Career school closes ahead of state action

Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, May 10, 2005

An Everett-based career school has officially closed its doors but is still mum about the student complaints that played a role in its demise.

The owner of go2cert.com, also known as the High Tech Learning Center, wrote a letter to some former students saying the school was a victim of poor economic conditions.

Go2cert.com had enrolled only two students in the past five months, Tassawar Sheikh wrote. “We are simply unable to continue to operate in such a poor business climate.”

A state agency issued the school a notice that it was going to revoke its license after former students at its Everett and Federal Way campuses complained they were not given refunds.

“I figured it was just a matter of time,” said Ben Dart of Everett, a former student who filed his complaint in February with the state Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board.

He took out a loan for more than $15,000, reflecting tuition for three courses. He will get his money back through a trust fund administered by the work-force board. The trust fund pays back students with private loans when schools fail to do so.

Because go2cert.com had its license revoked, Sheikh will not be able to open another school in Washington, said Tana Stenseng, spokeswoman for the work force board.

Go2cert.com is the second career school operating in the Everett area to close its doors in recent months amid scrutiny from the state. The school was not accredited.

In March, the Gig Harbor-based Business Career Training Institute – commonly known as BCTI – closed its Everett school and six other campuses in Washington and Oregon amid investigations of improper recruiting and record keeping.

In the last decade, 283 private career schools have closed or changed owners in the state. More than 340 schools have opened in the same time period.

The work force board helped to close 11 of the schools, including branches of the same school.

They include go2cert.com, as well as the American College of Professional Education in June 2000, including a Lynnwood campus. That school was owned by Shahid Sheikh, believed to be related to Tassawar Sheikh.

Business records show that in the early 1990s, Tassawar Sheikh was a partner in a Seattle medical clinic run by Shahid Sheikh.

Shahid Sheikh, 46, formerly of Shoreline, once owned the American College of Professional Education, a private career college that the Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board helped shut down in 2000. That school had branches in Lynnwood, Olympia, Tukwila and Fife.

Tassawar Sheikh’s problems at go2cert.com were being reviewed independently of the problems Shahid Sheikh had with his defunct school.

Reporter Melissa Slager: 425-339-3465 or mslager@heraldnet.com.