Polaris Career Center — Local services in Middleburg Heights

I currently attend the facilities maintenance course and I feel robbed of $12k. I took the class to expand my skills and prospect it for sending future employees. I will not be sending employees here. OSHA 30: probably one of the only 2 or 3 things that was worthwhile. Construction: welcome to 1.5-2 hours of YouTube videos, power points and off topic discussion before a break to come back to labs where you're standing around for 30-45 minutes waiting for the instructor if you aren't sure about something or need any assistance. Not to mention the extreme lack of space to work. High schoolers get the whole room while adults get a 20'x20' section to build 3 mini homes in that have maybe 3' of space between them. It was honestly a miracle no one got hurt. Plumbing: same as construction but the last 2 weeks will be fiddling your thumbs without anything to do. Electrical: this class was awesome except for the teacher bragging about his boat and all its lights or his home he wired himself. Not enough time on commercial applications and way too much time on residential. Facilities maintenance is 95% commercial in the real world. Painting: didn't learn anything new that I hadn't learned from YouTube videos prior. Literally slept the entire Lead class and still passed the test for certification. Felt more like free labor to paint the school. HVAC: the absolute worst so far and only 3 days in. How is a teacher going to teach me anything when they openly admit they never worked with refrigerant prior to becoming an instructor. Not to mention he was "Home Repairs," aka a handyman prior. Points taken for coming to class in the middle of summer with shorts on?!! Points subtracted for being late or no show even though you're already getting hours docked against you for it?!! Instructor is 100% on a power trip about "professionalism." You know what's not professional, never being licensed in HVAC and teaching HVAC. 2 hours to teach how to swap refrigerant from one tank to another?!!

Now to other issues. Entire class has photos taken in an adult education class, why are the only photos used in the brochures that of the 2 students who could pass as freshman in high school?!!

Told at the beginning of the year the cafe would be staffed with 2 people so hot sandwiches would be available. Yeah that never happened. Their cafe is full of hot food that sits under a heater so long it could break a tooth. The cold subs are soggy unless you get them right when they come out. Honestly, gas station food is better.

Save your $12k to buy the tools and materials to practice in your garage from YouTube videos, cause that's about the quality of education they provide. You don't even get a set of tools at the end...

Every staff member I came in contact with was more then polite and helpful, and the facility was in great shape. Unfortunately I don't feel like I got what I paid for. I was in Adult Education for the Cardiographic Technician program. My class was the first to have the new edition of our book which was great but our instructor didn't know he needed to order himself a new one so for the first week or two there was conflicting information since he had one book and we had another, once his came in all was good. Included in the cost if our program was our book as well as a basic stethoscope and BP cuff which was great, but unfortunately the quality was so low on the stethoscopes that they were practically unusable. Once it came around for us to work in the Lab we soon realized that of the 3 EKG machines available only one worked...this issue eventually got taken care if weeks later. (Big problem in my eyes since that's what almost our entire program was about) Refurbished machines replaced the old ones only after we had started our externships(clinical hours) at hospital in the area. (Because of this many of my class members, including myself, felt unready to work in the hospital setting due to no practice time in the classroom, but we had to anyways.). Onto our externships, our class was split between 3 locations, Southwest General Hospital, Cleveland Clinic Main , and one that was in the process of closing (now closed I believe). From talking with classmates Cleveland Clinic​ Main is the only site where they felt they got the proper training/hands on experience. My location which will remain nameless is a great place, workers were more then helpful but unfortunately this location just wasn't busy enough to get the hands on experience I should have received. I may have done 10 EKGs total and didn't even get to perform any stress tests, I only got to observe 2.( Again, not the hospitals fault they just weren't busy.) The rest of the time there I just studied in their office area. I was lucky enough to observe one procedure which was great! End of the course comes around and we were supposed to have a big CCT review (which is the state test to get certified) but we "ran out of time" so that never happened. I don't know how many students from my class went on to take the certification exam, I know not many. I did go on to get a telemetry monitor job about 9 months after graduation which is great but unless you want to work at Cleveland Clinic Main positions are extremely limited which would have been nice to know ahead of time.

I hope this is helpful, I rarely do any reviews but I feel like I wish I would have known some of this before I signed up...

DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY!!!

Polaris Career Center, specifically the adult education program, is an absolute sham of an operation. The HVAC program that I was enrolled in was treated as a complete afterthought that was poorly funded, disorganized, and an utter waste of time.

The school purports to be one of the leading top notch accelerated programs in the area where any ambitious minds wishing to pursue an invigorating path towards a new career in HVAC should attend. The problem, however is the only thing students accelerate towards is failure. The primary instructor Mizak came across as an embittered older gentleman who was extremely pretentious and very condescending towards his students to the point where many gave up seeking out his counsel.

Polaris is a Ponzi scheme at its finest and worst. The staff rushes the adult students with such haste it often felt as if we were unwelcome. The price for the program is above average in the market, but with below average hospitality, guidance, and instruction.

I personally witnessed students being ridiculed, mistreated, and one who was even conspired against to be removed from the program.

Might I remind you that this is an adult education center, supposedly, and yet often times I’ve seen staff behave in ways that are fit for a playground.

I am embarrassed that the school, without my permission, photographed me for their brochure utilizing my ethnicity as a token to their diversity advertisement. Less than half of the students were non white in my class, but somehow only those with a different ethnic background made the brochure. What are the odds?

The employability workshops were lackluster, underdeveloped, and forced. They were constantly consumed with sending surveys that they would text or email as if any of the critiques student had would be met with any real consideration.

Several students throughout the course complained to the Adult Ed directors about staff behavior as well as the unacceptable behaviors of Mizak, the lead instructor.

The programs only saving grace was Don Horner, our lab instructor who was approachable, informative, and straight to the point.

The grading scale is just as elusive as it is confusing, to the point where the superintendent himself questioned the criterion that had to met because it simply made no sense.

I attended this class along side Arabic, Hispanic, and other non white students who all expressed the same contempt for the way in which they each where individually and as a group treated, unacceptably.

If negative star ratings were a possibility, Polaris adult career center would be on the first ballot to...