Ideas

Good idea. My idea is to also help people with their careers. There should be more to getting a job, besides a resume. Since the compensation will be generating via franchise fees and royalty payments, will the employees receive paid training? I think there are some jobs that will teach their employees certain skills, however I'm unaware of any ones that are franchised.

Ben Franklin once said that an education was the one thing a man was willing to pay for and NOT get! Educational companies can make lots of money. But, it will be difficult to convince employers that they should train and promote from within rather than fire and hire more qualified people.

Another aspect of the business you need to consider is the reputation and perceived quality of the education you are offering. Even though you have a targeted service and a target market, there are many other avenues where people can get the same training. Night schools, for one, and colleges. Plus there are many on-line schools in operation these days. So, you have LOTS of competition for this idea.

You will need to figure out what your VALUE PROPOSITION is for the business. In other words, why should I hire your company when I can go so many other places to get the same thing? Right now, I see that you have thought of a reason as to why a company would want to seek out remedial training. But, is that valid? And, if an employee really is in need of remedial education - should they even be in that job in the first place? Just some things to consider.

I concur with DaveH. Plus, it is a hard thing to crowd source when you get into this whole physical realm of things other then software dev.

Wenonah, I really think this is already covered by the Department of Labor’s Employment & Training Administration. http://www.doleta.gov/
They do pretty much everything you’re talking about for free. On the job training for new hires and current employees, paying for ESL training, sending employees to school,
There is at least one of these offices in every county in the States. Philadelphia county has 7. These are usually government offices, but private agencies also get the same grant money and do the same work.
I don’t know that there is much room for a private company unless it is highly specialized, and probably focused on the executive level.

landsky - doing a better job than the government/hired agencies is easy. You can't beat the price (our tax dollars), though.

Ya this is something we can not help you with... or at least I can not think of a way to help you.

first question- why would you hire an underqualified person...
if they want to get ahead in the business, many organizations offer such, if not, find a good community college

DaveH (no relation!) makes a good point - where the talent is available, you'll be very hard pushed to make your training more cost-effective than simply hiring someone more qualified in the first place.

Assuming the talent isn't available... I don't see how your proposal is any different to the hundreds of employee training courses out there. All you have is a name and a different marketing angle, and actually I'd pick a course that promises to improve and better my employees without using words like 'remedial' and 'underqualified' any day...

I would like to thank everyone for their wonderful responses. I am sorry I have not responded in a timely manner. I was diagnosed yesterday with Mono. At this point, all I am able to do is work and sleep. When I am feeling better, I will respond to everybody's comments. Right now I am having problems putting together coherent thougts in a stream that is understandable. Thank-you for your understanding.
Wenonah

here are a few of comments from my fuzzy, not working brain.
Where I currently live, there is a real shortage of qualified talent. Positions often go unfilled for months because there are simply not the qualified people to fill them. If people can be promoted internally, this would save the companies $1,000's of dollars in recruitment costs.
Currently the companies that are providing training are providing skill based training (i.e. software) and not soft skill training-except on the supervisory level. No one wants to touch the fact that many people working for the average company are not promotable because they lack basic skills like dress, english or even hygiene. These are the issues that we would address. Community colleges often have so much bureaucracy, and the lead time on the training can vary anywhere from 3 to five months. So we would be more flexible then that.
The keys are "soft skill training" not functional area training and a high degree of flexibility.