Recently I was talking to a friend that mentioned he spent about two and half years at this martial arts school and was one level away from reaching the final advanced level. The only catch was the school that he went to demanded that he would have to pay a $400 fee just to take the test to do so. Regardless if he was skilled enough, he couldn’t afford the fee back then and as a result he never advanced to the next stage.
I know for the martial arts industry this is a pretty common scenario and is an activity that a lot of parents enroll their kids into. Because of that, they quickly buy into programs emotionally as it is for the kid after all. A lot of other industries do this too where you enroll into their program just to find out that you have to pay a test fee of some sort in order to advance.
When you think about it, this just a normal thing to pay for when it comes to things educational related. Example, you pay a monthly fee to get taught a subject and then to get “certified†you pay another fee to take a test. When it comes to activities though I am a little more weary of having to pay testing fees of any kind.
In many ways it can feel like a trap where after investing a lot of time into an activity, where you are trying to build up a skill, you are inclined to want to finish it to the end. Hence, you are more likely to pay any fees that a person throws at you to continue.
For myself, I generally accept these types of practices as long as I am aware of it ahead of time. Cause really, you basically had all the information you needed before making a decision. What I always do is try to test how genuine these fees are too. Example, using the fees to cover the cost of holding the testing event is perfectly fine. Like for martial arts as an example though, if one tried to justify the fee by saying the belt they are going to give you costs hundreds of dollars to make then I would be inclined to say it is a financial trap.
One way to avoid these too is to enroll in programs where the curriculum fees are all inclusive. Example, pay $500 which will last you until you get to a certain pointing of your training. In many ways, that will force the business to want to make sure they are teaching well too as appose to holding you back to make more profit out of you. Financially speaking, it’s also better to know exactly how much the activity will cost in the end.