Scheidegger

[gungladin]

Hi everyone,

My wife and I recently started a course with Scheidegger, my wife did the Bookkeeping and I did Web Design. :brick

After realising that the course material in the web designer’s course is extremely out of date for an industry that is constantly moving forward, (which has been confirmed by an IT tutor at my local college). :bash

The internationally recognised certificate is not internationally recognised at all, not even nationally. :confused:

The one on one tutoring system is virtually none existent. :smack

In the initial interview with one of there so called careers advisers, we were told that all exam fees would be covered; this again is not the truth. :curse

Under the advice of my solicitor all payments to the obviously closely linked “Career Development Finance” have been stopped. :D

I have contacted Scheidegger and there finance company and told them of my intention to cancel. :argue

I await a response. :)

If you or someone you know is in the same position and would like to cancel a course with Scheidegger, contact me at cancelscheidegger@btinternet.com for advice and details of how to go about it . :cheers

[Scheidegger2005]

Everything above is true

[aztec]

It is all a matter of pros and cons. I found a lot of pros and dare I say - not cons!! There were a couple of points I wasn't particularly satisfied about but let's get to the bottom line, did taking on a course with Scheidegger help me reach my objectives?

It did!!!! Now I've got my Comptia A+ qualification it has given me the chance to apply for IT jobs. I can't complain about that.

If there are some people out there who are really interested in what is available to them instead of *****ing, maybe they will find this helpful.

Yes, I did have a couple of problems which I think could have been avoided. For instance, they should have informed more about the exams only being twice a year and their deadlines as I had just missed the deadline which meant that I had to wait for another six months. I thought I would finish the course in nine months though due to waiting for assignments etc I was slowed down and didn't complete the course for 15 months.

I felt I completed my assignments quickly but they slowed me down. But the tutors were helpful with information relating to incorrect answers which allowed me to understand my mistakes.

I hope somebody finds this helpful instead of all this negativity that's floating about. If you want to do an IT course and you like what Scheidegger offers, go for it!!!

[crosswire]

I can wholehartedly agree with this. Having paid all my fees on time each month and taking out their insurance I was therefore quite suprised to learn that the critical illness I have/had has not even been mentioned by Scheidegger or more appropriately the CDF. Having banged my head many times against a brick wall to get them to recognise a heart attack, and angioplasty as critical illness as per their own literature i have now stopped paying me fees. You will not be suprised to learn that they are now chasing me for monthly agreement installments and to this they add £15 admin fees...

More to follow no doubt
:censored :argue

[cybersquirrel]

from cybersquirrel , my new email address is physcosmurf@hotmail.co.uk
i have letters from various companies adviseing me to call tradeing standards which i have done as well as other agencies which i have been advised to do .
i also spoke to my local citizens advice office who tell me scheidegger are very well known to themselfs as well .

[Fifer]

To all of U who are doing a Skills Train course, whether Ur experience so far is good or bad, I urge U to make enquiries about the venues for final exams B4 going any further. Many of the people who do these courses, do so because they cannot get out and about easily. Here's what happened to me:

Firstly a bit about myself. I'm 60 yrs of age and physically disabled due to an accident I had 4 years ago. I still cannot travel long distances without suffering adverse affects.

In January 2006 I received a 'phone call from a Skills- Train rep, who said he'd heard I'd been enquiring about a computer course. At the time I was in the middle of an ECDL course but had changed from Windows '98 to XP and my PC wasn't recognising the disk, so I thought he was referring to that and allowed him to visit. Biggest mistake of my life! He told me the ECDL was no longer running and talked me into doing the course on Computer Book-keeping for a SAGE Diploma. I told him I already had an HNC in accounts, but he said I'd have to start again from scratch as I'd gotten the HNC in 1984
He spoke at length about how I'd need something to fall back on once August arrived and I became a pensioner. He was so plausible and seemed so honest & nice that I had no reason to suspect he was telling me a load of lies. He gave me a very simple arithmetic test which I passed with flying colours and said I should have no difficulty in completing the course within 6 months.

He told me there would be 2 social functions at a local hotel, where I'd meet up with other Scheidegger students for refreshments etc, giving me something to look forward to as I do not get out much. (These events never did take place)! He then went out to his car and returned with a briefcase full of stationery etc which he handed to me. He went through the contents of the briefcase and showed them to me.

He then produced what looked like one single agreement and said all that was left was for me to sign up with his company. I asked if I could have time to look over the agreement but he looked at his watch and said he still had another call to make and was running short of time, which meant I had to sign the agreement there & then. I looked over the agreement as best I could, but I was feeling under pressure to sign and would have been too embarrassed to do otherwise. After all he'd told me there was a cooling off period and I thought I could simply contact him to say I'd changed my mind.

The document just looked like one single agreement to me. I did not suspect that part of it was actually a separate agreement between myself and a Financial company, giving them permission to pay Skills Train £1,800 and charge it to me.

He then said he had to call his office on his mobile in order to set up the account. He seemed to know the person on the other end, so it appeared that he was indeed talking with someone at Skills Train. He had told me that I had a 3 day cooling off period during which I could get back to him and cancel.

What I did not know was that I actually had 14 days and should have received written confirmation of this within the next couple of days. I never did receive that information and only found out how long I'd actually had to cancel, ten months later during a telephone conversation with a woman at the Scheidegger office.

I actually tried repeatedly that evening and over the next 3 days, to contact Mr McKenzie and cancel, but he didn't answer his 'phone. I tried to contact Skills Train over the internet but could find no 'Contact Us' link on their site. In the end I felt that I'd just have to accept the course and do the best I could. I attained high marks on all of the tests (between 90% and 100%).

There was no way I could have completed the course in the next 6 months, as I'd to wait at least a week for the results each time I sent a TMA to the tutor. It was 10 mths before I reached the point where I received the SAGE package, and that was when I discovered that the nearest venue for the final exams was at Glasgow, almost 50 miles away!

I contacted the exams board who confirmed this, and was told they're even making students travel as far as Luton nowadays. I contacted Scheidegger and was told they might be able to send an invigilator to my house, but that I (now a pensioner) would have to pay all his/her costs beforehand & be reimbursed at a later date. By this time I was extremely upset and actually having asthma & angina attacks. I 'phoned Clydesdale Finance who warned me that if I didn't keep up the payments they would have me black-listed. I approached the Office of Trading Standards who did a full investigation and took my case to the Financial Ombudsman, who decided that since Clydesdale Financial Services had paid out the money for my course, to Scheidegger, they were legally entitled to be repaid.

3 weeks ago I received a 'phone call from yet another Skills Train rep, saying he'd heard I was interested in doing one of their courses. You can guess what he was told! My number is unlisted, so they must just be chancing their luck and 'phoning people at random