Great Achievers - www.greatachievers.co.uk

Words cannot describe how poor this company is. I could spend an hour describing what I've been through....but I won't as it would be an hour that I wouldn't get back. Suffice to say hopeless instruction, hopeless assessment, hopeless (none existent) communication. I've given up on receiving my award and no matter what you say to them, it doesn't prompt them into action. It's as if they just don't care.

They never respond to emails and never mark anything on time (we're talking WEEKS late).

Would complain to the awarding body (Focus Awards) but it looks like they're based at the same place and the people involved used to run a company together that went bust.

Save your money.

On the positive side this company does uphold strong standards of achievement; if your work doesn’t meet the criteria then they will insist that you resubmit until it does. In one way this is reassuring, as is the IQ and EQ process your work has to go through before you are told that you have actually passed (but this takes at least 8 weeks!). However, my issue has been with the level of detail given in the feedback: it isn’t enough to work out exactly what is being asked for when resubmission is required. This has caused me a great deal of frustration and wasted time. It meant that it took me 18 months to complete the course instead of 12, and I had to constantly keep submitting work which was rejected with no real idea of how to improve it. The impression given is that there is only one person working in the office and that she is doing the admin and assessing the work; when she is off the whole site shuts down and no work can be submitted. The cost of the courses are low, however, compared to some other companies, but I feel you get what you pay for.

Ignore the review centre information provided on the website it advertises its reviews as 4/5 star but when you click on the link to check the reviews it is actually 2 star at best.

Unless you pay for the additional fast track marking option, you are waiting between 4-6 weeks for work to be returned (although their own t&c's state 2 weeks). When queries and then complaints were raised about the timescales work would either be marked the next day (with some having the comment 'marked within set timescale' or still left for a further period of time

Trying to get assistance from either your tutor or the support team is variable at best and when specific timescales or contact details were requested my queries were either ignored or or generic contact information was provided.

Once course was completed it took 3 months for my qualification to be confirmed with little contact from the company to inform me of what was happening.

The online portal is not fantastic and I had to resubmit already passed work as the assessor would change it from completed to in progress and requested seeing the information that had already be submitted and passed (and even though this was the same submission it was still subject to the lengthy marking timescale).

The only reason I haven't marked it as 1 star is that it is one of the few online companies who offer a year to complete the course, which you can extend.

I have been enrolled on a L3 assessor course and to be honest I wish I never did!

I've never encountered such a poorly organized training provider that hide behind the most terrible online student support system (like something from the 90's).

The tutors/assessors don't practice what they preach (id be amazed if they are even qualified, probably trained in-house by Great Achievers) and do not provide support or give any kind of meaningful feedback when they say you don't meet the standard (how they ever pass external audit from Focus Awards is beyond me!)

I currently work in the training industry and decided to do the course as CPD, I wish I went to another provider!

Overall they do not support you! they do not give effective feedback in accordance with the awarding bodies requirements (I'm going to contact Focus awards to check if they are even an approved centre!)

GREAT ACHIEVERS.... more like GREAT WASTE OF TIME...

I enjoyed the course I had purchased immensely and the feedback and support I received from the tutor I can only describe as outstanding and certainly does Great Achievers credit. In my experience, the course materials were exactly what was needed to help pass the course. No need to buy expensive study books which was a bonus.

My assignment work was marked before due dates and even on a Sunday !!!. The course was perfect for my needs and my requirements and I will certainly be recommending Great Achievers.

Under no circumstances pay for a course from this company! If i could assign 0 stars to this company I would.

Their service is absolutely atrocious. They don't honor services which were paid for, and employ tutors who don't even have the decency to respond to emails containing genuine queries for help. If you decide to speak to someone over the phone you will get no where as the woman on the phone is a master of deflection.

Do yourself a favour and don't even think twice about paying for a course with this shambolic course provider. Look elsewhere!