Folks, let's get back to a far more useful topic, which is what I D came up with:
I think discussion of paid courses that individuals take in order to be qualified to conduct a new line of business are really interesting. Not mega health insurance or other certification processes that don't affect me, you or anyone who could use this board.
So let's discuss real people stuff, not high dollar corporate meta I don't give one shit about.
So I'll toss in my experience and field observations:
I had one web design client last year - a supposed "freelance writer" - who had paid for expensive courses from this organization and also some writing "coaches":
https://www.awai.com/The person I tried to build the site for (she canceled the project after
many painful discussions where she leaned on
me to prove the written collateral for her idea which she never successfully clarified or even stated coherently) said:
"I've paid over $25,000 for copywriting courses and retreats and coaching and I don't have ANYTHING to show for it."If you go to that AWAI site you'll see all kinds of rosy case studies and stories. But then go to Google reviews for this company:
https://www.google.com/search?num=10&q=awaiAnd only one of the 10 reviews states that the person is making a consistent living and he started in 2004. But
important to note: the popularity of people saying "I am studing copywriting" exploded since 2004. It's mainly traceable to AWAI placing ads in the magazine
Writer's Digest for years.
Every single other review is talking about how wonderful AWAI is without much or any reference to actual business they're doing.
There's a culture with this company of having big events that are feelgood dog and pony shows that are generally their own internal competitions. They tend to anoint favored writers for a few months with guest blogger postings and then those people vanish from view, to be replaced by other recent graduates. I know this specifically because I've followed some of their "star students" on social media groups, and seen them post when they were "dismissed" from writing lead blog articles.
They build a culture of everyone creating confirmation bias for everyone else, and it's mainly wannabes telling each other how great it's gonna be. You never see two or three successful copywriters from these programs talking among each other, unless it's a staged meeting of "famous" writers who are the trainers for this place.
About 20 years ago I remember
franchises like Subway (literally the sandwiches) and other opportunities you could allegedly buy into for a $50K or under investment were all of the rage with second incomers and retirees.
I think what has happened is that as real estate and other operating costs have increased, training stuff like AWAI has replaced that niche of low end starter buy-in business.