Recommendations

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

Hi,

My girlfriend and I were visited last night by someone from Skills Train (www.skillstrain.co.uk) as we were interested in finding about the A+ exam. He talked about doing an all in one package for £2750 inclusive for A+, N+ and CCNA which seemed okay to me when he explained the benefits of doing it with his company. He advised that tutors were available online and/or by phone 9am-9pm 7 days a week and some classroom work may be available.

However, after speaking to him for 2 and a half hours(!) I just wanted him to go! From the points he raised in the conversation, he said that if we were to fail any of the modules we would get our many back so this was some guarantee to the effectiveness of the course and assurance that one wasn't wasting any time. He also said that if one would pass A+ and N+ and then fail the CCNA the money would still be returned effectively obtaining A+ and N+ for free. He spoke very little about the content of the course and as I tried to wrap up the conversation I asked him a pertinent question...

Could you leave us with any documentation regarding the course including the syllabus? No, he replied. In his experience a syllabus would be provided once you had signed up and that they served no purpose. All we should be interested in is what we would get out of it at the end(!). Surely one would not buy a car without knowing the make and model of the car as well as the condition of it!

He also said that once the exams had been completed there was support where they would help find a job for newly qualified engineers. Their website makes no mention of this at all.

He left us with absolutely nothing to read and looking on the website revealed the sum total of zero about the course.

He also said that should we want to go for the course, he would want to know by 4pm on Saturday because places are being filled all the time. (Hard sell or what)

To sum up. Has anyone had any dealings with this company. Are they as good as he believes? Would you recommend another company offering a similar product/guarantee? We would like to find something which offers local assistance (which his company does provide) so that the option of attending classroom based seminars would be on offer.

Your assistance is greatly appreciated. I am not in the habit of handing over £2750 on the basis of a long (and mostly irrelevant) chat and a cup of tea.

Thanks again,

Tim

 

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

Mate, there's plenty of threads about Skillstrain on this site. Do a search (on the bar at the top of the page).

Start by reading this thread and go from there. Although, even if I had never heard of them, if I'd experienced the situation you've just described, I wouldn't touch them with a bargepole to be honest. Never sign up for anything you can't get in writing.

And welcome to the forums.

 

I'd go the self study route and save your money.

 

Salesman tend to exaggerate, take what any salesperson says with a pinch of salt, they have a vested interest to get you to part with your hard earned cash, it's known as commission.

If you felt he was overstaying his welcome in your home and became difficult to extricate, I would kick them (him and the company he represents) into touch. This is the hard sell that double glazing and time share salesman use.

And that is just one reason why I would think thrice.

 

right there when he said I dont have it in writing his promises, I would of forgotten about him and skillstrain, sounds to fake, and plus if the class rooms are filling in so fast, why does he have to go house to house advertising, if its so popular he wouldnt have to do that, it just goes to show that he is not telling the truth about many things.

 

go for self study, u can achieve the same thing without paying more...

 

He was trying his utmost to get a sale there and then. His interest is in his sales targets, you are just another statistic to him.

I don't believe in intensive bulk 'certification packages', particularly the ones that claim to guarantee a job at the end. They are selling false hope and fuelling the fallacy that quick certifications are a shortcut to highly paid work. There are no shortcuts, certifications are not a substitute for experience.

You can do it a lot cheaper with self study, here's a good place to start:

http://www.trainingcenter.com/freetrial.htm

 

i am on skillstrain course you want to do i couldnt reccomend them for 10 seconds never mind a minute,read the verious threads i have posted on here especally the last one about signing up for all three courses,i made a mistake please learn from mine.

 

I know Skills Train (also Scheidegger/ Metropolitan School) on a personal level.
First of all the training is first class and if you stay the course and get qualified the job chances are there.
No guarantees though so don't let the salesman con you
They use negative motivation to really upset you into believing that the only way forward is to train with them.
You can do this training anywhere at a fraction of the cost and to sit at home with no real interaction isn't easy.
Classrooms aren't held locally or every week as they may say so ask me any questions and I will speak.
By the way I have done a course myself although that isn't how I know them (if you catch my drift) and the qualifications are genuine.

 

Mate i had exactly the same conversation with a skillstrain advisor. Save ya money and go the self study way....

 

I’m doing a CIW course with Skillstrain and I’ve found it fantastic. I’ve just got through the Javascript part. That was a bit challenging but I enjoyed it. Going on to Perl now. I’ve got no complaints at all.

 

I have signed up with skillstrain

the guy was pleasant, shown me his quals (which I didnt ask for) and didnt hard sell me the course. He told me maybe 4 in 10 sign up but its upto them. I wasnt pressed to sign and never informed that they fill up rapidly etc etc.

He also shown me a few jobsites highlighting the course I am doing and the 'potential' earnings... I wasnt misled whatsoever

I guess its down to the individual rep

In my case I had already seen computeach 12 months ago (approx) and half expected the same hard sell blah blah

Ok its expensive at £2700 but does include exams and I know for a fact by paying out like this will give me the incentive to study, if I was doing self study as I have for the last 18 months then I would never take them, or would probably be out of date by the time I had studied enough to sit them lol

horses for courses