Opening a Test Center

Hi guys,
I am thinking of opening a private small tech school in the future. I am also interested in opening a test center there with both vue and prometric. Do you have any insides on how hard is to get a permit from those 2 big guys ? How much do they pay for a candidate if it`s even worth it to have a test center. ?

Thanks a lot

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vCole

Prometric:
https://www.prometric.com/Network/Become.htm

and Vue:

Pearson VUE: Become a Test Center

dynamik

From what I've heard, you really don't make much.

tiersten

dynamik wrote: »

From what I've heard, you really don't make much.

From the state of some test centers I've been to, I can believe that. There doesn't appear to be much of a minimum standard either. 2 ancient PCs in a bare room with a table and you could probably start up one...

msteinhilber

A friend of mine researched the idea as they slowly shifted their business away from consulting towards training. They wanted to provide an all inclusive means to provide a courseware for a particular exam and offer testing as well. I forget what they specifically mentioned about it, but it certainly wasn't a big cash cow - it's more of an added value to your clients more than anything. Instead of becoming a testing center, he just decided to offer vouchers at a discount instead. That worked out well since most of the training he does is for corporations and are typically done at the customers premise or he rents a facility near if the company does not have their own facility nearby.

So I wouldn't say having the testing center by itself would be worthwhile, but if you are serious about delivering courses geared towards certifications then it may be worthwhile to offer a place to both learn material as well as test on it.

nasu

that`s exactly what I am planning ..and once I have the training rooms it will be easy for me to open a test center there too maybe pay the rent from the test center... investition wise is just nothing as hardware is cheap these days.

eMeS

I wish you the best in your endeavor, however, I think you will find the following to be very helpful:

1 - Avoid long-term fixed costs (like buildings, leases, etc..) until you have some very serious cash flow. Whatever you think you need to do this, multiply it by 5. Also, once you do get office space, don't go cheap on it...your office space is in many ways your image.

2 - I checked into the testing center thing some time ago. It's absolutely not worth it. Honestly, I don't even know how they recover the cost of the equipment. They will only accept you if there is not currently another testing center within a specific radius of your location. My understanding is that they set certain monthly quotas. Once you hit the quota you get like $5 for every test after that. The quotas aren't low.

3 - The big training bucks are often in areas where people don't seek certification (at least not the kind that is delivered by Prometric or Vue). Every random bullshit CPLS that is using MOC is competing on the same thing, price. Don't play that game, you'll never win. Competing on price is the worst possible thing to do.

4 - Generally you want to offer training in areas that are hard for people to come by. Microsoft, Cisco, CompTIA, etc.. are not hard to come by. Also, please not the nature of this very board, which is predominately people that self-study....

5 - Put any excess money you have into a sales force. The more people knocking on doors the better.

MS

eMeS

tiersten wrote: »

From the state of some test centers I've been to, I can believe that. There doesn't appear to be much of a minimum standard either. 2 ancient PCs in a bare room with a table and you could probably start up one...

There is supposed to be a standard, and it's spelled out in the documentation. The problem is that the test providers almost never audit test centers.

MS

eMeS

msteinhilber wrote: »

So I wouldn't say having the testing center by itself would be worthwhile, but if you are serious about delivering courses geared towards certifications then it may be worthwhile to offer a place to both learn material as well as test on it.

In fact, Prometric will not let you set up business solely as a "testing center". I'm not sure about Vue. Prometric requires that you have some other source of main business such as consulting or training.

MS

eMeS

nasu wrote: »

that`s exactly what I am planning ..and once I have the training rooms it will be easy for me to open a test center there too maybe pay the rent from the test center... investition wise is just nothing as hardware is cheap these days.

Won't happen...unless your rent is $0.

msteinhilber

eMeS wrote: »

3 - The big training bucks are often in areas where people don't seek certification (at least not the kind that is delivered by Prometric or Vue). Every random bullshit CPLS that is using MOC is competing on the same thing, price. Don't play that game, you'll never win. Competing on price is the worst possible thing to do.

This is excellent advice, competing on price is a terrible idea even in a competitive market where it's easy to feel like you need to lower prices and be the lowest price. The problem with that is for one, there is always an idiot out there who will be willing to undercut you again, and you effectively devalue your products/services.

Instead, shift the focus away from price and onto value. This is what I did when I ran a local PC store. I was competing with all sorts of nationwide retailers on the PC front who would easily undercut my prices consistently. Same thing with parts sales compared to some of the online vendors like Newegg. In my situation, the value I added was over 20 years in the industry of being a friendly local vendor with no support outsourced overseas and local service that did not involve shipping or long waits. On the parts aspect, my value was not having to wait for parts and having a place to call for some pointers if you ran into problems or a place to return or exchange the item if it was DOA.

Every business have the opportunity to create value for your customers, determine what value you can provide and focus on that instead of price. That combined with good quality products/services along with excellent customer service make for a great overall experience that will not only justify your price but will likely bring you new business as well. Doing just that is precisely how I turned around two locations that I managed while working for that local PC store from several years of poor management and bad customer service into thriving locations that consistently surpassed previous years net sales and gross profit margins - all while usually never being the lowest price by a significant amount in many cases.

vamsi7667

Hii everyone,

I need some details regarding prometric.

i want to open a new prometric center in my city.i will be opening all with new equpiment.i haven't start any organisation yet.i will be opening every thing new.Is this good ?and how much money does prometric give for us.and i haven't got any details of prometric.how can i contact them directly.

please help....