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Review summary
Open Colleges has mixed reviews from customers. Customers particularly appreciate service and professional, though some mention concerns about communication and customer service.
I completed my Certificate in Nail Technology and had a mixed experience.
The staff are AMAZING and always offer great support. Ellena, the course instructor offers excellent insight and advice around the realities of being a working Nail Technician.
My issues are with the platform itself and the out of date education being provided (which is NOT the fault of Open Colleges) and the lack of emphasis of WHERE nail products are manufactured for higher safety.
For example:
1. Having to upload a 8-10 minute recording, in mp4 format, that is under 470mb is ridiculous. (It says 500mb
but anything over 470-480 won’t work)
2. The overwhelming typos and confusing sentence structure is absolutely unprofessional to say the least
3. The constant going on about nail polish when MOST NAIL TECHS DO NOT USE this is out of date (again not the fault of OC)
4. The lack of actual education around Nail Art is disappointing given the reality of today’s working Nail Tech and what we are expected to be able to do/create
Overall, the staff are fantastic but the platform itself? Definitely needs to be improved.
the reading materials were often set for the American context rather than Australian and often full of typos. Navigating around the modules when doing assignments was clunky. Assessment tasks included menial activities that were time consuming but not a reasonable test of skill or knowledge (eg 'write an email to explain your findings'). Requirement for role plays wih multiple actors was a burden on family.
One of the great services of Open Colleges was having quick access to a teacher and get feedback within an hour. The times when the teacher was away they would contact me via email or phone when back at work. This service made learning blockages minimal and thus made studying easy and enjoyable.
The mini video lectures, quizes and written material was straightforward to understand and the assignments were all applicable to practical accounting work.
A few months after finishing my Certificate IV in Accounting and Bookkeeping I obtained a full-time accounting job. A big reason for this was the quality of the course from Open Colleges was of a high standard and the assistance from teachers was excellent. Highly recommend Open Colleges
Certificate III in Nail Technology course experience
I almost done my Certificate III in Nail Technology course. Happy with open college and appreciated the course and im really happy and thankful my trainer -Ellena. She is very patience and guidance and helpful and response my every emails very quick. I truly appreciate everything she have done to help me get thru my cause.
They were inconsistent with everything and when I asked for help they just said to figure it out on my own. I paid using direct debit and when it stopped I thought I had paid it off but months later I got a debt recovery letter for an outstanding amount NO ONE had contacted me about. It's been nothing but stressful beyond measure and I would not choose to study with them again, I wish I never did in the first place.
From links that never opened during the course work, to 4 checklists that didnt match for the workbook, to sending me some of these AFTER I finished the course, to now two months later still trying to submit the papers they need. Noone seems to know what is going on, everytime the supervisor tells me what I need to submit, I do that and there is some other random piece of work they need. I did a Masters degree with less fuss than trying to get a cert IV from this institution. Would never study with them again
I had really good experience with Open Colleges (OC). Some of my experiences I wanted to share:
1. The trainers were very responsive to my queries. I was only available to study on the weekends but any queries I sent to OC, I always get a response by Monday when they get back to work on the weekday
2. The assessment tips and especially the Webinars were extremely helpful for completing the assessments
3. You do need to have Microsoft Office on your computer to make your life easier with the study
4. I also like the fact that the course includes 2 memberships IPA & ABN as well as the subscriptions to Reckon. That helps with starting me off the ground for bookkeeping works
5. Would like the course to include Xero subscription and training, but you can always sign up for free 1 month with Xero and Xero does have free Xero HQ training if that's what you're after
6. The turnaround time with the assessors to all of my submissions were within 2 weeks as promised. Most of the times much quicker, I guess it depends on how many assessments they got submitted at the same time. The assessors were also very encouraging and provide easy to understand feedback should the assessment need to be resubmitted.
7. One of the things I wanted to mention is the trainers/assessors are not there to provide us with answers to the assessment, they are there to guide us. And sometimes I find their guidance helpful, sometimes I find them a bit vague, when I find the response a bit vague, then I asked more specific questions and usually then I get the response I needed to complete the assessment. So just keep your thinking hat on and remember the course is to give us the knowledge and also help us to develop the skills (like research) to be working as bookkeeper in the real world most of the times on your own
8. The discussion board is also another place I find very helpful. That's the first place I go to when I start each module's assessment to read through what all other people queries are so I don't have to ask the same question to the assessor.
9. I started my course in July-20 and finished in May-21. But I had about 5 months break during COVID/XMAS (remember I can only study on the weekends). So really, this course can be done within a few months if you want to finish quickly. But you can also take your time and finish it within 2 years, so I think OC is pretty fair to have the course open for 2 years for most people to complete the course.
I had in mind to start my own Bookkeeping business after this course, and I certainly feel that it has given me a lot of ground works to put me in the right direction. There are of course a lot more to learn and complete in order to start my own business. So in conclusion, definitely recommend Open Colleges.
This was my first time studying in 30 years. Initially I found it hard to navigate around the site (and even finding things later in the course was hard at times). The content was easy to follow though once I got my head around it. The chat with support option was really handy and i utilised that quite a bit. Compared to other Youth Worker courses out there, it was quite involved, but doable.
The online student support were very kind, however when something was needed you had to ask 2-3 different people before anything happens. Also had lots of problems uploading portfolios, they were constantly sent back to me to fix the smallest of inconvenience and it seemed like a waste of time. Waited over 30 days for my course to be evaluated only in the end for me to once again check in, was only told that I had graduated when I was suspicious about how long I had been waiting. While waiting for my assessments back, by this time working on the assessor schedule, I was told I had poor time management despite time being out of my hands. I won’t be coming back to OC.
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