Review summary

Open Colleges has mixed reviews from customers. Customers particularly appreciate service and professional, though some mention concerns about communication and customer service.

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EC

Erin Clancy

3 out of 5 stars
I completed my Certificate in Nail…

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 My issues are with the platform itself and the out of date education being provided (which is NOT the fault of Open Colleges) and the lack of emphasis of WHERE nail products are manufactured for higher safety.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 The constant going on about nail polish when MOST NAIL TECHS DO NOT USE this is out of date (again not the fault of OC) 4.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.

j

jenny

2 out of 5 stars
Lots of room for improvement

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.

AK

Anthony Kellett

5 out of 5 stars
Highly Recommend

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

DC

D Cook

5 out of 5 stars
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.

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Showing 21 - 30 of 996 reviews
SB
1 out of 5 stars

Cancelled in cool of period had to call…

Cancelled in cool of period had to call back 5 times to confirm the cancellation so no more money was debited out if my account. Still waiting for reimbursement. Not happy at all. And in this time I get calls regarding interest of course when I stated I already started and cancelled. Plus somehow someone rang my number for a appointment with someone at open colleges. I've never experienced such an unprofessional place. Very disappointing I must say never again will I consider studying through them again.

Date of experience: February 28, 2024

SS
1 out of 5 stars

Complicated, over-assessed, stressful.

Overview: Incredibly stressful experience. I only have two positives: the online learning means you can complete work in your own time, and the staff are friendly (when they can be reached). For context, I was looking for a career change, so I enrolled in the Cert II in Animal Care through OC. I work full-time as a high school science teacher, and already have a Bachelors Degree in Zoology and a Graduate Diploma in Education. I have been working through this Cert II in Animal Care for a little over 6 months and am finishing the first work placement component. It has genuinely been the worst educational experience I have ever had. The documentation associated with the work placement is convoluted, exhausting, and over-assessed. The expectations and criteria for each task are over-explained and making sense of everything takes up more time than doing the tasks to begin with. There were 20 pages of report comments that my supervisor had to complete, on top of documentation requiring my supervisor to sign off on every single action I completed. Once I got to submitting the evidence for my work placement, I was met with 19 online pages of questioning. Most of which had already been assessed in previous modules, as well as evidenced in the supervisor documentation, and several video recording submissions. It is over-assessed, complicated, and incredibly difficult to navigate. So much so, that when I spoke to a staff member on the phone for clarification, they admitted to (without prompting) feeling overwhelmed with the sheer volume of assessing they had to get through. In addition to this, the online platform is rife with errors and is not user friendly. Communicating with staff is a struggle, and it can take several days to get in touch with someone for support. I am uncertain whether I even want to finish my certificate through OC, and am contacting other institutes to compare their assessment styles. It feels like I have wasted 6 months and $4000.

Date of experience: January 21, 2024

KH
1 out of 5 stars

Avoid

I studied a cert IV in Leadership and Management with Open Colleges....they changed the course over to a new version half way through and then told me 3 of my modules were not longer valid when I spent ages completing them. While they said they were changing their course over they did not say anything about me losing modules I worked hard on... I have never been so frustrated and defeated. It felt like they had set me up to fail. The course Cost me $6,500 and silly me didn't do my research and realized it is half of that price everywhere else to study that same course. I did graduate my course but what a nightmare.

Date of experience: December 14, 2023

SM
1 out of 5 stars

As scam as scam can be

Abolutely as scam as scam can be. I should have trusted the reviews on here. Will keep your deposit and continue to charge even after you have withdrawn in the cooling off period. Unhelpful and rude staff don't care when you contact them. I'm disappointed that TAFE would partner with them.

Date of experience: December 8, 2023

MB
5 out of 5 stars

Thorough coverage of content

Open Colleges provided a lot of learning information that was relevant to my course with additional links that gave me opportunities for further reading in my own time. The assessments were thorough and achievable, ensuring I was properly prepared for working in the industry. The best part was that I could work at my pace and at a time suitable for me.

Date of experience: November 17, 2023

RG
4 out of 5 stars

Graduated Cert III Horticulture

I was nervous when I enrolled after reading all the negative reviews 2 years ago. The education manager reached out for feedback on my experience, she helped me so much in the last few months of my course with stuff happening at hone. I started on the old platform and had to move across to the new one early this year. Everyone was so helpful, gave me free time and answered all my questions during the change. The new platform is a little more basic compared to the old one but I liked being able to put my answers into the system rather than a document. The trainer was always available for help to walk me through the projects when i reached out. There were a few hiccups along the way but that's to be expected. I'm thrilled to have graduated and appreciative all the support and encouragement received. I now have a job in a nursery.

Date of experience: November 14, 2023

J
3 out of 5 stars

Jessica Fang cert IV marketing communications

Hi I've emailed Rosalie pew with some more detailed feedback but generally I wanted to thank Catherine tumelty for her help and support as I've progressed through my cert IV marketing communications. She is so kind and friendly and helpful. Also thanks to Tanya Galey for incorporating some feedback I've had about the assessments. I do think the assessment questions could be written more clearly, it's often been hard to work out what the assessor wants. The course materials were very interesting and so many great external resources were provided. Thank you so much . Jess

Date of experience: November 9, 2023

rb
1 out of 5 stars

I've never felt so let down in my life.

I've never felt so let down in my life. I have been studying the Diploma in Counselling for the past 22 months, and have never had such a dismal experience with a course provider. I have a double degree from university, multiple certificates in Mental Health, and was excited by the flexible learning options offered by Open Colleges. In the last eight months, they have attempted to transition to Space X, a cheap app to cut costs, and the layout, support, and response overall has been shocking. Their online chat has never worked, and they have often only had one marker on this course, who is constantly swamped with work. I am being told that I will have to wait nearly two weeks for each assessment to be marked to be returned to me, which will lead me to need to extend. which I have to pay for. I lost my father at the beginning of the year, and although they have granted me a two month extension, due to their turn around time with marking, I still won't complete within the two year time period. I have also been requesting their work-placement documents for over six months, and still no response. I paid over $8 000 for this course, please DON'T make the same mistake as me - go to AIPC instead! Open Colleges, you should be ashamed of yourselves. If anyone is looking to start a class action, I am going to consumer affairs this week and happy to collaborate on a report.

Date of experience: October 24, 2023

DM
1 out of 5 stars

If i could give 0 stars i would

If i could give 0 stars i would. worst experience ever. no support. ive been asking for a refund for months due to a medical condition. ive submitted all the information they asked for. no reply in 6 weeks then got told they was a change in management and so it took longer but i should have a decision by the end for the day. That was now 2 weeks ago and i replied back 1 week ago. still nothing. what ever you do dont get sick or have an illness that will take a long time to recover like mine. I paid in full and now wish i hadnt.

Date of experience: October 21, 2023

M
1 out of 5 stars

Never again

Used to be mediocre, with an outdated online learning platform, slow marking times and somewhat responsive support staff. Then they switched to a new platform, now everything is horrendous. The platform doesn’t work properly, the communication board was removed and the marking times weeks or months. Student support seems to be overrun, as they will not reply to any emails and assessors frequently leave as they are overwhelmed. At the end it just seemed like the college didn’t want us to graduate. It took me 3.5 years to complete a 2 year course and not because I was tardy. There are always promises for improvement, but I have lost faith in this organisation. Never again!!

Date of experience: September 21, 2023

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