ICS www.icslearn.co.uk

ICS www.icslearn.co.uk
★★★☆☆
3.3
64.0% of users recommend this
  • Value For Money

Summary

"International Correspondence Schools Ltd (ICS Learn) is the world's most experienced distance learning organisation. We have been a pioneer in teaching skills and qualifications at a distance for over 120 years, giving you the opportunity to learn while earning and to fulfil your ambitions."
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Latest Reviews

“Avoid ICS Learn at all costs”

★☆☆☆☆

written by on 31/10/2023

I am doing the Level 5 Diploma in Organisational Learning and Development. I'm 6 months in. I regret doing this course with ICS Learn. The main problems; - The course content is low quality and full of spelling mistakes, links that don't work and a lack of research and evidence. It's also outdated. A tutor told me that hardly anyone passes their assignment the first time. I suspect this is because the course content quality and level of support is low. - I've now had two assignments back and the feedback on both occasions has been vague and unhelpful. You are not actually told why you need to resubmit, what is missing and how you can improve. You are left guessing and feeling confused. For the money I've paid, I expect clear and detailed feedback, rather than obvious copy and paste responses. It's also clear that markers do not read your assignment properly as they tell you you need to do things that are already in the assignment. - Assignments are not blind marked and you are required to write your name. This is outdated practice for obvious reasons (markers are likely to be prejudiced when they see foreign names). You have to submit your student number and this should be sufficient. - Doing a draft submission is a complete waste of time as the feedback is vague and you have no idea if your answer would pass or not, as you're not told. You are left feeling confused about whether your answer was any good or not and if it needs improving and how. - You do not get assigned a named tutor to offer consistent help throughout the course. You are left alone and all the talk about support is simply not true. Students should have a named tutor that we meet regularly. ICS Learn feels very impersonal. - The masterclasses add nothing to your learning and are very basic. - There's a lot of forum posts that are left unanswered. Tutors should be replying to students but don't seem to be interested. - I'm unhappy that I have been misled but cannot get a full refund now I can see the course is very poor quality. - I think ICS Learn just want your money and they're very good at being responsive when you first enquire. That's why they have so many good Trustpilot reviews (they ask you to write a review as soon as you sign up, which i regret doing). However, do take a look at reviews of ICS Learn on other websites (and the negative Trustpilot reviews) to see what students who are actually doing their courses think. In summary, avoid ICS Learn at all costs. I will not be doing my level 7 with them.

Was this review helpful? 3 0

“AVOID - Plenty of other providers. ”

★☆☆☆☆

written by RashadHays408 on 11/09/2023

Spelling mistakes, incorrect grammar, poor learning materials and incompetent markers. Tried to complete their CIPD Level 5 course. Found the learning material to be slideshow after slideshow with multiple spelling mistakes and poor grammar. Made me feel silly paying over £2000 for a course which has been poorly put together. Don't know how these guys have so many 5 stars review on Trustpilot when ICS is being slated and to be avoided in multiple Facebook groups. I have completed 2 out of the 7 Units in which I did not use a single piece of their materials since the first module after experiencing how badly written their learning material was. All you are doing is paying them to mark your work as a "assessment centre" which is required by CIPD moderators. Even the marking is abysmal, as someone who is graduated to a Level 7, I have been able to distinguish between competent qualified markers and assessors whereas ICS seem to employ anyone to mark. The assessors feedback always contain multiple spelling mistakes, poor grammar and feedback in improving work and a typical copy and paste job. I have decided to cancel my course and decided to join another programme which is better put together by those who review their learning material rather than this greedy incompetent company. Anyone looking to learn with ICS, please avoid at all costs.

Hanasei's Comment

Written on: 18/09/2023

I couldn't agree more! The only reason they have so many 5 star reviews is that people rate their experience purely based on signing up. Yes, of course they're amazing and supportive when they want your money! I am yet to find a positive review of someone who has actually passed using their materials and "tutoring"!!

How is ICS not considered a crime? The principal of "Hi, please pay us thousands of pounds, we will help you thrive and achieve your career dreams at your own pace" and then being faced with "So in this section, please read page 120-300 and take a little test at the end". Yes thank you, I have just paid thousands of pounds for someone to instruct me to read a bloody book!!

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Was this review helpful? 4 0

“Avoid at all cost”

★☆☆☆☆

written by Alicen115 on 06/09/2023

Their entire policies seem to be centered around making as much possible money off students whereas the course material is highly generic and unengaging,definetely not worth the money that they are charging. Students are left to basically fend for their own with minimal guidance provided by tutors. Would especially emphasise reading the fine print in their contracts as they have a highly exorbitant cancellation policy with no refund offered at all in any circumstances if you need to cancel the course. This is not explicitly highlighted to their clients when starting the course but is later bought up as a convenient means to bind customers to keep on paying even after discontinuing with the program. They will also keep on hounding customers until they receive their cancellation fee regardless of whether the customer is continuing with the course or not. A highly commercialized setup with little or no value for their students provided. Would definetely reccomend individuals and all professional organizations to avoid any sort of learning and development engagement with them as there are much better options.

Was this review helpful? 4 0

“Business Management Diploma ”

★★★★★

written by Garciadw287 on 20/03/2023

I am a Filipina, working in Singapore way back in 1994. I asked my employer if i could study through a correspondence school while working as a nanny. He said yes, so i took the opportunity to enroll in ICS and took up Business Management course. The ICS learning materials including Modules and Test Papers are easy to understand if you are passionate enough to learn. Though there were subjects that are difficult to understand because i didn't have access to library for further research. But through determination, couraged, and with the helped of my tutor's guidance, i had managed to finished my 2 year course and obtained a diploma and transcript despite of many difficulties. I had several worked experienced in some of the global companies like Samsung Electronics. I am sad to read all these negative comments and reviews about ICS online study. I think the good old days of distance learning are gone. ???? Thank you ICS Singapore for the oppprtunity. Now, i'm an online trader. ????

Everproid's Comment

Written on: 20/03/2023

this is nice

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Was this review helpful? 1 3

“Avoid ICS ”

★☆☆☆☆

written by 101Mills on 17/02/2023

Do not get registered with ICS. They provide no support throughout the course and the indicative content is not sufficient. It takes ages to mark the assignments and the feedback they give shows a lack of subject knowledge.

Was this review helpful? 6 0

“Worst decision to study with them ”

★☆☆☆☆

written by Corar313 on 30/01/2023

They don’t provide any one to one tutoring nor are they available to your concerns and questions. In addition you must pay 500£ to cancel the course which isn’t mentioned clearly!

Was this review helpful? 6 0

“AVOID LEARNING WITH THIS COMPANY”

★☆☆☆☆

written by Lorraine123456 on 25/01/2023

Absolutely appalled that I have paid for my level 2 and told I could start it at any time but once I started it I would have only 6 months to complete the course. For this reason I have waiting to ensure I am able to spare the time to complete the work now ready and told that was all nonsense and my course has expired!!!

Was this review helpful? 4 0

“Avoid avoid avoid ”

★☆☆☆☆

written by DarylDoyle2910 on 21/01/2023

Shockingly bad customer service!! Training material are out-dated and there are massive errors in the materials. Do not use!

Was this review helpful? 7 1

“Awful Service with Broken and Contradicting Materials.”

★☆☆☆☆

written by ChilledPixl on 14/11/2022

Honestly would not recommend ICS Learn in the slightest. From the start, I've noticed their materials are incredibly contradicting from one unit to the next, with some parts being straight-up wrong. Recently, they ended support for a unit I had signed up for because I passed an exam, even though I was still paying monthly for it and needed it to revise for the next course. As an extra to this, they updated my 2016 Diploma to 2022 without an explanation as to why. This part of the course wasn't due to start until February, with zero communication actually telling me until I queried why I'm paying for something with no access to. The 2022 sections are downright broken and half of them don't even exist on the website. I'm enrolled in 2016 exams, so moving me to this new structure had completely different topics than what I needed to learn. I've been trying to get it reversed back to the 2016 course, which has been over a week of waiting now. For something I previously had access to, which they took away, now suddenly takes this long to restore my access. Useless support that refuses to get anybody higher up to contact you. Currently paying monthly for a course that I haven't been able to access since over a month ago.

Was this review helpful? 6 0

“Avoid at all costs”

★☆☆☆☆

written by Doylegu280 on 29/05/2022

Absolutely shocking service and no support from this company. They only care about the money. Tutors copy and paste the question when asking for help, they constantly blame covid for the delay in marking. Moderators can't count and also provide the wrong feedback on assignments all the time. Always "updating" their guidance documents for how moderation works and not informing students of these changes and always having "technical issues" as classes are rescheduled almost weekly. The student support do not support when you call they literally say we cannot help you and just say we will let the managers know which in turn never happens as you don't get a response.

Was this review helpful? 9 0

“MISSING THE HELPFUL CHIP: ICS ONLINE”

★☆☆☆☆

written by Onionboy34 on 16/05/2022

MISSING THE HELPFUL CHIP: ICS ONLINE I commenced my CIPD Level 7, Advanced Diploma in HR Management in March 2020, with ICS online. Having completed previous courses online, I had a benchmark of what I expected. This included, clear instruction online, clarity of what is required and when needed, engaging supportive tutors. My experience however is that ICS and some of their tutors are indeed missing the ‘helpful’ chip and their online support and information is often lacking important detail. Without boring, but to casually illustrate; my early 1-4 modules, were straightforward with ‘transactional’ tutors in place. To be perfectly honest, this was fine, as there was not a need for extra support at this time. The problems were highlighted with the modules that followed, with a lack of clear direction online and inconsistency in marking from two tutors in particular, with many requests for paper alterations leading me to ask myself “ Why have I not seen this requirement within the training material?’ It was often trial and error to get the papers right, with no clear or consistent guidance from anyone. This made the submission of work a lottery, wasting a lot of time and effort. Inconsistency in marking was indeed extremely troublesome, but my primary concern and complaint diving this ‘post’ was the lack of support from the tutor lead and the cantankerous nature of one tutor in particular, who for example throughout a month, refused to mark any of my 5 paper submissions, without clear direction or communication. This was not helpful, a waste of my time and honestly not what I would have expected from a tutor. He could not even be bothered to engage properly ; absolutely shocking. All he had to do was write a clear friendly communication, advising of what was needed, solving the problem within a few days, not 5 weeks! I have completed all the modules and only require to the take the examinations, but my experience through ICS has completely removed my interest to complete this course, which I am aware is ridiculous. It is extremely disappointing that ICS and a few of their tutors, do not understand the importance of relationships with students regarding online courses. If they did they would instead of creating barriers, having random standards of marking and the absence of clear supportive communication, have supportive engaging tutors. The message I wish to give to all individuals considering using ICS for HR studies, is consider other companies first, looking for supportive tutoring programmes. We can all read from a book, but relationships are vital to guide, provide motivation and help students succeed.

Was this review helpful? 12 0

“Avoid”

★☆☆☆☆

written by on 06/04/2022

As a CIPD Level 5 student, this is my summary: The learning content is full of mistakes and links to articles/websites that no longer exist. The learning style is one dimensional. The learning platform is outdated and not at all user friendly. The tutors do not respond to questions. The curriculum team do not respond to questions. The complaints team do not respond to complaints/feedback. The assessors are inconsistent and late marking assignments. Even the learning body that monitors my diploma say they are having issues with ICS Learn. I wish I'd chosen a different learning provider.

Was this review helpful? 13 0

“Worst Customer Service Ever”

★☆☆☆☆

written by JoWhitehead on 25/03/2022

I submitted an assignment, 10 days later it still had not been marked, when I asked what their lead times were on marking I was told 5 working days. That statement was followed up with (exact words): "To allow our team to focus on marking we would ask that you do not contact us to ask when your assessment will be marked. As soon as this has been reviewed the grading status will be updated on your student community." "I understand your frustration, its just that contacting us again won't speed up the marking process" So you make up your own mind! Is this a provider who is dedicated to providing a top notch service with their students at the heart of the business? Before going ahead read the other reviews! In my personal experience most are accurate in relation to the un-user-friendly platform, lack of support or guidance and poor tutorials. I had to pay another training provider to assess my work because I was unable to get the support and assistance from ICS Learn I needed and I didn't want to fail the assignment. So just another financial outlay.

Was this review helpful? 8 0

“Okay course - Terrible practices”

★☆☆☆☆

written by jamiea98 on 18/03/2022

Okay course, horrific admin - took a Maths/Physics course out with them, transferred to another course within the first month as their service team advised it would be free. Paid off my course, forgot these guys existed, only for them to send me an email demanding £300 for the transferred course on top of the existing one. Over a year after I finished my course! Have provided them with all the info they need but they keep going on about a 10 day wait for an answer... No good for me when they're threatening my credit. Shameless and untrustworthy - avoid like the plague

Was this review helpful? 5 0

“Poor service: Its all about the money”

★☆☆☆☆

written by Kentyc1970 on 31/01/2022

For the value you pay the support service is very poor. Had personal and technical issues on several occasions and very hard to get in touch with them and whenever I contacted them the service was cold, not informative and did not solve the problem. The course seems to be designed so that you pay infinitely and do not finish your course on time.

Was this review helpful? 10 0

“Didn't live up to expectations”

★★☆☆☆

written by davidda on 20/12/2021

I've ended up terminating my course. I found the online module material for the Associate Diploma in People Management unengaging, since the modules mostly involve passive learning, clicking through screens of summary material, and mapping it onto the assignments. The assignment feedback just tends to say things like "add more subheadings" or references and doesn't engage with any of the actual ideas. The online interface itself is really non-user-friendly (compared to two other VLEs I've had to use), which makes submitting and receiving feedback on assignments very frustrating. Feedback was delayed for a long time for one module - it turned out this was for moderation purposes, but this wasn't explained until afterwards. There's no real welfare provision, and I generally just felt there was a lack of genuine engagement. I did reach out to them with this feedback and they said they'd get back to me in 10 working days, but haven't. A real pity

Icslearn's Response to davidda's Review

Written on: 14/01/2022

Hi,

Thanks for leaving this feedback for us.

Our Student Community site has been designed with input from our Students to be as intuitive and easy to navigate as possible.

The moderation periods are explained in our assessment and moderation guide. Our Tutor support is available without limit but there are restrictions on what feedback can be provided for a final assessment.

Thanks again for letting us know about your experience.

Rory
ICS Learn

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Was this review helpful? 3 0

“An Expensive Misadventure ”

★★☆☆☆

written by BriannaK on 12/10/2021

Many of the reviews I have read centered around the cost of this course (CIPD Level 3) and the inflexibility if you need to cancel. Well, I would certainly agree and for this reason I have pressed on and forced myself to complete it, despite an extremely difficult personal year in which a close family member passed away and I moved countries. I reached my time limit because of this and now am paying an additional 60 quid a month for 'tutor support' - ON TOP of the 84 quid I am still shelling out just to pay off the course. And here is the CRUX of the reason for my dissatisfaction - there is NO TUTOR SUPPORT!!!! I have now got 3 assignments waiting to be marked and am approaching my new 'deadline' in the next 15 days. If it turns out I need to redo anything (and it almost always does) then I will go over the deadline and have to pay a further 6o quid for another month's 'support'. They leave me hanging for an average of 10 days. One assignment has now been 3 weeks. Not to mention the extremely demoralising experience that is having my assignments returned 'Not Yet Passed'. Trust me - I consider myself of reasonable intelligence and I jump through every hoop as carefully and diligently as possible, but there is frequently some loophole that I wasn't aware of or just a frankly pedantic tutor that revels in picking holes. I should add not ALL of the tutors are bad - I have probably had 'encouraging' feedback from about 50%. But the rest are either AWOL or gleeful jobsworths I'm afraid. My confidence is on the floor and I wish I had never started this course but it has now cost me nearly 3 grand and they have me over a barrel. Additionally I found the site incredibly confusing and difficult to navigate. Not user friendly at all and all over the shop. Why can't you link the assessments for that module to the course materials? Its hideous trying to hop back and forth. In summary I simply wouldn't put myself through a course like this again but if I had to I'd go with another organisation.

Icslearn's Response to BriannaK's Review

Written on: 14/01/2022

Hi,

Thanks for taking some time to post this feedback for us.

Our Tutor support is available to Students without limit. There are however limits to the specific feedback that can be provided whilst adhering to the strict marking criteria of the awarding bodies.

All the best

Rory
ICS Learn

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Was this review helpful? 10 0

“Course was fine but their system made a serious error ”

★★☆☆☆

written by Monmouth1984 on 11/09/2021

The course itself was perfectly OK (Level 3 L&D) However, like many other people I paid monthly for my course. The Direct Debit was never cancelled at my end but in the middle of the pandemic (July 2020) the organisation stopped requesting payment. I did not notice initially and then when I did a few months later, I presumed it had all been paid. I had been paying a year or two at that point. Then, out of the blue, in September 2021, I I was sent an email with 'Final Notice of Fees'' of 291 pounds with ten days to pay before the amount being sent to a credit rating agency. Well, there were no prior warnings and I paid and provided proof that I never cancelled the Direct Debit. I consider the accountancy error on their side and the intensity of the credit control department unacceptable. I expect an apology for their systemic error.

Icslearn's Response to Monmouth1984's Review

Written on: 14/01/2022

Hi,

Thanks for taking some time to post this feedback for us.

I am sorry that there has been a communications error regarding your course fees. We have since updated our procedures to prevent any future recurrence.

Best regards

Rory
ICS Learn

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Was this review helpful? 6 0

“Not good at all”

★☆☆☆☆

written by GuadalupeMiranda239 on 28/08/2021

I purchased the AAT Foundation Certificate in Accounting (Level 2) and started studying about one month later. I found the course materials quite bad compared to other Courses I have completed with other Providers such as The Open University and New Skills Academy to name a few but there are more courses I have done so I know what to expect. I found the navigation through the course materials was very tedius. The content is squashed into small boxes so you get a question example on one page then you have to click over to the next page to see the actual questions which means you have to keep clicking back and forth in order to work out the answers. Then sometimes the system says incorrect answer but when the system reveals the answers at the end, the answer was actually correct. I found this experience really detrimental to my learning experience. I found the overall quality to be poor when it come to the online lessons. The content in the video is wrong so the tutor scribbles out the incorrect text and replaces it with correct text which again really slows down and affects the overall learning experience because you end up not trusting the data. The sound quality of the videos is terrible too. Very tinny and bad for the ears. (I've DJ'd for many years so know what good sound quality is). I informed my tutor about this and got an honest reply ("nothing much I can do about the course content") and was advised to complain to student services who basically explained the process and cost to leave the course which I happy paid so that I could move onto a better AAT provider which I'm glad I have done now because there isn't much between them cost wise but the course content and materials is much better now. My advice for anyone wanting to study the AAT Foundation Certificate in Accounting (Level 2) course with ICS Learn would be to get onto the study materials ASAP and if you find the same as I did cancel it within 14 days for no charge. I couldn't get on in the first 14 days due to ill health and changing jobs so had to pay the exit fee. ICS Learn did offer an exit fee free of charge based on medical grounds however they wanted a letter from my Doctor which my Doctor would have charged for anyways. ICS Learn wanted the letter to state that I would be unable to study right up until the end of the study support period in 2022, however, no one is psychic. Due to the nature of my Condution not being found yet, no one is psychic and can tell when all will be resolved because something could be found next week and relevant medication prescribed. Easier to lay the exit fee and move onto a better provider in my opinion. Note this review is only relevant to the AAT Foundation Certificate in Accounting (Level 2) course. I haven't studied anything else with ICS Learn, nor will I be in the future.

Icslearn's Comment

Written on: 14/01/2022

Hi,

Thanks for leaving this feedback for us.

It's always great to hear from our Students about their experiences.

I am sorry that you did not enjoy the experience of online learning. We are pleased to be able to offer exemptions to cancellation fees for Students suffering from ill health and to ensure we are fair and even with this, we require advice from a medical professional.

All the best for your future study

Rory
ICS Learn

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Was this review helpful? 6 0

“ZERO SUPPORT OR COMMUNICATION ”

★☆☆☆☆

written by McKenzie1959 on 29/03/2021

ZERO communication or support during lockdown I was unfortunate to enroll with ICS learn just before Covid struck in 2019. I was not contacted at all by a tutor or provided with any information on how to book exams. This was apparent when zero information was provided. The customer service is appalling. A complete waste of time and money.

Icslearn's Comment

Written on: 14/01/2022

Hi,

Thanks for posting this feedback for us.

All exam/pandemic related advice is posted to the course news forums or in the course home pages for all Students to be aware of any changes made and how we have adapted to support them. Our Student Services team is always available to Students via email, phone and webchat to help with any non-academic queries.

Kind regards

Rory
ICS Learn

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Was this review helpful? 8 0

Our helpful community of likeminded people will be happy to answer any questions that you have.

Before posting your question please check to see that it has not already been asked.

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Asked by lou1995 on 20th April 2021 Report this content
Hi im looking to leave the level 3 AAT course but seen people have been told they have to pay money to leave?!:( has anyone successfully left the course without paying extra? i haev had a horrendous time with my tutor and this course I've only been signed up a few months and want to leave but cant afford to pay leaving fees :(

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Asked by mailrach on 31st December 2013 Report this content
I've just completed my last exam paper for the nail technician course so i'll soon receive the ics diploma in nail technician but what does this actually mean for future studying/jobs etc? What is its worth?

Thanks for answering this question.

Once we've checked over your answer we will put it live on the site so others can gain from your experience. We rely on members like you to sustain our vibrant community so thanks again, we couldn't do it without you.

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Answers (1)
Report this content ICSLearn Written on: 03/01/2014
Congratulations on successfully completing your ICS Diploma in Nail Technician with us. This qualification is a great entry point if you wish to for further your studies on a professional level. It is also useful if you intend to apply for jobs as a nail technician as you can demonstrate to an employer that you have previous experience because the course required you to complete practical elements which you have completed. Keep practicing your newly learned skills and start creating a portfolio of your own designs. All the best for the future, ICS Learn
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