Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, the definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter.

(1) "Agency" means the workforce training and education coordinating board.

(2) "Agent" means a person owning an interest in, employed by, or representing for remuneration a private vocational school within or without this state, who enrolls or personally attempts to secure the enrollment in a private vocational school of a resident of this state, offers to award educational credentials for remuneration on behalf of a private vocational school, or holds himself or herself out to residents of this state as representing a private vocational school for any of these purposes.

(3) "Degree" means any designation, appellation, letters, or words including but not limited to "associate," "bachelor," "master," "doctor," or "fellow" which signify or purport to signify satisfactory completion of an academic program of study beyond the secondary school level.

(4) "Education" includes but is not limited to, any class, course, or program of training, instruction, or study.

(5) "Educational credentials" means degrees, diplomas, certificates, transcripts, reports, or documents, that signify satisfactory completion of the requirements or prerequisites for any educational program.

(6) "Entity" includes, but is not limited to, a person, company, firm, society, association, partnership, corporation, or trust.

(7) "Private vocational school" means any location where an entity is offering postsecondary education in any form or manner for the purpose of instructing, training, or preparing persons for any vocation or profession.

(8) "Probation" means the agency has officially notified a private vocational school in writing that the school or a program offered by the school has been identified by the agency as at risk and has deficiencies that must be corrected within a specified time period.

(9) "Program" means a sequence of approved subjects offered by a school that teaches skills and fundamental knowledge required for employment in a particular occupation.

(10) "To grant" includes to award, issue, sell, confer, bestow, or give.

(11) "To offer" includes, in addition to its usual meanings, to advertise or publicize. "To offer" also means to solicit or encourage any person, directly or indirectly, to perform the act described.

(12) "To operate" means to establish, keep, or maintain any facility or location where, from, or through which education is offered or educational credentials are offered or granted to residents of this state, and includes contracting for the performance of any such act.

Severability—1990 c 188: "If any provision of this act or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of the act or the application of the provision to other persons or circumstances is not affected." [ 1990 c 188 s 14.]