EDUCATION BLOG

4 out of 5 practicing private detectives agree: Correspondence courses are not worth your time and money.

Don't believe them? I was skeptical too. Honestly, they were the first thing I thought of when I thought of doing private investigations. After all, I had seen dozens of advertisements for them, and when you Google for information on how to get into the business, you will get many different distance learning courses in the first few pages of results. Then I did my due diligence, and the results tend to indicate that the majority is correct. You can decide for yourself, and if you know of more programs, feel free to let me know and I'll add them to the list.

Detective Training Institute (DTI) - For $799, you'll get 35 lessons in 7 units which cover a large number of PI related topics. The guy who runs it does investigations, and the first lesson is actually free for the download so that you can see what it is all about. If you are the type who needs structure but can't put it together yourself, this is probably the course I would recommend. It seems comprehensive, puts a bit of emphasis on field exercises, and is not overly expensive. It is not accredited, so the diploma is mainly for show.

Global School of Investigation (GSI) - For $372, you'll get 25 lessons in 5 units, which again cover a large number of topics. They also offer a downloadable curriculum for $285, and an add-on 12 lessons on cassette for $60. The DTI website specifically points out GSI as being an unethical school, but I haven't looked into that. It is not accredited, so the diploma is again mainly for show, but they also include a badge! Fan-cy (and illegal if you practice in California).

Hodson & Associates Training Seminars - A bit different than the other offerings, Hodson & Associates (a detective agency in LA) provides a series of video seminars, a certificate of completion, and more interestingly, "contact with investigation firms hiring now" for $150.  Whether this is an introduction or a link to a job site is unknown.

Lion Investigation Academy - Now we get into the big bucks. This is a 2 year, 60 credit hour (20 courses), community college style program which costs $3795 and results in the Associate of Specialized Technology degree. Unfortunately this program isn't accredited either, but they get points for having the snazziest-looking diploma, and textbooks are included in the cost. If you don't have four grand, they also offer several certificate courses which focus on specific areas like undercover investigations and cost between $65 and $105 each.

Penn Foster Career School - You know those post cards that fall out of magazines and offer to teach you how to become a locksmith, or a gunsmith, or an interior decorator, or a paralegal? Penn Foster gives you the option of "becoming" a private investigator by taking their 9 month, $1113 course (in California...the rest of the country gets a discount). Some of the pros for this school are that the course qualifies as continuing education if you need CEUs, offers some sort of mentorship program so you might get some experience out of it, and the school is accredited. However, the PI program does not yield a degree of any sort, so you'll have to be happy with the diploma. It is organized into 8 "instruction sets" that cover an apparently very wide ranging set of topics, from homeland security to handwriting analysis to executive protection. Personally, I think it is too wide ranging to be very useful for anything, but what do I know?

PI Mall Free Private Investigation Short Course - I'll bet you think I'm going to tell you that this one, being free, is worth it. Well...I'm not.

Private Investigator and Detective Training School - This $397, unaccredited certificate program includes 3 courses having 2 modules each, with 'labs' that encourage you to practice the skills conveyed.

Professional Career Development Institute (PCDI) - Another all-purpose school, PCDI offers 18 lessons for $918 which cover a wide range of activities, some of which may actually be useful. As Homer Simpson says, "How can I lose!?"

Secrets of Top Private Eyes - This course doesn't pretend to be a school. For your $139, you get 4 hours of video, 400 pages of text, access to a website and a certificate for your troubles. The same group also has some instructional articles here.

Stratford Career Institute - Four modules with a disjointed educational plan for $589. As usual, unaccredited.

NetWebinars - This isn't a correspondence course, but rather an online provider of seminars on PI related topics, like skiptracing, surveillance, pretexting and marketing. Each hour is around $35, and delivered in a very odd way - you see the video online, and receive the audio by telephone. For a couple of dollars more, you can order the presentations on CD or USB drive, but for most of the apparently useful offerings, you must present proof of licensure, so it isn't much use for me and I can't comment on the quality.

As for the tagline, I really did ask 5 practicing PIs whether they thought the online courses (no particular course specified) were useful for someone getting into the biz. One said it couldn't hurt, the others laughed.