Apprenta Who Are They?

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Hi, I have been reading your posts with great interest as I was duped into giving these guys £6000 of my own money. 12 months on I have still not finished the training, through no fault of my own. I am out of work and have been since I started with Apprenta. My cdl repayments start next month! I went for the initial interview and was told that I would be able to finish the course within six months and be put on a placement for 3 mnths to gain experience. The interview was in Bristol, where they have one classroom, unknown to me at the time. The classroom has been fully booked for the last 12 months with IT fundamentals (javascript course!) and a c# course. None of the other courses have been available. The Apprenta people dont seem to want to know me if I ask them for any help. I have passed the c# exams (which are an extra cost, unknown to some people at the interview)but unable to find work as I have no experience. ICS or Apprenta have no positions available, read the apprenta website wording carefully, they advertise positions available on jobserve, not with ics! I have a lot of other info on this company if you need it but please beware. I am not out to rubbish them, they will do that themselves. My advice to anyone unsure about these guys is steer well clear.

 

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Just want to add my two cents. I don't want any one else to be scammed by ics. Last year I paid ics for their training, which was supposed to lead to a job. They have no intention of anyone getting through the course, if it looks likely anyone will they move the goal posts. I have contacted trading standards who are investigating ICS/Apprenta, but I need anyone else out their who has the same problems to contact their local trading standards and report them.

 

sightly off topic but about the same thing.

when i was asking about apprenta here someone mentioned that they didn't have a big internet presence? which they don't. but is this something to go on? that is a company that appears big but doesn't have a big internet presence?

because watching 'watchdog' on the BBC they said it was easy to fake an internet presence by doing something that gives them loads of hits in google.

 

I got a call from Apprenta yesterday and it all sounded very good, too good really. They didn't have my CV or care much about my experience or my Computer Science degree and it all sounded really dodgy, but I agreed to go to their interview in Bristol (which should be tomorrow at 2). Did a bit of research, saw their site and thought it looked well dodgy. Did some googling and found out their bristol office is in a temporary serviced office area so I decided to eject the whole idea.

I emailed Nick Conway to tell him that I wasn't interested because he'd told me they were a software house when infact they're not. He immediately phoned me and said he was greatly offended by my accusations of lying. He got really aggresive and angry especially when I mentioned that their Bristol office is no more than a temporary office. He told me "someone of your tender young age is incapable of understanding the business". I aksed him that if it was such a professional established business like they were claiming then he wouldn't be talking to me like that. He said "go away you little kid" and hung up!

Basically he was annoyed I'd rumbled him. I'm glad I wasn't gullable enough to persue it further, I hope these guys haven't conned too many people.

 

Hi Charlie,

Was the call from them out the blue, or had you been in contact prior to this ?

If you plan on sticking around, then pop up to the New Members board and say hello. Otherwise, thanks for posting

 

I think I must have applied to a position they had on www.computingcareers.co.uk.

http://careers.computing.co.uk/texi...l&pp=25&qDate=begin of -30 days&view=1&page=1

At that stage I thought I was just giving my details to a recruitment agency. I never gave them my CV and they never saw it before offering me an interview. As I said though, when the guy phoned me he told me they were a software house, so I was a bit confused as I've only applied to a few firms direct and I know who they are.

 

I have been with aprenta as a Student for sometime now and may i just say that my training is going very well,

I have not had any problems at all,

It seems to me that although they have a bad rep, they can actually follow through on what they say, which is a big plus.

Has anyone else on the site which seems to be wanting to bash all the time actually had the expereince of there training

Cheers

 

Greetings haribo,

Welcome to CF!

If you'd take a look around I'm sure that you will find that here at CF we like to try to keep an open mind about training providers and the services that they offer. Whilst it is true that we do have some members here that have had previous bad experiences with training providers, there are also those here that have had good experiences with them.

 

I have no idea what apprenta's actual training is like but they told me it would be done over a web cam which doesn't sound very good to me.

My impression of the company has been from they way they presented themselves. They tried to deceive me and I don't like being lied to. They pretended to be a software company who were taking on new people and the guy got very nasty and aggressive on the phone when I told him I wasn't interested.

Whatever they're training is like, they are using deceptive means to get candidates onto their course. That's what I don't like and that's why I'd recommend others to avoid them like the plague.

Anyway, you haven't finished your training and got a job at £26k yet, like they promise.

 

This is very true, but i have only 1 more exam, and i have seen people from my course start work with them already, i.e the ones who have finished.

I know that management has changed and as such they are trying to fix the problmes they once may have had.

I for one am looking forward to starting with Apprenta/ ICS.

 

Haribo, if it is not too much trouble, could you keep us updated with your progress with Apprenta? I am very interested to learn the outcome of your experience with Apprenta.

Thanks!

Hoki

 

Hi everyone. I just recieved a phone call from a guy from ICS/apprenta. they are asking me to come over for an interview. Can anyone of you tell me what sort of "contribution" do they require for training etc. Coz when i ASked him what sort of contributio is required he didnt answer me, which i though was a bit dodgy. Also is the 20,000£ job guaranteed after the completion of the course?

 

Doh, justread the above posts. Loooool I am such an idiot for even considering that they are legit. Scammy thugs.

 

They are not getting my vote, nor my money, thanks CF.

 

Just a point, they say look at all the web jobs out there, shortage etc. All I see is the same jobs by the same recruiters advertised over and over and over on multiple websites. If you apply to one, a recruiter will call you and ask you lots of questions, but there will be no mention of the job you applied for. I dont believe there is a big shortage out there at the mo.

 

All I see is the same jobs by the same recruiters advertised over and over and over on multiple websites. If you apply to one, a recruiter will call you and ask you lots of questions, but there will be no mention of the job you applied for. I dont believe there is a big shortage out there at the mo.[/QUOTE]

It's true dude.

 

This thread has been edited following a letter received from ICS London also known as Apprenta, they take issue with specific reference and without limitation to this thread and state "a number of statements by individuals are highly defamatory". and "As providing the media to communicate these threads, you are liable for defamatory statements made by your users. We have suffered significant loss and damages and continue to do so as a result of the above and we shall seek to remedy this should this case proceed to trail." (no you read it correct the letter contained spelling errors and that was one of them.)

CertForums agreed to investigate this thread and has removed certain comments made by individuals as these comments contravene our Rules and Guidelines for Posting and our User Agreement.

However there are certain comments that ICS London objected to that they consider to be "more that statements of opinions" (another spelling error ) They were invited to make a statement of reply to these comments but have up until now not taken that invite.

So here are some / parts of the quotes from the letter received by CertForums with regard to this thread.

1. _OMNI_ says on 18th November 2005:
   
   
   ICL London did not make a response to this comment only stating that they considered it to be defamatory
   
   
2. Sayed says on 14th December 2005
   
   
   ICS London state:
   
   
   "If anyone can provide us with a photo of their purpose built building and the perspex sign then maybe we can clear this matter for everyone".
   
   
3. Sayed also says
   
   
   ICS London state:
   
   
4. Sayed also says
   
   
   ICS London state:
   
   
5. Sayed also says
   
   
   ICS London state:
   
   
   ICS London also state:
   
   

 

Ha look at you, encouraging the defamatory posts! They should sue you as well!

And while I'm at it (mods edit this if I'm out of line)

It seems obvious that one wouldn't enroll on a course without being privy to basic information such as the start date, etc.

Hence the "seemed".

 

And still they come...

 

I have sympathy for people who feel they've been conned but, to be honest, I am starting to get more than a little bit teed off with these seemingly endless posts. It might sound harsh, but in my personal experience, the majority of them had absolutely no chance of ever working in the IT industry - and shouldn't have conned themselves into thinking they had.

Is it just me, or is it a well-known fact that working in IT is HARD?

If it was easy, then everyone would be doing it straight out of school for chrissakes! I cannot believe that there are STILL people out there, after all these years, with absolutely no aptitude, love or affinity for IT who see it as a way to make pots of money without putting in hard graft.

On my MCSE course there were 16 students that started out. Three of them didn't even make it into week one 'proper' (Server & Workstation).

All three had received a grant (don't ask me how they managed to con the taxpayer out of two grand each) and were utterly, utterly useless. Two of them had never (and i mean NEVER) touched a computer before, the other one could not speak a word - not one single word - of English.

Of the thirteen remaining, it didn't take long to weed out another four - they didn't make it beyond week one. One more fell by the wayside at the end of week 2 - that made eight down before we'd even got into AD & Network Infrastructure.

Out of the eight that were left, I think, in the end, three of us - plus another four from the group that started the week after us - managed to either get the MCSE/MCDBA or at least the core four. Seven students out of a total of 32.

I love my job - I absolutely love working in IT. I have lived it and breathed it for nearly ten years. Yet I studied for almost 2000 hours, built a home network from scratch and took a year out from working to pass my MCSE - what on Earth makes someone with no skills, experience or comprehension of IT believe they can earn a living in the industry is utterly beyond me.

It can't just be the salesmen, surely - if they were that good at selling they'd be earning real bloody money somewhere, not eking out a living earning paltry commissions on selling overpriced training!

Like I said at the outset, I've sympathy for people who have been genuinely conned, but absolutely none for people gullible enough to think they could pass what amounts to a postgraduate degree in Computer Science with little or no effort outside attending a few weeks of training and a couple of hours' home study.

And PS: I'm sick of seeing them reopen these stupidly old threads too.