As people are becoming more and more aware of the need to get educated if they want to work with dogs (or any other animals) the course provider industry that has developed on the back of that has grown out of all proportion. Sadly, so have the marketing tricks that are employed to grab a share of the business. I have touched on this subject before but feeling very strongly about delivering quality education in a fair and transparent way I feel readers need to be made aware of the sort of tactics that are employed by some so that informed decisions can be made when investing their hard-earned cash.

VAT. Contrary to what some would believe (and tell their potential students), all private provision of courses is most definitely subject to VAT. In the near 20 years that Compass Education has been delivering such courses we have seen two distance learning providers shut down overnight by HMRC and all their students lost out financially. Of course, they may be a very small business with around only 200 students a year, in which case they will probably be under the VAT threshold of £85,000 but most are quick to advertise how popular they are and how many hundreds of students they attract each year. If those claims are true, they are not only defrauding the tax authorities but gambling with the money people pay for courses.

Accreditation. Compass was amongst the first to see the value of getting courses accredited by an independent body that was, itself approved by a higher authority. It gives some assurance to the student that they are investing in something worthwhile. Unfortunately, this system of quality assurance is open to abuse by those who simply want to ‘appear’ genuinely concerned about quality. There are so many such bodies to choose from it is possible to get approval on the basis of a commitment to develop systems up to the required standard yet not deliver on that commitment. Before the accreditation is removed for failing to achieve the standard (generally around 3 years) they simply move to another awarding body.

Another aspect to consider is the advent of awarding bodies that are not recognised or governed by any other authority. ABCC is one such organisation and more recently UK Rural Skills, they may be perfectly good at what they do but the reassurance that is given by recognition of the relevant government education authorities should not be underestimated. The other consideration is which professional body recognises the course and how closely related they are to the course provider. Call me cynical but if a course provider also runs a ‘professional’ membership organisation based on their own courses alarm bells start to ring for me.

UK Learning Provider registration. Anybody can register as a UK Learning Provider and most do but it doesn’t add any value to the provider. There are no checks, no qualifications required and no standards applied yet the logo is often displayed in a position to appear to be meaningful.

Course fees. Any seriously minded course provider that has quality at the top of their priorities will have a pricing structure that balances the needs of the students against the demands of running such a service. If the pricing policy is governed by special offers and other gimmicks to pressurise people to sign up quickly, once again, alarm bells should start sounding. Education should not be considered the same as buying last season’s styles with the aim of getting a bargain in the sales. If a course becomes available at 20% off if you act quickly, it is still profitable for the provider which means that gross profits are normally being applied. Although it is not always the case that you get what you pay for, if you pay a low price for your education, the quality and therefore value of what you receive, will be the first to suffer. If you get taken in by cheap marketing stunts don’t be surprised if you end up disappointed.