I am officially "retired" but work about 25 hours a week at a Prometric Testing Center as a Test Center Administrator. PTC is a worldwide organization that administers nearly 500 different tests across many professional disciplines.
Some of these include the United States Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE) for physicians, NCARB is for Architects, ASE is Automotive Service Excellence. Then we do the Graduate Record Exam (GRE)... all of the Praxis tests for teacher certifications. We also do TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language). Massachusetts Insurance Licensing for Health, Life, P&C. Certified Public Accountants need to take 4 tests... FINRA licenses Stock Brokers (Securities Industry Essentials, Series 7... etc.) And... many, many others.
Each of these tests costs money. For example, to become a fully-fledged Architect, one is required to take 6 exams each costing $235 each, for a total of $1,410.
A physician's total investment for the three tests they need to take is over $2K.
Many foreign pharmacists wanting to practice in this country need to exhibit English proficiency and are required to take TOEFL. This test has a few different variables (speaking, writing, listening) but costs in the ballpark of $250 every time. Many need to take it multiple times and I know of one lovely Egyptian guy who has taken it about 15 times and can not pass the speaking section. You do the math.
THESE ARE JUST THE EXAM FEES! Then, there are the State Licensing Fees for many of the above which are an additional and (in many cases) an on-going annual or other periodic costs.
My point here is this: to be in business or to function as a professional, costs money. What we do is not unlike any of these other professions. To start a business with us requires a (typically small) investment that is much less money than many of the examples provided here.
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