Hoping for a career change to become a plumber and heating engineer, Drew Howells took out finance of £7,800 to pay for a distance learning course with a company called New Trades Career.
He quickly wished he hadn't.
Unhappy with how it was being taught and the quality of course material, Drew, from Andover, Hants, packed it in before even getting as far as the practical courses.
"It has caused endless stress and affected my credit rating," he said.
"After missing payments the finance company Caledonian Consumer Finance contacted me again and again, they called me everyday, wrote letters and messaged me.
"The situation now, 18 months later, is that they’ve given my details to a collection company called ARC Europe.
"All I wanted to do was become a plumber. I’m now with a company called Access Training who have been much better and expect to receive my level 2 diploma in the post any day now with only a £4,000 cost."
He's not the only person complaining about New Trades Career, which has 69% one star reviews on Trustpilot.
Shan Rogerson of St Albans, Herts, joined a welding course, also with funding from Caledonian Consumer Finance.
After 12 modules he said that he was surprised to find he had to complete a health and safety course before progressing to practicals.
"They hadn't mentioned this before and in any case we were doing health and safety throughout the course," he said.
"I was so positive that I'd got the questions right but I was failed two times.
"Usually if you do a test you're told what you've got wrong but they just came back saying you'd failed."
After requesting help he said that he was sent irrelevant material about wiring a house.
"I've basically paid £5,300 for three books, a CD and a satchel," he said.
"I'd like to do another course but can't afford it now."
Sofija Dearden paid £7,800 for a New Trades Career plumbing course and was also very unhappy with the quality of teaching and never reached the stage of practicals.
"I was told that my three-year contract had run out," said Sofia, from Stourbridge, West Mids.
"It feels as if this course is designed to make it extremely difficult to complete in a reasonable timeframe when you have a full-time job.
"I asked if there was any way I could continue as it was finally at the point of going to a practical session. I was told that I could go through another company to buy a year-long extension for £400.
"I was completely shattered by this."
She's been left with no qualification and paying off her Caledonian Consumer Finance loan at £180 a month.
New Trades Career is a trading name of Nottingham-based Green 360 Limited.
"We have a huge number of students who are happily completing their courses and are working or have worked through their chosen subject," insisted director Ian Morris.
"We believe that our record in helping our students achieve success is second to none."
He said that course details including length of time for completion and health and safety tests are set out in brochures given to students.
He did not address specific complaints from the students about the quality of course material and claims of poor marking of course work.
I asked him about a peculiar website trust-reviews.org which carries overwhelmingly positive reviews for New Trades Career but on closer inspection does not appear to carry reviews for any other business. Mr Morris said he had no knowledge of it.
New Trades Career does not itself carry out practical workshops, these are outsourced to what it calls its "exclusive partner", a company called Engineering Real Results, a trade name of ERR Ltd.
"ERR maintains one of the largest networks of practical training centres in the UK," said Mr Morris, although the ERR website lists just six training centres.
Mr Morris provided a hefty bound volume called "Happy and Satisfied Students”, which he said contained testimonials from more than 3,800 students, sending it by post because "it exceeds ours and most likely your email limit".
Unfortunately the testimonials contain only a first name and initial for the surname and no other details. Many consist of only one or two words such as "all good" and "sweet" and without knowing the context of these comments they have little value. Some names also appear multiple times - in a quick scan I saw the six entries from "Mr Filip A, plumbing".
Keith Rosser is chair of JobsAware, a joint government and recruitment industry initiative.
“It is terrible to think that at a time of wide-ranging shifts in the labour market causing the need for re-training that some people are paying a lot of money for courses but ending up with no qualifications," he said.
"Before parting with any money, we urge potential students to check online reviews and ask to see course work material and classrooms where practical training sessions take place."
A subsequent story concerning another distance learning provider, 24/7 Training UK, is here.
investigate@mirror.co.uk
