Finding career success without a 4 year college

The U.S. Department of Labor lists cosmetology as one of the 30 fastest growing career fields in the United States. Tuesday, the Paul Mitchell School got high school students in Little Rock interested in continuing their education without spending four years in college.

At the Paul Mitchell School in North Little Rock, a student can earn a degree at their own pace.

"We actually call a lot of our future professionals visionaries. They're looking for every opportunity they can get," says Dione Johnson.

Johnson is part of the admissions team at Paul Mitchell. It is not your grandmother's beauty school.

"Sometimes traditional school doesn't really fit or work for them. We here at Paul Mitchell, we have something called multiple intelligences. The idea is that we're all smart, we just have to figure out how we learn," says Johnson.

Johnson, and a team of professionals, lead hands-on classes at the North Little Rock campus where people right out of high school, those changing careers or anyone looking for a second income learn by doing.

"A lot of our future professionals they'll actually go and work as a platform artist. They'll do fashion shows, runway. There's a lot of opportunities," says Johnson.

Tuesday, at a career fair at Pulaski Tech, hundreds of high school students showed interest in Paul Mitchell. Teens earn credit hours while still in school. Since this is a fully accredited program, financial aid and scholarships are available.

"One of the beautiful things is that we really do help students and future professionals change their lives. You know, they can take control of their futures and really do something that they love and can have fun with," says Johnson.

The next day program at Paul Mitchell starts April 16.

Anyone can walk-in to the school and get their hair or nails done for deep discounts by the students Tuesday through Saturday.

You can finish the program and get your state license in as little as seven months if you transfer high school credit hours in cosmetology. The state requires 15-hundred hours for graduation before taking your state board exam.

If you start with zero credit hours, it'll take eleven to 18 months depending on whether you do the day or night program. The night program requires a 20 hour commitment every week.