Is The Pearson VUE Testing Center Network Collapsing?
January 5, 2012 16 Comments
Since my day job is teaching, I need to do a lot of certification tests. There are periods of time when I seem to live in a Pearson VUE testing center. However, In the past three months I’ve noticed the number of testing centers has dropped significantly. There used to be three in the Portland metro area, but about three months ago that number went down to zero. One came back, but there aren’t any open testing dates until March now.
Which is a problem, because I need to do my VCP5 certification before Feb 29th, 2012, otherwise in order to get the VCP5 certification I’ll have to take a course (I’m a current VCP4 holder).
I brought this up on Twitter a few months ago, and a few people responded they had issues as well recently with no local testing centers.
So I wonder, is the Pearson VUE testing network collapsing? Or is it just Portland, Oregon?
My dream of a VCP5 is collapsing
The Data Center Overlords 
It isn’t just Portland. We have the same problem in Nashville. There is 1 testing center and there used to be 3 or more.
I’m seriously considering closing my center in Hawaii. The fees paid for testing candidates amount to a few dollars per test and with few candidates testing I can’t even make enough to pay for rent. I love providing the service for my community but since most of the fee paid stays with Pearson there is no way we can afford to continue testing.
I wouldn’t even localize this problem to the USA, I am in Ontario Canada and do a couple tests a year at a VUE test site. The sites change at least once a year so I never seem to get more than two tests from each site before they disappear.
Same situation in Calgary. The only remaining Pearson location isn’t even in the downtown core which makes it inconvienent to get to on a work day. Beyond that it’s an hour drive to another city and after that to another province to find the next closest location.
I have roughly 10 testing centers near me. Then again, I live in a relativley large tech supported area. I’d say that Pearson would do well to partner first and foremost with state and local community colleges instead of the private testing centers. The infrastructure is already in place, as well as a large pool of test takers. Only one of the local testing centers for me is a college, the rest are private.
In Portland, 2 of the 3 local testing centers that were open were community colleges. The only one left is a community college, just over the border in Vancouver, Washington. We used to have PCC, Portland Community College, but that appears to have stopped doing PV testing.
We have the same issue around Springfield, IL. One test center and it seems to come and go (same company) randomly.
We have the same issue in Upstate, NY. I didn’t have a place closer than ~45 minutes away until this year a place opened up within the area. The problem is the same as you described though, I have to book exams two-three months in advanced, and that is between three sites.
I needed to finish my CCDA before they changed the test and I was almost forced to drive 2-4 hours out to take it.
It is most certainly an issue because even the testing centers that are around have barely any seats available for testing.
What hurts my face is that I live an hour from my major city. There used to be testing centres located near Uni’s and TAFE’s where I live and now they have dried up. Having to drive an hour to get there is a pain especially when dates are dried up.
It seems to get a date that suits your schedule you have to book your date when your thinking of pursuing a track.
I live in Indonesia and nearest Pearson VUE Testing Center is about 6-7hr travel (one-way) by ferry 😉
This happened about a year ago, maybe longer, when Pearson got more strict about their test center requirements. Before it seems running a center was a fairly easy side business. Now that you need to photograph, fingerprint, take DNA samples and guarantee that those testing will be viewed from four distinct angles by dedicated staff at all times… it’s a little more difficult.
We teach an IT program here in Kelowna, BC at the local college and ended up creating a private testing center for our students and alumni. However we occasionally open it up for fellow local system & network engineers to save them travelling down to Vancouver. We don’t get paid a cent for having it which is why we keep it private as a service to our students. There is no financial incentive so I can see why a lot of centers have shut their doors.
Would that be Okanagan College? I really don’t want to make that trip…
Hey it’s not that bad!!!…:). We have to drive down to seattle to catch the cheap flights as we get ripped off here in Canada! But yea it’s ridiculous you’d have to drive so far just to write a damn exam.
I’m a little confused by your comments about Portland, Oregon. There are four testing centers in the area, Beaverton, downtown Portland, Vancouver and Salem. Where did you get the information that there were none?
It looks like they’ve very recently added some. There was a period of time a few months ago when there were none within 100 miles of Portland.