Home Learning Direct

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Wow!

Just read this entire thread (and fred's link) and have to say there is great advise and inspiration to all. Thanks to all who played a part

 

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Hey thanks folks, Jakamoto, Ffreeloader, Bluerinse, Boyce, et.al. Just back from a short stay at the hospital. Touched by all of your kind words of encouraragement that you all voiced here. Am now emboldened and as soon as i can get over this access stumbling block, cant wait ato get on to A+ for the hands on aspects of the course.

Want to build me a "lab" that i have seen mentioned many times b4 elsewhere here. Can some one please explain further please? Got this (AMD Athlon 2600+, Xp home, 512mb ram) as "main" machine, but also an old win 95 intel 2, 800 mhz machine any good for the basis, start of a home lab? Also interested in Linux. So thanks in advance and in appreciation to you all. 9box.

 

i'm sure i delivered these leaflets awhile back.

they were like a little booklet.
detailing the differnt courses.

pet grooming
book keeping
computer building.

they also had how much the course cost and how much you would be paying each month (i think)
is this the one?

 

Home Learning Direct are a complete Nightmare as well as the financing company they use called Aequs Study Finance!!
Don't touch them with a barge pole.

I now look back and see that I was effectively conned into signing up for the web designing course and subsequently once I realised this it was too late to cancel. I have sent several letters saying my wish to cancel the course and they blatently refuse to accept it.

The finance company don't allow you to cancel. I agree that there is no mention of 14 days on the contract, in fact no mention of any "Your right to cancel this agreement".

 

Hi, Just joined and saw this thread. Home learning direct was called The Learning Library and they financed courses through a firm called Empress Finance.
I did the VB course, looked through the books and thought I would do it. Wrong move. I already had VB so the course cost less.
I started the course and soon found that the course books were rubbish, some pages had VB4 and 5 information but no 6!! Some of it was just wrong. I perservered and wrote to the tutor saying what I thought of the books. He said he was dissapointed too but that they did get better later on. Really. After a couple of months I got a letter from the affiliated College saying that they were withdrawing from the scheme - but would honour the course to the a given date - as there had been things they were not happy with - financial as far as I could see. I wrote to the tutor asking what this was about and he said that he had to be careful what he said as a good deal of his income came from tutoring the TLL students but agreed that all was not well.
On checking the ACITP I found that it was part of TLL as was Empress Finance and the tutor told me this. Also he said the same directors were on the boards of all three. The whole thing was a waste of time and money. I found one person, proudly bearing the ACTIP letters and certificates, at
http://susandaviesacitp.tripod.com
Judge for yourself if it was a good instruction course.
I agree with what has been said, get books and more books and set up a home network and practise, practise, practise. You can get some good kit pretty cheap from ebay, the local library can also supply books too and you can get some cheap second-hand ones from amazon.co.uk. I wish I knew then what I know now.

 

Hi,

I nearly got my finger's burned by not reading the small print about refund policy on a Schiedegger C++ programming course.
After agreeing to pay £2,500.00 for the course,sold to me by a door to door salesman, I changed my mind after 12 day's, but although I notified the company in time, they stated that I had missed the "cool off" period of 14 day's, and would pursue the payment, taking legal action if necessary.
I went to my local citizens advice bureau, and also had a consultation with a solicitor about "small claims court action", both whom wrote to Schiedegger and we managed to come to an agreement that I paid a £90.00 admin fee settlement instead.
You really have to go over the "fine print" on these deals, the local college course Cisco CCNA I have just embarked upon at least has a clear 4 week refund policy if you feel you don't like the course, or for any other reason don't like it.
At least I gained a good leather bag out of it!

All the best Baron210

 

You should contact the Office of Fair Trading, as they can force companies to amend unfair clauses in their contracts.

www.crw.gov.uk, I think...

They did this to UK IT Training a couple of years ago...

Also, send all letters recorded delivery and talk to your local CAB. I thought all contracts had at least a 7 day cooling off period whether stipulated or not, but who knows?

Talk to an expert and write about your experience - might as well warn others, eh?

If you're starting out with no experience - ie: your average PC user, then you're better off going to your local college I would have thought... Far cheaper and not as lonely as home study... Plus the lecturers should be able to give you good information about follow on training...


Best of luck.

 

I too have been on the bad end of Aequs Finance and the Home Learning College. My first payment is not supposed to be until 10/01/07 yet they took some money out only the other week. And now all I get off them is "can't you afford to pay your loan?" eventhough that is not the case! Well and truly conned, I just wish I saw this thread before I signed up...

 

I want to thank you all for talking about the Home Learning College, and it's abit frightening when the dates of these threads go back to 2005!
I'm doing City & Guilds VB at my local college, just to support my job and I enjoy doing it, so much so that I enquired about the cost but had to have an interview at home first, the course was £1,202 which was more then I was expecting so I hung fire on signing up, which was when I discovered this forum site after checking them out.

So thank you again and I wont be signing up to the college, but I'll use my Teach yourself VB in 24 hours book a little more....

Clarkey x

 

I just don't understand how people can be conned by these charlattans.

There are loads of community and higher / further education institutes running all these courses either full time, part time or evening classes that are ideal for anyone wanting to pursue their studies.

I did A+ almost 7 years ago in a community centre where the course was run by proper trained tutors and it cost me nothing. I then created a lab at home and studied the N+ myself. It took me 4 months, but with all the resources on the net, and a couple of excellent books, I managed to learn and get a pass. My learning was ofcourse hands on in my own lab and some small companies that I used to get as clients.

I went and did an HNC (accelerated) in the local college following that up with MCP in W2kPro and W2k Server (70210 and 70-215) followed by CCNA. All these were done in a community college under the New Deal scheme.

having obtained certificates and experience, I got a very decent job in the civil service in infrastructure on the server team and with all the resources of the civil service at my disposal, I went for Security+, another 3 MCP to give me MCSA Security and CEH.

The point I am trying to make is that you do not need to pay thousands of pounds to these conmen. Just go to your local library and do some research on the schemes / courses available in your area.

 

Is HLD in any way connected to "Home Learning College"?

After getting a leaflet from HLC I thought I'd contact them for more info, and a salesman came round this lunchtime.

I'd already had the salesman from Advent come round so I sort of knew what to expect. HLC are a lot more cheaper than Advent but still quite expensive, and that's just for the A+ course. They want about £1400 for the A+ course, surely I could pass it on my own through self study for a lot cheaper than that?!

I didn't like the guy today as he was quite pushy and wanted an answer from me on the spot but I managed to convince him that I wanted time to think it over and I would let him know my decision within the week.

I'm beginning to think more and more that self study is the way to go.

 

Because it IS. Just take a look at Wizard's post about having loan problems, and that should be enough to keep you from signing on the dotted line. And even if you've got the upfront money to pay for it... why spend it? For £1400, I could buy *4* A+ books, a computer-based training course, a couple of A+ practice exams, SEVERAL used computers (or a couple of NEW ones), pay for both exams, and STILL have money left over. And you don't even NEED that many training tools for A+.

 

I was gonna go through learning direct and they wanted £750 of me for the A+

Although I am studying through a training provider I am only doing it because I need to regain the knowledge I have forgotten since not being directly involved with PCs for nearly 10 year

 

You don't need a training provider to regain forgotten knowledge. If anything, you'd have been a prime candidate for self-study, considering you already HAD previous PC knowledge.

 

A couple of books would probably be enough to refresh your memory, probably just ONE.

 

its a confidence thing with me BM the course I am doing does continual tests, just so I know I am on the right track.

Windows 95 was the last proper operating system I used apart from Unix, so I feel I have a lot of catching up to do.

 

Give me half that money, and I'll give you tests AND instill loads of confidence!

 

I joined this place to get the advice I have been getting, its just that I feel and I like to be tested especially when I am studying for something.

The place I am going with when I pay at the end of July is chaging £351 inc vat with iteractive simulation, continual testing and 24 hour mentor help if needed.

I am getting Mike Meyers book and Trips shortly and who knows armed with those I may not have to do the course.

Another problem is that I cant afford to spen much more money on practice exams n stuff, so thats why I like the idea of this course which tests you all the time.

 

I have decided to self study instead of going through a training company.

Hope I am doing the right thing

 

You are.

Apart from the cost of the books, what have you got to lose?

Good luck!

J.