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English|Online Courses in China Touting Fast Professional Success Prove to be Ripoffs

English|Online Courses in China Touting Fast Professional Success Prove to be Ripoffs
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Image Source: Visual China
In 2021, some Chinese people have been busy learning skills on the Internet through which they expect to cash in on.
As the new year nears, a dozen of Internet giants in the country have reportedly started streamlining their departments and laying off a large number of employees. It is said that thousands of people will be let go by Internet companies. Such moves were expected after rapid expansion in the industry. The increasing threat from the possibility of being let go by employers has made professionals realize the importance of having diverse skills, which can drastically increase workers’ competitiveness in the job market.
Supply quickly came after the rise of demand. The paid knowledge market experienced significant growth in 2021 as courses on wealth management, film post-production, video editing, e-commerce livestreaming and even plastic surgery consulting, etc. flooded advertisement spaces on the Internet. These courses are marketed towards users as “courses that can quickly equip learners with money-making skills” and can be priced at over thousands of yuan.
Once users made their purchase and took a few sessions, they would soon realize that the skills being taught in these courses are actually not easy to learn and can hardly allow users to cash in with them. What’s worse, it is difficult to get a refund in most cases. This is why such online courses are often considered scammy by netizens.
Online professional skill courses, tickets to becoming professional talents?
It is very easy to notice that online professional courses are generally marketed to consumers as courses for “beginners with no prior experience”, whether the courses are about e-commerce livestream, plastic surgery consulting or video editing.
Such marketing strategies make it easier to attract consumers since very few people are willing to invest in courses with high thresholds, let alone convince them to purchase advanced courses that are more expensive.
Online professional course providers paint an exciting future to consumers in which they can acquire professional skills that allow them to make money by doing professional work after several days or months’ learning. It becomes even more appealing when these courses are marketed as “courses for beginners with no prior experiences in relevant professional fields.”
For instance, sales agents of plastic surgery consulting courses would promise that even a rookie with very little knowledge about the plastic surgery industry would be able to look for related jobs after graduating from their courses with a certificate. “You can use it (the graduation certificate) to look for jobs. It is quite easy to find a job as a plastic surgery consultant. If our trainees could not find a job by themselves, we would also recommend job opportunities from our partners to them,” a sales agent said.
Video editing course providers use similar marketing to appeal to potential consumers. They will work with bloggers that specialize in content about videography on social media to promote their courses, oftentimes presenting statistics about viewership and comments to prove that even beginners with no experience can become successful as well. Video editing courses are the most popular content because such skill is needed on several popular media platforms and therefore generates many opportunities to earn a buck. Their sales agents would tell potential customers that they only need to spend two or three hours a day to study, and they would be able to earn thousands a month by editing video as a side job.
The content of professional learning courses might vary but their marketing strategy remains the same – professions such as e-commerce livestreamer, video editor and plastic surgery consultant no longer have professional thresholds. In other words, these professional learning service providers are trying to paint themselves as the sole providers of professional qualifications of those professions.

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