2025 · Briefing · 2022–2026
What a portion of the fee is already doing
Every certification fee contributes to free community programmes and to open educational resources. That split is a rule, not a campaign.
The paid certificate is how the standard stays independent. The free seat is how the standard stays honest. We have run both since the library rooms of the first years, and we have no intention of letting the paid side become the only side a visitor can see.
Open resources carry the explanations: how to read a chart, how to set a task for a writing tool, how to leave a machine tidy for the next person. They are not a substitute for the exam. They are the reason a candidate can arrive prepared without buying a mystery course from someone we do not know.
Community programmes still look like the original ones in spirit. A room, a tutor, a task, a pathway. The populations have widened with the evidence: rural communities, people with disabilities, refugees, older adults, and the educators who teach all of them.
If you are paying for a certificate, this is part of what you are paying for. We would rather say that on the pricing page than in a separate appeal.