by Chris Schaffer

Created on: December 16, 2008   Last Updated: December 23, 2008

The recession may be hurting your energy and transportation investments, but there are some industries that may weather this storm much better than others. A key player that comes out on top of recessionary economics is education.

As the job market contracts and budgets become tighter many people choose to go back to school. It may seem an odd choice, but the diverse financial aid options and need to advance personal skill sets to match a more competitive job market put education on top. Along with military service, education is the primary shelter for people who find themselves in danger of missing the job market once the economy recovers.

If you want to capitalize where do you look? Most of us think of state colleges and private universities when the term higher education comes up, but there are a number of public companies that may benefit you in both the short and long term.

DeVry, Inc. is one of those companies. While many companies are trading at 52-week lows, DeVry has been holding close to steady at a high mark for their business. For the long term it looks like they should continue to do well in the market, although there will certainly be some ups and downs on the way. For the short term, some investors may be able to ride the three and four dollar intraday variance to some sizable profits.

Other companies that are showing similar traits are the Apollo Group, Career Education, and Strayer Education. A big reason you can look for expansion in these companies is the squeeze the financial crisis is putting on traditional schools. With fewer people making donations, development projects being put on hold, and state fund evaporating the online and distributed education market is experiencing a boom in enrollment. These institutions also carry a few other benefits to students.

Unlike the traditional brick and mortar schools, distributed learning providers give students much more freedom. This somes in two ways. They offer more courses of study, and more specific courses of study, than traditional schools. They can atract enrollment from many people who avoid other schools. When you add up the long tail of these students looking for specialized programs you can add in a very healthy number of people willing to open up their wallets. The second big bonus is that most of these learning companies expect people to be working while they are in school. There is no penalty for a person to be a part-time student. Once again, these companies can pick up large numbers of students that would otherwise be out of the market.

All of these factors end up as profit for the companies mentioned. Better yet they end up as excellent earning potential for investors. While many people are trying to guess at when to drop their cash into the punch-drunk financial stocks, you can be making a wiser choice by investing in education and looking at steady growth rather than praying for a windfall.

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