Australian Immigration Daily News

Is the saying "you get what you pay for" true when it comes to the quality of CPD for RMAs?

In other words, is there a correlation between what you pay for a CPD course, and how good the content of the course is?

At the recent hearing of the Australian Parliament's  Joint Standing Committee on Migration concerning the current regulation of migration agents, testimony was given by a representative of the Migration Institute of Australia (Bronwyn Markey) raising concerns about a "race to the bottom" on the pricing of CPD costs that is said to have occurred since the OMARA removed its requirement to review and approve course content and replaced it only with a requirement that the CPD provider be approved (in other words, once approved, a CPD provider can prepare CPD course contents without any oversight or review by the OMARA).

Ms Markey stated in her testimony to the Committee that some providers are offering courses for a cost of $27/CPD, and raised concerns about whether a quality CPD course could be provided at that price level.

The Migration Alliance has recently conducted a survey of RMAs concerning CPD, and the results so far are intriguing!

Interestingly, the respondents to the survey have stated so far that price is not the most important criterion for RMAs in deciding which CPD courses to take.

Rather, the quality of the presenter giving the course was the factor most frequently cited as the most important in choosing CPD.

In fact, "price" trailed behind "other" among the factors, suggesting strongly that the cost of a course is not what determines whether RMAs will choose to enroll in it. 

The main issues determining choice of CPD following after the quality of the presenter included ease of access to the course and the education level of the presenter. 

Also, respondents to the survey stated overwhelmingly (105 to 1!!!) that an increase in the price of CPD does not automatically mean that you will get better quality CPD.

Also, respondents to the survey again overwhelmingly (93 - 9) said that an increase in pricing would not be in the best interests of RMAs.

So, the responses to the survey from Migration Alliance reflect what seems intuitively obvious: when it comes to continuing education courses for migration professionals, the cost of the course is not the most important factor, and there is no necessary correlation between the cost of a course and the quality of the course.

What matters most is who is teaching the course, not what the provider is charging.

And also: the survey results also confirm that RMAs do not want to be burdened by having to pay more for CPD courses (between the cost of registration and maintaining a subscription to a professional library and operating an office, the overheads for being an RMA are already high enough!).

So the consensus of opinion from MA's survey is that you don't necessarily get more if you pay more; CPD is not like buying a car or a house, where the more you spend, the more you get!

Rather, what really matters is who the "driver" (course instructor) is.

And some lecturers out there truly represent the "gold standard" that will help you improve your understanding of migration law and practice, and provide an engaging, lively and interesting CPD experience.

What are your thoughts? Should OMARA specify a minimum price for CPD courses, and would doing so "guarantee" the quality? Would you prefer to pay more for CPD (don't all answer this last one at once, haha!)