ajs heating

just wish some would get better advice first from tradesman rather than these training courses.
i don't like to see any man in a steady job earning £25k a yr doing I T with a family fall flat on his face.
we all read the ads in local papers earn £80k being a plumber pay £4000 for a 6 week course and be a plumber.


they are all storys.
you won't earn £80k
they won't get the hundreds of people finishing these courses jobs.
you won't go home and have your phone ringing non stop with customers.

if i was that cold hearted i'd take on people for £4k then train them and then stick them out their see if they can even earn a decent yrs wage.

ProffesorPlumb

Good and REAL advice and opinions there AJS

davidjacks

DO NOT USE THEM - I cannot put it anymore simply than this. I have completed my course with the college who have done everything possible to drain the money out of my bank account since I have began. Firstly is the salesmen than lure you into a sense of security and tell you whatever you want to hear, and will lie vigourously to get you to sign. Then every single thing has a cost, believe me everything extra books, extra this and extra that and a little more on top. The contracts are ridiculous to try and stick to, the timescales only let you get through if you do everything perfect, and trust me you won't which will result in overtime penalty costs which run from £20 to £350 per module. I finished my course and started a job and then had to do my NVQ assessments all sounds quite easy, but you try to book up for the date you need and then oh what a suprise it is not available! Then you go over contract time and surprise, surprise they want money for each visit (about £90) plus ontop of this a mileage charge which will cost you a small fortune. So have we all a couple of hundred pounds for each NVQ assessment when you have just finished a course for a new career and now training on site at a low level, I think not. IT TAKES AT LEAST 2 WEEKS FOR THEM TO REPLY TO ANY LETTER YOU SEND IN. This will also eat into your time. Admin staff are very highly strung give absolutely no answers and generally **** you off constantly if you have a query or complaint.
This is all a complete shame because the facilities, and trainers are superb and extremely helpful and a great bunch of blokes that will do anything to help you. Its the greedy people who own the place, remember this is a business not a government run or funded college, they do not care what you do when you have paid. Do not believe them when they say guess what after your initial test we are choosing you because you got 100% in an exam a five year old could pass because you know what a phillips screwdriver is!!
Save your money if you are older do an adult apprenticeship it may take a little longer but not much the amount of time they mess you about, and you'll save yourself a packet.
I will answer any questions if you wish to get in contact with me, as I do not wish for anybody to waste their hard earned money on this greedy company.

fuzzy

what qual did you finish with dave and do you know what your total costs were?

did they get you a job?

davidjacks

Hello I got both my Technical certificates for level 2 and 3, which are not really much use without the NVQ's which I can now work for using the college, but am out of contract so now cannot afford to have them come out to look at my work so stuck now in complete limbo. I also have a Water Regulations and Unvented Hot Water qualification. I did get a job through them using their placement centre which give it its due worked quite well for me because I started work with a Corgi registered plumber only a few weeks after finishing the course. Who I still work for, but now I need to find some way of achieving the NVQ's my employer is very understanding and is willing to pay for something but I need to do them now and all this college nonsense is continually dragging on. Overall costs for the course are close to 10k which is supposed to cover doing the NVQs and the ACS assessment afterwards, as well as the Energy efficiency etc. Hope this answers your question.

fuzzy

how much do they want to upgrade to an NVQ2? then an NVQ3?

no1 Plumber

these btsc exams u pay 4 where r these exams recognised i contacted city & guilds and they told me they r not worth the paper their written on and they have never heard of these exams so ur paying 4 something that holds no benefit u might as well have print these urself as this is a made up exams

fuzzy

they are made up by their selves, why anyone would want a made up exam i dont know

davidjacks

Don't get me wrong I don't like BTSC but you take their exams alongside the City and Guilds exams. Of course everyone knows who goes there their qualification they give you is worthless but the C&G one is not, but you are made to take theirs because they want to earn more money out of you if you fail them. Also in question to the question before there is no charge for upgrading to NVQ3 it is all part and parcel.

snorkel1234

I never seen so mucn negative and crap publicity about a company and yet no response is the problem the reports are true and they hope it all blows over, or is it thatv they have so many people doing the course, they could not give a ****e