Bolton College — Local services in Bolton

Wow, what an experience this was

I completed my course in Maintenance, Installation and Repair as one of the first students to do so, when I did my practical exam I did everything fine with the tutors supervising me and at the end was told that I’d definitely passed multiple times. The exam results came around with me confident id passed because I didn’t do anything wrong and saw it said that I was absent for 2 papers which we never did and Unclassified for the course, This was in august and I tried to call the college and couldn’t get through for weeks, when I did the office put me on to exams to talk me through it and it took a week to get on to exams and when I did they said they will look in to it and call back and they never did. So i eventually got through to my department of the course and head of the course said that I’d failed but I did nothing wrong in the exam so I said can I get a remark or something and he said no. I then messaged city and guilds and they said that I CAN get a remark and I’ve filled out complaint forms and sent emails to college and no tutors, offices or head of departments have got back to me. I’ve now give up and my time has gone to waste.

I messaged my tutor from that year and said this and he said “my advice would be to take the resit” and I said “ok but what did I do wrong” and he never replied to me (this was on his personal phone number) the exam in itself was done not properly with the tutor saying he will do it his way and he helped us when not supposed to through the whole exam, I’ve now been marked as a fail when all I did was find a fault on a car and fix it doing nothing wrong and have been done out of a qualification. I’ve never seen anything so wrong! Do not attend this college or do this course because it’s one big shambles and life wrecker. All the lads did the exact same as me and I’m sure we all got marked differently for sure. I know this because the tutor said everyone did the same things and I even did my exam with one of them

I’ve never failed any sort of exam ever. I did what the tutors told me to do through all of it and it’s a fail, nothing to do with my end. The best anyone got in the first year was a D as well....

I went here a while ago now but i need to share my experience with this college. They're the worst college i've ever been to and once again put into a class for learning difficulties when i shouldn't have been there, but it's like every school i've ever been to they don't want you doing well and being with people your own age where you need to be.

It's primarily catered to school leavers but this place made me decide not to return back to education and just learn things on my own... ever since i haven't trusted the idea of waiting to be given something to do by someone else when i dunno what it is... i was too agreeable at the time so why i went through with it but that will never happen again i can assure you.

I was talked down to, forced to rush things, singled out all the time for not being perfect like other people have said (no such thing). The paperwork is no good and you're forced to write down literally everything... squashing it in with your practical so you have to rush. No point to what they give you when it won't help you towards a job like they say. Half the time being put behind was because of girls in the class purposely taking their time and they did nothing real about it. The work experience wasn't really what i wanted to do either, waste of time.

There's so much intolerance to different ways of thinking and doing things too there's like zero working around it, you either do it how they say or you're wrong even when any way to do things is valid. I experienced this a lot in schools but at least you had some wiggle room but not here... So this is definitely not a place for people who really want to learn something and need more flexibility to do it or people 20 and over, but it just really falls short, the content of the course isn't helpful i can see that hasn't changed.

So i recommend you go somewhere else, or even better take an online course instead if you can, online resources are A LOT more reliable, i wouldn't even give...

so unorganised. currently at this college. last year i started forensics level 2, and needed to resit my english gcse. my tutor last year, told me i didnt have to resit, but i would have the opportunity to if i wanted to this year. wrong information was given to me and i should have resit last year! i had to fight to get onto my level 3 year 1, and i enrolled to do english this year since they give me a chance after all the tutors and head of the department had a meeting to discuss this. enrolled for the course AND to resit english but have only just now at the end of april/beginning of may,started attending my english lessons when my exam is in june! im not happy now as i will probably fail from not catching up with english lessons from september, and i wont be able to progress onto my level 3 year 2 which will be devastating! they need to get this sorted it won’t help anyone in life jumping from course to course because the college cannot get students their classes sorted. we pick certain courses for a reason and we cannot progress when we dont have the gcse’s, what about the staff that dont help and say theyll sort it out but leave it months like they did to me and other students?! it isnt fair when some students know for certain what field of work they want to do but cannot get the right qualifications because of how unorganised...