Open Study College www.openstudycollege.com

I was told that I could change my career doing the level 4 in counselling and psychotherapy. However, no one will take me seriously with a practical element of 100 hours of supervised counselling and Open Study College don't tell you that. When I complained they say it's for people who want to start their own business, but that's rubbish. It also says that the qualification is recognised by the ACCPH which is true but it's the BACP which is the gold standard and they've not even heard of Open Study College. The qualification is pretty worthless

I studied AAT level 1 with Open Study College and I’ve had issues with every step.

First my course was missing from their online portal, then my tutor support time was wrong/short. I disclosed a disability I needed assistance with when I signed up, they only took notice months later when I was booking my exam. The tutor support was practically useless, he informed me he didn’t have any additional materials to provide me with when requested so I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and put this down to Open College Study letting me down again.

The big one is the materials I was sent had several issues and errors which made it unusable in places.

I’ve been in touch with them since October and they have treated me like I’m the only one that sees a problem and there is nothing wrong their end. I wish I could attach a picture of the materials as it’s glaringly obvious it’s not right.

They are avoiding doing anything to put this right.

I regret giving money to them and wish I’d gone elsewhere. Don’t make the same mistake.

My daughter is doing her GCSEs with open study college the ‘tutor support’ is basically non existent. History for example has one assessment per question that will appear on the exam. This is hardly suffient to confirm that the course material is known to an adequate level to pass the exam. When asking how she could improve the grade we were told to buy another book despite the course details saying everything is included in the course. She is studying 7 GCSEs with them and this is the level of support she has been given when these courses cost around £400. She could have accessed the material for free in other places if we had know there would not be support.

Had a very poor experience with this college a year ago, no support, not tutor assistance and basically left to study on my own. I'm an experienced learner so know how distance learning should, does and can work. This is certainly not indicative of some of the better providers out there. I eventually got refunded under "not fit for purpose" i enrolled with another college, only to be sent the same qualifications, with the same errors and inaccuracies. - Clearly sucked in again by marketing.

Be careful, and spend a bit more, its worth it just for accurate information and course content.

Very friendly up until enrolment and i had pated with my money. After enrolment never heard anything from them.

Wouldn't refund my money despite breaking all of their own terms and conditions. Had to put in a claim to the country court to get my money back. I found them dishonest and uninterested. The materials i received were thing and weak, i don't think many people actually succeed with this college. Also, i did some research later into their college stars and found it not to be true, just a word they have in their name.

After my initial enquiry i was hit with a barage of calls/emails from what i can only describe as very lovely people. They were considerate and listened to my needs. After enrolment there was a deafening silence, no help, no support, no action. After many attempts at contacting my tutor to no avail, i gave up, eventually got a refund after filing a county court claim and enrolled with another college who gave me the support i needed to succeed.

Please think twice about enrolling here, don't fall for the support you get at letting them get to your money. It fizzles out once you have paid! Look at the reviews, all front end niceties, no results though!

My daughter studied with open Study in 2019, untill recently she was a success story advertising for free for the college (for the last 3 years)

She enrolled again this year however she now has Cancer and has been too poorly to even start her course, she has tried to cancel at least 4 times this year due to her being too poorly.

Open study college informed her that she cannot cancel and no one senior is avaliable to talk to. On top of that she has since found out that the first course she studied with open study is not even accredited so thats £800 for nothing.

Avoid terrible customer service. Do not waste your money. They do not help you

My wife was almost completed on her childcare course, when we got an email in Feb 2023 to say all observations completed after July 2022 (yes 7 months previously!) were no longer valid and would not be accepted. New observations would have to be undertaken by their own members of staff and cost £150 each - so £450 on top of the already paid for course fees.

The fact that she had already done all the work to complete these observations didnt seem to matter at all, no empathy for student welfare or reasonable fairness. It was supposed to be one observation at the start of course, one at middle and one at the end. Went through lengthy complaints but got nowhere 'out of our hands' was the best reply we could get.

Disgraceful treatment and an absolute joke of a company. Would not recommend to anyone frankly. The course itself very average at best. The support students get is someone marking your essays.

I've been extremely disappointed with the lack of support and help I've received from this service.

Despite being advertised as having excellent customer support, I've found it incredibly difficult to get any help or guidance when I've needed it. The service has been sold to me on the basis of its customer support, but in reality, it's been non-existent.

The lack of support makes it a poor choice for anyone who values quality customer service and expects to receive assistance with their learning experience.

The course materials consist of nothing more than a series of unimpressive PDFs and a slideshow that amount to approximately 20 pages. This is not even close to being sufficient for the hours of learning that are required to fully understand the subject matter.

The materials lack depth and clarity, and I've found myself struggling to make sense of them. It's frustrating to think that I paid good money for such a subpar learning experience.

This is in regards to a previous review I had posted.

When signing up for the Full Nail Technician course, I understood that I had 14 days to cancel if I felt that this course wasn’t the right one for me. However, I had received my first package for this course and in this package there were items missing so I had to chase this up and speak to various people until someone could eventually help. They then resent those missing items but not all of them. In this time, I was still waiting for my second package. I was unable to start my course until my second package came which was pretty frustrating. It then arrived and when it arrived I was disappointed with what was in there. I have a payment plan of which nearly £100 will be paid towards this course every month for the next year. I made my decision to cancel this course because I wasn’t happy with the products and I wasn’t happy with the service bearing in mind I hadn’t even started the course yet. I was then told that because it had been past the 14 days, I wouldn’t be able to cancel. The crazy part about this is that the second package that arrived… it arrived on the 14th day! Now keeping in mind that I wasn’t able to start the course until my second package came… how could I possibly determine whether or not the course was right for me until I had all my products and equipment? And you’re telling me that I had to open the package, check all the equipment and make my decision on that VERY day. I was told I wouldn’t be able to cancel this course on the 15th day which was the day after my equipment arrived. How crazy is that. It’s like handing out an invite for the 4th of July with a note saying, ‘let me know if you can attend by the 1st otherwise you won’t be on the list’ but them not receiving it until the 2nd. It makes no sense. The fault lays with the business not myself so surely you should honour a refund and give me my money back. Absolutely outrageous.

I have also put in a complaint and have attached all emails into it but I am still yet to receive a response. It’s funny that you get a reply to your review quicker than you would a complaint. I guess that’s because they want to cover their backs. Not happy and will take this further if needs be.