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Training Vouchers

When Photographers Resource started it was the newsletter of Camera Images. Later it split away to become a separate operation.

Camera Images was the main training provider for advanced users and professionals using Nikon cameras.

With the recession the cost of selling courses exceeded the revenue they produced so Camera Images decided not to take on new clients, but to still provide training to it's existing customer base.

The courses mentioned in the articles below are no longer available unless you are an existing client of Camera Images.

Camera Images and Photography Skills all use training vouchers. From the point of view of a person not interested in these, it can be transparent they just book and pay for training. However for many it will provide considerable advantages, including discounts that go across training providers, and also sometimes promotions.

Here we explain Training Vouchers in more detail.

 

Training Vouchers

Training Vouchers are like a key, they open up opportunities for clients and
training providers. Those with a key can gain access to the benefits.

Introducing Training Vouchers

You can use any training provider that uses training vouchers and just pay the price for the course at the time, although not getting many of the advantages, it has no disadvantages, and you may still qualify for some discounts.

Training vouchers give you a range of advantages, including discounts across training providers and locking the costs against inflation, while at the same time giving you maximum flexibility and encouraging training providers to work together so that you can mix and match components from different training providers to give you just the right training to meet your needs.

Discounts are for your commitments to training rather than a commitment to any single training provider, and achieved by buying blocks of training vouchers. By making the commitment you will find time for training, while as we all know it’s so easy to let all the other pressures of life and other demands take over and you just never get around to the training and realising your full potential.

Your advantages associated with using Training Vouches are

  • Discount available across training providers.

  • Price locked, so your training budget will not be diluted by inflation.

  • Flexibility - you get to decide as you progress where you will use your training vouchers.

  • Once the commitment has been made to get the training vouchers you will find the time to get it.

  • Wider availability of training.

  • Profitable and worth your training providers taking an interest in what else is available, and helping you to select it.

Plus for business clients in addition to the above

  • Cost has occurred in the current trading/tax year.

  • Staff retention, few leave when they have a course coming up.

  • Staff awards, motivation aids where you provide training vouchers and they select how they wish to use them.

Training vouchers are organised by a non profit organisation TEPO

TEPO stands for Training and Experience Passport Organisation. This was set up by a number of other organisations for encouraging and promoting training and gaining of experiences, the empowerment of training providers, tutors and the cooperative promotion of training and experience opportunities. TEPO is a part of a non profit company, limited by guarantee, that has been around for a long time. Administration of the TEPO Training Vouchers is commissioned from a company that specialises in providing services to non profit organisations, clubs and the like, and funds associated with all vouchers in existence, at their cash in value, is kept separate in a client account with a major bank.

Training Vouchers are very similar to a barter currency, in that they circulate, being used, reissued and used again, but can also be converted to cash by training providers and some dealers.

Making the most of discounts

Training vouchers are priced individually but also in a block discounting structure. If you buy a block of training vouchers you get them at a discount. As the sizes of the blocks increase so do the discounts. You start to get discounts with just a block of 25 training vouchers. As in the case of Camera Images and Photography Skills accessing 1 hours training is set as being equal to one training voucher, so you can see the 25 block represents three days training or a little over.

Take a look at the training available from all current training providers who take training vouchers and you start to see how you could select the ideal training mix for you, be it personal or business, for you alone or buying on behalf of a group or businesses. You don’t need to book the training now, just purchase the training vouchers so that you are committed to training, you can later then decide to change the courses, training suppliers, or perhaps as new training providers join up, select some of their training as well. With so much available the major problem will be what you want to do first. As the amount you get increases, in effect you get quite a bit free. Take for example buying 90 training vouchers, yes it would save you a lot of money, but if you got a 100 block you would pay exactly the same amount, getting 10 extra training vouchers for free.

Over time the cost of training vouchers will increase, and the objective is that the ones you are holding still buy the same amount of training, so your training budget is protected from increasing prices. However you have to use the training vouchers within 18 months of purchasing them, but of course this means booking courses by then not necessarily undertaking all the training by that point.

Blocks of training vouchers are 25, 50, 100, 250, 500, 1000 and 5000. Numbers in between are obtained by adding blocks together, so if you decided you wanted 150 training vouchers you would get 100+50, to get 75 you would get 50+25.  The larger discounts on larger blocks allow for larger discounts.

Training providers and dealers

The larger bocks will appeal to those who are dealing in training vouchers, including training providers, so to meet the needs of a number of clients they add together their volumes. This allows them to make a profit on the difference between the rate they buy and sell the training vouchers at, while allowing you to have the maximum discount you can get on the volume you want. You can see this allows both, for you to be rewarded for making a training commitment and for those dealing in training vouchers to also profit proportional to the sales effort they put in. As marketing training is quite expensive you will also see it allows training providers to gear their operation more towards providing training, or towards making a mix of the two, and encouraging co-operation, with rewards. So everyone benefits.

Training providers market training vouchers, take them for courses and have them then to sell again, some will have been taken that were originally sold by other training providers, retailers or others, and some the training provider sells will be used with other training providers. Most of the training vouchers will go around and around, but in some cases training providers will need to buy more to meet demand, while some others they will have taken more training vouchers then they need to market on, and be cashing some in. The nice part is that it is beneficial to all and encourages them to pull together and to assist clients to make more training choices, which of course also means more training, and more work for training providers.

Using training vouchers

Training vouchers are being introduced in two stages, firstly with a manual system, and you just get what you want from your training provider or training voucher dealer and they make things happen, but you do get emails so you see what is happening. The second stage will be to automate it, then you will have direct control of your training voucher account, and it will then operate like an online bank account, but you will still have the personal service option as well.

 


 Other information

 

Article on training vouchers from the point of view of the training provider

Training voucher related current deals

Discount rates for blocks of training vouchers.

Cutting the Cost of Training

 

Websites

Training vouchers website

TEPO vouchers website

TEPO organisation website

 


By: Keith Park Section: Training Key:
Page Ref: training_vouchers Topic: Camera Images Training  Last Updated: 03/2010
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