Too good to be true?

gc747

Hi, 
looking at extending my education and was searching for online courses to help pursue my career further.. I found this course through reed.co.uk

https://www.reed.co.uk/courses/site-management/201449

was £1100 now only £10?? 

I’ve read through it and it only mentions extra payment when I need to request the certificate? 

Am I going to get conned by having to fork out 1000s of pounds at the end of the course? 

Thanks in advance 👍

[Deleted User]

Looks ok to me....

"OPTION-I: Endorsed Certificate of Achievement from TQUK

At the end of the course, learner can claim an endorsed certificate by paying £170 accreditation fee+postal charges.

Certificate of Completion

CPD(soft copy) can be claimed for £15. If you need hard copy of this certificate you will pay £25

OPTION-II: CPD Certificate

Upon successful completion of the course, a fee is payable for a CPD Accredited Diploma in PDF format or hard copy.

CPD Accredited Diploma (PDF format)=£30

CPD Accredited Diploma (Hardcopy)=£120

Postage Charges:

National £9

International £15

 Before signing up ensure the above is in the contract 

comeandgo

I think they will find the error in pricing before you get too far.  

gc747

comeandgo said:

I think they will find the error in pricing before you get too far.  

Better get on it then

gc747

_shel said:

Looks ok to me....

"OPTION-I: Endorsed Certificate of Achievement from TQUK

At the end of the course, learner can claim an endorsed certificate by paying £170 accreditation fee+postal charges.

Certificate of Completion

CPD(soft copy) can be claimed for £15. If you need hard copy of this certificate you will pay £25

OPTION-II: CPD Certificate

Upon successful completion of the course, a fee is payable for a CPD Accredited Diploma in PDF format or hard copy.

CPD Accredited Diploma (PDF format)=£30

CPD Accredited Diploma (Hardcopy)=£120

Postage Charges:

National £9

International £15

 Before signing up ensure the above is in the contract 

Thanks for looking into it for me 👍 gonna jump on it I think.. 

CocoM2020

Seems quite a few of their courses are reduced to this price. No idea why.

[Deleted User]

 They always do some free courses and  think they started the massively reduced over lockdown as a few friends took some then. 

d2446679

I don't know this provider specifically, but on the internet as a whole there are loads of distance learning providers (some of which advertise courses through Reed and elsewhere, as well as on their own websites) who supply courses in all kinds of things at what appears to be a heavily discounted price. Sometimes it's a "short term offer" or sometimes there's a discount code to put in, or you can purchase it through sites like Groupon, etc. It's almost always a 90%+ discount compared to the "real" price!

I have done some of these type of courses myself (not with this provider but with various others) with courses advertised as discounted from, e.g. £495 to £15 for a full suite of Microsoft Office courses, I did one about mentoring people that was reduced from £200 to £10, one about photography that was priced similarly, etc.

Generally the model is that almost everyone will end up getting the course for that attractive "discount" price.
Almost no-one pays the £1000 or whatever that it was supposedly originally priced at. (Although there are ways that you can end up paying the original price without using the discount code or redeeming the offer, by purchasing it directly through the provider's site for example -- but it's not expected that anyone will actually do this.)

The money maker for them is often in the additional fees for things like certificates of completion, accreditation, etc (as per the examples in your post). In that sense the course itself is a "loss leader" in the sense that most people presumably will take it because they want to show their competence in (e.g.) Site Management on their CV, so will be inclined to pay out for the certificate that proves this. (I say this without any comment about usefulness of the certificate on a CV!)

Btw, I've found that some of these providers do have genuinely useful content that I considered well worth paying the £15 or so, although I haven't taken up the "certificate" option for any of them. (And whilst the content was useful, it wasn't "original price" level of useful, at least in my experience.)

Check carefully with these sort of things whether the certificate they provide is an actual qualification/accredited certification, or if it is just a PDF that says "Sally-Jane Bloggs completed the Level 4 Diploma in Microsoft Office Applications".

Edit: Oh, I just realised I didn't explictly answer your question (although I think it was heavily implied). No, you won't be asked to fork over £1000s at the end of the course. You will pay £10 for the course, and those additional fees for certificates, postage (!) etc if you choose to have those options.  The certificate option doesn't look to me like it is endorsed by a particular industry body in that area (although I don't know much about Site Management so I don't know for sure) so be aware that you might be paying £170 for the "Sally-Jane did this course" type of 'certificate' rather than an actual certification/qualification.

gc747

d2446679 said:

I don't know this provider specifically, but on the internet as a whole there are loads of distance learning providers (some of which advertise courses through Reed and elsewhere, as well as on their own websites) who supply courses in all kinds of things at what appears to be a heavily discounted price. Sometimes it's a "short term offer" or sometimes there's a discount code to put in, or you can purchase it through sites like Groupon, etc. It's almost always a 90%+ discount compared to the "real" price!

I have done some of these type of courses myself (not with this provider but with various others) with courses advertised as discounted from, e.g. £495 to £15 for a full suite of Microsoft Office courses, I did one about mentoring people that was reduced from £200 to £10, one about photography that was priced similarly, etc.

Generally the model is that almost everyone will end up getting the course for that attractive "discount" price.
Almost no-one pays the £1000 or whatever that it was supposedly originally priced at. (Although there are ways that you can end up paying the original price without using the discount code or redeeming the offer, by purchasing it directly through the provider's site for example -- but it's not expected that anyone will actually do this.)

The money maker for them is often in the additional fees for things like certificates of completion, accreditation, etc (as per the examples in your post). In that sense the course itself is a "loss leader" in the sense that most people presumably will take it because they want to show their competence in (e.g.) Site Management on their CV, so will be inclined to pay out for the certificate that proves this. (I say this without any comment about usefulness of the certificate on a CV!)

Btw, I've found that some of these providers do have genuinely useful content that I considered well worth paying the £15 or so, although I haven't taken up the "certificate" option for any of them. (And whilst the content was useful, it wasn't "original price" level of useful, at least in my experience.)

Check carefully with these sort of things whether the certificate they provide is an actual qualification/accredited certification, or if it is just a PDF that says "Sally-Jane Bloggs completed the Level 4 Diploma in Microsoft Office Applications".

Edit: Oh, I just realised I didn't explictly answer your question (although I think it was heavily implied). No, you won't be asked to fork over £1000s at the end of the course. You will pay £10 for the course, and those additional fees for certificates, postage (!) etc if you choose to have those options.  The certificate option doesn't look to me like it is endorsed by a particular industry body in that area (although I don't know much about Site Management so I don't know for sure) so be aware that you might be paying £170 for the "Sally-Jane did this course" type of 'certificate' rather than an actual certification/qualification.

That’s fantastic, thank you for your well throughout and insightful answer, the certification thing is an interesting side to it, why do they bother going to all the time and energy with these courses when at the end of the day it means nothing. Will have a think and see.

again many thanks for your reply, have a lovely weekend