Scheidegger

[twopence]

I'm finding this great debate about Scheidegger interesting - although I think some people are going a bit far... I therefore thought I'd throw in my twopence worth. I joined up with them as I was finding it difficult to find the right job for me - lots of commission-only sales jobs available, or shop work. But to get anything interesting you need to have some technical qualification in computer operating. I actually found Scheidegger on a list similar to this and called them. And everything has gone really well - I decided on IT Skills for Commerce and finished it in less than a year, got the qualification, got the t-shirt and got the job. I'm working job-sharing at the moment but it looks as if it will become full-time later this year. I could have arrived at this point in my life if I'd gone with any one of a number of training schools but I chose Scheidegger because it was the oldest and had the best background info on their site etc. While I was working with my tutor I found the whole operation to be efficient.

[arrowhead]

I'm looking forward to see how I do in my exams after doing Webmaster with Scheidegger. I'm quite confident...the course content was good, so were the teaching materials and the service provided by the tutors.

[rivendale101]

hmmm. I dont see how anybody could find any of there courses of any use. Is it me or is every good comment posted on here about scheidegger sound exactly like wot the tutors/course advisor/salesman say or wots writin in that stupid testimonial booklet :dunno

Another thing i've read on here says that if u have a complaint contact your tutor...all they tell you to do is contact head office...which gets you know wer at all. These people really get under my skin

[Ioman]

Yes, the good posts on here look incredibly fake, like an advertisement. It is probably an employee or something. But what can you do?

[pearldiver]

The only complaint I've against Scheidegger is that they are daft enough to use the Royal Mail :)

Seriously, I had a brilliant time studying with the company doing C/C++ programming course and the only thing that went wrong was my final assignment which never arrived. My tutor had posted it to me and it got lost in transit. Well, we all know what the postal service is like don't we! My tutor emailed it to me and I got it right away. Should have done that in the first place....

The course started me off in C/C++ and now I'm continuing to learn and having a brill time!

[rivendale101]

Can i ask what sorta of level c++ u are doing. And can i ask what u have learned so far. I Have a city and guilds national diploma in c++ and studyed part of level 3 before my college closed down :-( ...just wanna know wot its like.

[Genoxide]

God, how fake are those posts? Admin should remove them.

[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'd been trying to contact ECDL, 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 with 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 was feeling under pressure to sign and would have been too embarrassed not to. He had, after all, told me there was a cooling off period and I thought I could simply contact him that night 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 Clydesdale Financial Services.

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. (Yeah right)!

I 'phoned Clydesdale Finance who warned me that if I didn't keep up the payments they would have me black-listed and take me to court. I approached the Office of Trading Standards who took my case to the Financial Ombudsman, who in turn 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.

This course has adversely affected my health. I get high blood pressure just thinking about it, and have also recently been suffering from asthma and angina, often brought on just by talking about it, so it's become impossible for me to study any further, yet I'm still having to fork out £70 a month.
Fifer