UPDATE 1-Career Education posts Q3 profit; shares up

* Q3 shr $0.25 vs breakeven yr ago

* Total student population up 16 pct

* Shares up 8 pct in after-market trade

Nov 4 (Reuters) - Education company Career Education Corp (CECO.O: Quote, Profile, Research) posted a profit in the third-quarter, helped by strong growth in student enrollments, sending shares up 8 percent in trading after the bell.

The company posted a third-quarter profit of $20.8 million, or 25 cents a share, compared with a loss of $147,000, or breakeven a share, a year earlier. Excluding certain items, it earned 47 cents a share.

Revenue rose 14 percent to $459.9 million, driven by "the highest levels of new-student starts and student population in company's history," Career Education said in a statement.

Analysts on average were expecting earnings of 14 cents a share, before items, on revenue of $437.3 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Total student population rose 16 percent in the quarter, while online student population was up 24 percent.

Career Education, which set an operating income milestone objective for 2010 of $225 million to $270 million in March 2008, said it now expects to report within the low end of this milestone in 2009, a year ahead of schedule.

Shares of the company were up 8 percent at $22.45 in trading after the bell. They closed at $20.78 Wednesday on Nasdaq. (Reporting by Amulya Nagaraj in Bangalore; Editing by Pradeep Kurup)