Online career-training company, Career Step, LLC, is facing severe repercussions for misleading advertising practices. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has ordered the company to pay a substantial $43.5 million to resolve charges of deceptive advertising, specifically targeting servicemembers and their families. The FTC alleges that Career Step enticed consumers with false promises of inflated employment outcomes, guaranteed job placement, and non-existent partnerships with reputable companies, all related to their “Career Steps Program”.
Career Step’s penalty includes $27.8 million in debt cancellation for affected students and $15.7 million in cash, which will be used to provide redress to consumers who were victims of their deceptive advertising. This action underscores the FTC’s commitment to protecting vulnerable populations, especially military personnel and their families, from predatory educational schemes.
Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, stated, “Servicemembers and their families make sacrifices every day to protect our freedoms. We owe it to them to make sure that when they look to use their hard-earned benefits to further their education, they get facts and not fantasy.” This sentiment highlights the gravity of Career Step’s deceptive practices and the importance of holding such companies accountable.
According to the FTC’s complaint, Career Step, operating also as CareerStep, CareerCert, and Carrus, has been promoting career training and certification programs in the healthcare industry since at least 2019. Their marketing efforts aggressively targeted servicemembers and their spouses, utilizing social media, their website, sales representatives, and even AI technology to persuade individuals to enroll in their programs. The company also extended its reach through military-focused publications like Military.com and military-sponsored events, including job fairs, to promote their “career steps program”.
The core of the FTC’s allegations revolves around Career Step’s false claims regarding job placement and career outcomes. They also misrepresented externship opportunities, partnerships with hiring companies, and the actual duration of their programs. To further bolster their deceptive marketing, Career Step allegedly used incentivized reviews to create a false impression of satisfied student experiences and program success.
One of the most egregious claims highlighted in the FTC complaint is Career Step representatives falsely promising to secure jobs for consumers upon program completion. These representatives reportedly claimed that a dedicated “career placement team” would find consumers their “perfect job.” However, in reality, Career Step offered no genuine job placement services. Their so-called job search assistance was limited to basic resume drafting and providing links to publicly available job postings – resources readily accessible to anyone online, not exclusive benefits of their “career steps program”.
Furthermore, Career Step disseminated misleading statistics about employment rates. The company claimed that “most learners” and “more than 80% of its graduates” were employed in their field of study after completing a “career steps program”. These inflated employment outcome claims were based on a flawed and biased survey system. The survey was optional and only sent to students who had completed their program – a small fraction of total enrollees. Even among program completers, response rates were low. For example, a 2020 survey revealed that out of 9,330 enrollees and 2,126 program completers, only 5% of enrollees, or 24% of program completers, actually completed the survey. This tiny sample size hardly represents the overall success of their “career steps program” graduates.
Career Step’s website also falsely asserted partnerships with leading healthcare businesses to provide job opportunities for graduates of their “career steps program”. The company prominently displayed logos of well-known “Hiring Partners” such as CVS and Walgreens on their homepage. Sales representatives further perpetuated this deception by claiming, “We have over 50,000 partnerships so we’ll help you find some place to work.” In truth, Career Step’s agreements with companies like CVS and Walgreens had absolutely no bearing on job placement for graduates. These were not hiring pipelines as advertised.
Adding to the list of deceptive practices, the FTC found that Career Step falsely promised students externship placements as part of their “career steps program”. Despite this promise, less than 10 percent of students in programs that required externships were ever actually placed in one. The lack of externship placement prevented students from completing their programs, resulting in wasted time and money invested in the supposedly beneficial “career steps program”.
Career Step also misled students regarding program completion timelines. They falsely advertised that programs could be completed in four months or less. However, the vast majority of Career Step students never finished their programs. Even those who did complete their “career steps program” often took significantly longer than four months due to company-created obstacles. Students reported frequent website issues and difficulties in getting support from Career Step representatives. The failure to secure externships, a program requirement, also contributed to program expirations before completion or forced students to pay extension fees, sometimes as high as $999, further burdening students financially.
Finally, Career Step engaged in a deceptive incentivized review program to manipulate online reviews on platforms like BBB, Google, and Trustpilot. Students were offered program extensions of up to three months in exchange for posting positive reviews on these sites. They were required to provide proof of their reviews to Career Step to receive the “complimentary” extension. This practice resulted in numerous reviews that falsely appeared to be genuine, unbiased opinions of satisfied “career steps program” students, masking the true experiences of many.
The proposed settlement, awaiting federal judge approval, mandates Career Step to pay $15.7 million for consumer redress and cancel approximately $27.8 million in debts owed by students who enrolled in their “career steps program” between February 2020 and February 2023. Furthermore, the stipulated order strictly prohibits Career Step from engaging in deceptive advertising for any educational product or service in the future.
Specifically, Career Step is now legally barred from misrepresenting critical aspects of their “career steps program” and other offerings, including:
- Employment, hiring, or career prospects
- The number or percentage of consumers who secure employment
- Whether program completion leads to job attainment
- Partnerships with companies or employers
- Career services offered
- Externship program details
- Typical or expected program duration
- Total program costs or terms
- The objectivity or impartiality of any content, including reviews
- Any fact material to consumers concerning their services
Career Step is also obligated to notify third-party platforms hosting incentivized reviews about the FTC action and request the removal of these deceptive reviews. This action aims to cleanse the online space of misleading testimonials generated through unethical practices related to their “career steps program”.
The Commission vote authorizing the complaint and stipulated final order was unanimous (5-0), demonstrating strong consensus on the severity of Career Step’s misconduct. The complaint and stipulated final order will be officially filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
This FTC action serves as a crucial reminder for consumers to exercise caution when considering online career training programs, especially those making promises that seem too good to be true. Always verify claims, scrutinize reviews, and understand the fine print before investing in any “career steps program” or similar educational service.
