VMware & Pearson Vue axe $50 instructor reward program due to budget constraints

[Thuleman]

Dear VMware IT Academy Instructors,

On behalf of Pearson VUE & the VMware IT Academy program we would like to congratulate and thank you for the overwhelming success of the Instructor Rewards Program. We will be continuing the Instructor Rewards Program until the end of this calendar year and continue to offer the free lab time from NDG, but due to budget constraints as of August 1 we will not be able to offer the VMware Certification Marketplace gift cards.

Please visit: http://www.pearsonvue.com/vmware/academyrewards/

By encouraging your students to go on to take certification, you are doing them a great service! Please keep up your great work!

Regards, The Pearson VUE and The VMware IT Academy Program Teams

I don't have a good sense for how many $50 gift cards were given out but before the program was cancelled it paid out one $50 for every 10 students referred to the exam.

Two points of information about that; the voucher code would entitle students to a 70% discount off of the Pearson Vue exam fee. The $50 gift cards could only be used at http://www.vmwarecertificationmarketplace.com/ which in turn only sells books and exam vouchers.

Not sure how this ended up being a budget constraint, not like there's really a viable way for people to cash that money out. What are they going to do? Buy a bunch of books and resell them on eBay? The opportunity cost of doing so can't possibly be worth the $10 one can get out of a $30 retail priced book on eBay anyway.

Same with the exam vouchers, not like they can easily be transferred/sold.

Perhaps the margins on exams are now so low that paying a $5 referral incentive per student is just too much, or perhaps the certification market has become saturated and VMware feels there's no need to push people into taking discounted exams anymore.

Based on the referral leaderboard for the current calendar year, accessible through the first link above, it seems that among 400+ worldwide institutions only about 20 instructors received a total of 75 gift cards for a total of $3,750 in VMware Certification Marketplace funny money.

Maybe I should check VMware's SEC filings to see whether that $3,750 in fake money is so badly needed that the program had to be discontinued.