I've not contributed to the thread because I feared my contribution would fall into Basil Fawlty's bleeding obvious category. (And also, this time of year posting on this list means it snows out-of-offices for the rest of the day.)

I don't think you can really compare self-help style training and CPD with the public-offer type of training provided by Cilip and their direct competitors. Cilip has to factor in a wide and inevitable range of overheads which go far beyond the on-the-day direct costs and which can't just be "lost" by a hospital or university library making seminar rooms available. It doesn't seem to me that a gross take of nearly £5,000 for a successful course is,well, gross. Including preparation and so on, a single trainer's time and travel could easily account for £1,000.

When you compare like with like for professionally presented LIS training Cilip looks pretty good. In my time at the BMA we were heavy consumers of LA courses. We found them a very cost-effective way of giving practical training to assistant librarians fresh out of library school, and where us older members of staff were facing new challenges.