on. To our utter astonishment, some of them even run a few bogus schools right out of their basement and also, under the shadow of other businesses.

A number of unscrupulous immigrants, who are totally devoid of IT knowledge and never stick to the standard rules of education, occasionally appear in the media to deliver specialist comments regarding the IT industry. Even the nearest people of these snake oil peddlers cannot but go dumbfounded, realizing their complete absence of decency. Their mission and vision are in essence baseless. The business model entirely relies on treacherous double-dealing.

By the way, there are 07 IT institutes in New York alone, promising high-salary jobs right off the bat after completing the courses. Sadly, the New York State Education Department approves only one of these schools. The rest of them never put an effort to comply with the rules, and they flat out did not bother with the government registration. These fake academies are unlawfully operating without any approval/license whatsoever. Rolling out those IT courses is in grave violation of the law. Conducting business in the heart of New York, a nation proud of its rule of law, those hefty swindlers are outright evading taxes. Not knowing, community folks are stumbling into those dodgy courses. About 80% of the course attendees could not manage a job, following the curriculum to the last drop.

During the Corona pandemic, clusters of immigrants are undergoing financial hardships as they have spent a fortune taking IT courses. ‘What about the promised job?’ ‘We are trying our best for that to happen’— a rather casual and yet shameless reply returns onto the face of the students. ‘Our institute will ceaselessly guide you until then. We will not take any job placement fees until you land a job as per our agreement.’— a typical pledge made to about just anyone and everyone. Insider secret? Full course fees are paid in advance. Lately, another unauthorized institute ran a course campaign in Jackson Heights, Jamaica, and the Bronx.

They distributed flyers along the way and their activities generated ripples in the immigrant communities. American Bangladesh Community Info Tech (ABCIT), a new school, rushed a campaign last week. They mention an address on Brooklyn Liberty Avenue. Unfortunately for them, the same address has been housing the BD Tech Solution office since long ago. The ABCIT claims that students can attend in-person classes on Sunday and online classes from Monday onwards. Their course curriculum includes Manual Testing - Test Plan, Test Case, SDLC, Type of Testing, Jira & Zephyr, SQL & Rest API for backend testing, Core JAVA for programming and automation testing, Cucumber BDD with Selenium Webdriver, TestNG and Maven (POM), Basic JAVA Script, API Automation, XML/CSS/HTML/JSON/Expath, GitHub/Docker/Jenkins for CI/CD pipeline. For additional info and guidelines, they have encouraged the students to contact a WhatsApp number. Mr. Nazrul Islam of BD Tech Solution received our call to that ABCIT number. He maintains that his school, BD Tech Solution, is running short of students and is closed for now.

He would reinitiate it, fulfilling a certain student quota. The full ABCIT course costs $3000 and there is no job guarantee in the end either. This is why they do not take any job placement fees. The New York State Education Department mentions neither BD Tech Solution nor ABCIT as licensed schooling authorities and they deny having received any such application from those institutes in this regard as well. Scrutinizing deeper into this issue, Smart tech IT, BD Tech Solution, Transfotech, and Technosoft administrative officers assert that their courses run in lieu of a certain amount of fees. They add that employers actually never verify the authenticity of the course certificates of their students. In return, the academies have a relaxed outlook regarding the Education Dept’s license or approval anyway. The Corona pandemic has even led them to declare discounts on courses.

Currently, they are conducting online classes. But their students occasionally pay a visit to the office for registration or the payment of fees or other errands. The rules of the Education Department make it clear that one must register and obtain a license if one conducts academic courses against fees. The approval further applies to the yearly fee-based licenses regarding both the qualification of the course teacher as well as job placement. Moreover, the institute must abide by the tax code upon its submission of income statements. All states including New York have specific rules and procedures in this respect.

Engr. Abubokor Hanip, the CEO of PeopleNTech in New York says that a license is a must as we enquired him about whether an institute should have the approval/authorization of the State Education Department.

Mr. Hanip further adds that he has been running the institute for a long time. He did follow all the regulatory procedures, annually renewing all relevant papers. Everyone is aware that fees-based courses require authorized licenses as Mr. Hanip claims. For his institute, he has arranged approval from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) and the Bureau of Proprietary School Supervision (BPSS). By the same token, one needs validation for the curriculum, teachers’ qualification, competent agents, directors for the management of the school.

PeopleNTech follows through with all these requirements. They receive course fees against receipts and they submit annual tax filing just as lawful practices demand. ‘We have taken an Employment Agency license from the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs for job placement’, continues Engr. Abubokor Hanip, his namesake ‘the Magic Man’ because of his reputation in managing high-paying employment opportunities for the job seekers. “The Department of Education monitors every school whether the institute is abiding by the regulations.

The education licenses from Virginia and New York respectively cost fees of $2,500 and $10,000. The regulatory department is highly alert so that no student runs into shams. He specially mentions that the school, agents and directors for school management require state authorization. The curriculum and the teaching method must be certified as well.

The BPSS provides these approvals. PeopleNTech facilitates job opportunities for the students under the employment agency license essentially comes from the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs (NYC DCA). As PeopleNTech is an authorized institute by the Department of Education, these healthy and lawful institutional practices effectively expedite our students into the job market.”, he added.

Sitting here in New York, some delinquent schools are bypassing the official procedures and thus duping the local communities along with the federal and state governments. Concerned citizens and exploited students are raising questions about their malicious intentions.

They think a legitimately run institute ensures quality service and makes good on its promise to the students. Devastated by the Corona pandemic, the communities are head-on bumping into these scams, driving many to bewilderment. They seek legal action against those illicit institutions.

The State Education Department offers specific laws for managing any school inside New York. The New York State Education Law 5001-5010 explains the regulations.

“5001(1). Schools required to be licensed. No private school which charges tuition or fees related to instruction and which is not exempted hereunder shall be operated by any person or persons, firm, corporation, or private organization for the purpose of teaching or giving instruction in any subject or subjects, unless it is licensed by the department.

5003(6). Civil penalties and administrative sanctions.

5003(6)b. Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph a of this subdivision, a hearing officer may recommend, and the commissioner may impose a civil penalty not to exceed seventy-five thousand dollars or double the documented amount from which the school benefited, whichever is greater, for any of the following violations:

5003(6)(b)(1) operation of a school without a license in violation of section five thousand one of this article.”