Free training courses are not all created equal. If a foundation, a public body or a training fund foots the bill, “free” is simply a service. If it’s the company that later sells you something, the course is a shop window, and whoever sits in the room is a customer waiting to be won over.
The phenomenon is growing everywhere, and it is becoming more and more common in San Marino too.
There are free courses in marketing, social media, sales, accounting, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence. There are webinars, evening sessions, “masterclasses” and programmes that end with a certificate.
The promise is always the same: learn a new trade, or get better at your own, without spending a cent.
It’s true, nobody asks you for money. But somebody always pays.
The instructor, the venue, the hours of preparation — all of it costs something. Which is why the right question isn’t “how much does it cost”, but “who is paying”.
When a foundation pays, the roles are clear.
The foundation puts up the money, the training provider is paid to teach, and the participant learns. The instructor has a defined mandate and is accountable to whoever is paying. The funder decides the programme, and decides it with the people in the room in mind.
The same goes for a public body, a trade association or a union training its own members, and for the funds that in Italy pay for employee training. It’s free for you because someone else is paying for it.
And you know who that is.
When a company gives away the course, the one paying and the one selling are the same person. The company earns nothing directly from the course, so it has to make it back somehow. There are three main routes.
The first is a sale. The course serves to build visibility and gather contacts, and sooner or later the offer arrives: the software, the consultancy, the “advanced” programme that this time costs money. It isn’t illegal, and it isn’t a scandal. But it’s marketing, not training.
The second is data. Name, email, phone number, what you do for work, your business website. Before you’ve even learned anything, you’ve handed over your customer profile.
The third is lock-in to a tool. Whoever sells a product teaches their product. You come out knowing how to use that particular software or platform, not how to choose the right one for you. It happens even with the free courses run by the big tech companies: excellent for learning their tools, useless for working out whether you actually need them.
And then there’s a cost nobody factors in: time, which for anyone running a business is the most precious thing of all.
An evening spent watching someone show off impressive things doesn’t change your Monday morning. Training is measured the day after. If you go back to work and do something better than you did before, the course was worth it. Otherwise, you’ve just watched a show.
Even the certificate deserves a closer look: it’s only worth as much as whoever signs it.
Before signing up, ask four questions.
Who’s paying? If the answer is “nobody”, the real answer is “you, in some other way”.
Who’s organising it? Company name, registered office and business registration number should be clearly stated — and should actually exist — not something you have to go hunting for.
Who’s teaching? There should be a full name attached, with a verifiable professional background.
What happens afterwards? If there’s something to buy at the end, it’s better to know that before you sit down.
Work is changing fast, and the need for training will only keep growing, in San Marino as everywhere else.
Which is precisely why it’s always worth asking who’s footing the bill.
When the giveaway comes from the seller, the price always arrives later.
