Black Country & Marches Institute of Technology — Local services in Dudley

I spent 3 years at this college, had issues from day 1...

When i started here in the January of 2021, our tutor informed us we should have been here in November to align with when the funding claim was started, but there was a miscommunication.

After 8 months of half days and achieving more by completing work at home due to the tutor being off sick and calling in 10 minutes before class started or him just going home at lunch, we returned to the new term only to find our tutors contract had not been renewed due to performance issues.

Around 3 months after that, our assessor, who we only got to see every 6 weeks or so, was also let go due to poor performance and not actually acting on issues when they were raised, like the fact our tutor was never there.

The colleges solution to this was to compress the course into 12 months, this meant completing work which we were already supposed to have completed last term in the morning, whilst another tutor tried to teach us something new from the current years curriculum in the afternoon.

Needless to say this led to massive confusion and them trying to glaze over the fact, you cannot teach 2 years tuition in 1 year, even the tutor told us we were being given a watered down course as there wasn't enough time left to teach us properly.

We managed to catch up to a reasonable point despite the headaches by putting in countless hours in outside of college to compensate for the colleges incompetence.

We finished attending college in the June 2024, only awaiting the End Point Assessment date and then we were complete, that would be our NVQ Level 3 certification secured.

I changed employer towards the end of my apprenticeship and only had my End Point Assessment left, i was told the transfer cost of this to my new employer would be less than £1,000, so i made the jump.

Once i had left, i was told the balance remaining is now £4,000 as £12,000 of the £16,000 course cost had already been paid.

My original contract stated the course value was £12,000, this was £4,000 less than they stated and i was told it was a mistake on their end, as the new course is in fact £16,000.

After providing the evidence, they then changed their response to advise only £8,000 had been paid of the £12,000 balance, still leaving a very convenient £4,000 balance.

I have since taken legal advice from the Apprenticeship Support team as i am now either forced to step away from apprenticeship, or my new employer has to pay the £4,000 balance.

So be warned, not only is the course itself problematic, it would appear the financial aspect of...

It has a welcoming, friendly atmosphere the building and facilities were excellent and the staff are helpful, friendly and...