Stevens-Henager College hiring 300 new employees in Salt Lake Valley

SALT LAKE CITY — Stevens-Henager College is seeking 300 new employees within the Salt Lake Valley this year, with a focus primarily on administrators, but also on course instructors and executives.

The career school offers training in health care, business, graphic arts and computer programs. It has seven campuses in Utah and Idaho, and under a different name, eight others in Colorado and Arizona.

"It's good news for those who are interested in working in education. It's great news for the Salt Lake urban area," said Eric Juhlin, CEO of Stevens-Henager. "That's where our corporate headquarters are, so a significant chunk of our growth will occur there."

Juhlin said the organization has experienced "huge growth" in the past three to four years, and the school "just keeps needing more and more people."

"Education in general tends to run countercyclical. When you see periods of increased unemployment, that translates into an increased number of people who look for retraining, new careers or going back to college to upgrade previous education and training to ultimately take advantage of new opportunities," Juhlin said.

In addition to people seeking new skills in this recession-plagued economy, Stevens-Henager is experiencing a greater demand for its services because it has added new campuses, new online studies and new curricula, he said.

Many of the new hires will be part of the team of people who have initial contacts with prospective students.

"The rest of it is a big increase in what we call your in-school support personnel, and that covers a lot of areas," he said, including student services, academic advisers and career services workers who can help students who have finished school and need assistance with job placement.

The school is also hiring both full-time and adjunct instructors.

Juhlin, who has more than 20 years in the education field, became CEO just 10 months ago and also is seeking a chief financial officer, chief academic officer and senior vice president of academic resources. "We are looking to build," he said.

The school's Utah work force currently stands at 706, and the 300 new workers, some of whom are now in the process of being hired, will be added to that. The hiring will continue through the rest of 2010.

e-mail: lindat@desnews.com