Daily Coffee News photo by Nick Brown.
The United States- and UK-based Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) is rolling out a new tiered pricing structure for its professional education program based on geographic location.
According to an announcement from the nonprofit organization today — just ahead of its World of Coffee Jakarta trade show — the pricing structure organizes countries into five tiers, or groups, in order to better reflect local economic realities.
For example, someone taking a learner education course in Group 5 will pay a $50 fee per course, while someone in Group 1 will pay $8. For people seeking to maintain Authorized SCA Trainer status, the cost will be $975 per year for people in Group 5 countries, down to $115 in Group 1 countries.
The United States is in Group 5. All groups and countries can be found here.
While surely a strategy to increase paid participation in education programming globally, the pricing structure is also designed to reflect local economic realities of coffee professionals, according to the SCA. Countries were grouped based on data from the International Monetary Fund’s Purchasing Power Parity per Capita Index.
SCA educational materials inside a roastery. Daily Coffee News photo.
The SCA, which is the largest coffee trade association in the world, said tiered pricing will be applied to all certificate programs, including the forthcoming “evolved Q” program. The SCA is taking over the Q program from the nonprofit Coffee Quality Institute, officially beginning Oct. 1.
According to a tax filing for the 2023 year, the SCA reported revenue of approximately $16.3 million, when contributions and investment income are subtracted. The SCA’s own 2023 financial report shows that education programming revenue and event participation revenue are by far the nonprofit’s two largest revenue sources.
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