Pitman course

Galwaygirl85

Hi I am thinking of doing a admin pitman course here in galway on the tuam road and I am wondering is there any women who done it and what did they think of it?

Is it worth doing for €2500

biko

What course exactly? Link?
Is work telling you to do the course or are you paying for it yourself?

I've no experience with them but must say 2500 sounds pricey.
Do you know for sure this training is in demand by employers?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056352289
http://www.boards.ie/search/submit/?query=pitman

Galwaygirl85

biko wrote: »

What course exactly? Link?
Is work telling you to do the course or are you paying for it yourself?

I've no experience with them but must say 2500 sounds pricey.

Thanks for the reply. I only have Qualifications in beauty. I want a change of career. Thinking the diploma course in "Admin assistant"

No one is telling me to do this, I researched and alot of places do know pitman training and to be highly trained and certified. Its recognized.
I know you can pay €2500 in installments for 6 months

I wanna keep my full time job and do this course in the evenings which seems to be the only one in galway as far as I can see. Rest are september to may full time

Wondering has any one done any courses at all with pitman training here in Galwat city, Id appreciate any info and kindness

misstearheus

Check the FÁS/INTREO/SOLAS/GRETB Website, whatever they currently fancy themselves as and you won't have to pay for the Course.

Galwaygirl85

misstearheus wrote: »

Check the FÁS/INTREO/SOLAS/GRETB Website, whatever they currently fancy themselves as and you won't have to pay for the Course.

Thank you I will. Can I do any of these that you mentioned if I am working full time in a job. Dont you have to be on social welfare for all of these??

misstearheus

Ah I jumped the gun there. If working Fulltime, as far as I know, you potentially do have to pay for the Course yes.

Mrs OBumble

OP, sadly there is very little support for low-paid workers who want to re-train for a better career, but who cannot afford to stop working to do so.

Your options are basically to apply for a 3rd level college and study full time (with a grant if you are eligilbe), or to pay for training yourself, or to lose your job and be unemployed for long enough until Welfare pay for the course for you (by making you eligible for a RETB course - used to be called FAS courses, same trainers, new name).

You could so something similar to the Pitman course thru the RETB by combining various courses from their evening programme, eg:
- Computer Basics
- Information Technology Skills
- Preparation for ECDL
- Customer Servcie
but I don't think that would give you as good a background as a Pitman diploma overall.

Is there any chance to do the diploma one module at a time? So you'd only be committing to one course at a time costing a few hundreds, rather than the whole thing?

Pitman overall have a good reputation for their courses. I don't know specifically about good/bad points about the Galway centre, though.

misstearheus

FÁS do do Evening Courses for anyone interested that aren't break-the-bank expensive. I think anyone can do these. The list of Courses is usually advertised in the local Papers at the start of a new Season.

wandererz

OP, i think that Pitman was well recognised many years ago.
HR personnel these days may not even know who Pitman is/was.

When i hear Pitman now i just think "typing".

€2500 for an "Admin assistant" diploma in my opinion is a lot.
For example, one could spend that on a specialist IT course that would then potentially land a 40K/50K+ job - assuming one had IT skills and experience to begin with.

If it was a Personal Assistant/Personal Secretary type course that could over time lead to a high paying job, then my advice would be to do it. The PA's for well payed individuals earn a decent income as well.

Perhaps even look at diploma courses at your local college, university, institute of technology etc. that you could do part time and would be well recognised.

Also look at it this way: if you were on the higher tax rate, in order to fund a €2500 course you would have had to have earned at least €5200 before tax just to pay for it (excluding other monthly expenses). And one course isn't enough, one needs to do few to keep one differentiated.

So, ask yourself: is it worth the pre-tax figure of €5200?

How many months do you have to work to cover this amount? AFTER your everyday expenses.

The other things to consider are this:
Currently you are in a very social environment. As an admin assistant, my impression is of a quieter more sober, possibly more dreary environment.
Not all offices are open planned and buzzing spaces. You could land a job in a sulky old solicitors office because that's what was available at the time. How would you cope with that?

My point is to choose carefully. No use in doing something that takes 12 months to pay off @ €200 and then you're only earning €200 extra anyway after tax etc. (IF you get the job). And you've just wasted 12months or so of your life.

And to be honest, i am one of those who has studied my guts off, payed a shedload of money to educate myself across multiple courses etc. and am earning a decent salary now, only to be targeted as a "high earner" who needs to be punished by the tax man. There's absolutely zero consideration given to the amount of money that you've spent on education or the loans or sacrifices that need to be made for that, nor how much one has to pay off still.

So, if you're paying for it: Make it count.

Do your research, ensure that what you decide to do is something that recruiters, talent agencies or employers are in search of. And ensure that it will be worthwhile in the end.

J.pilkington

misstearheus wrote: »

Check the FÁS/INTREO/SOLAS/GRETB Website, whatever they currently fancy themselves as and you won't have to pay for the Course.

As Mrs o'b said it definitely does not work as you have advised. FAS is not a free retraining facility for those already in employment

Avatar MIA

What kind of jobs are you looking for?

The Secretary role is rare enough now, apart from maybe medical/doctor Secretary or maybe PA. Both of which will require particular experience.

As said above, the Pitman course no longer has the same cache and is expensive.

Apart from touch typing what else is it covering?

Mrs OBumble

wandererz wrote: »

Perhaps even look at diploma courses at your local college, university, institute of technology etc. that you could do part time and would be well recognised.

Can you suggest any suitable courses for this? I had a look yesterday at GMIT and GTI offerings, and none of them really seemed suitable: GMIT in particular as so busy trying to be a university (three year full time degrees) that they don't seem to offer shorter specific vocational courses any more.

Even the RETB (ex FAS) evening courses are very focussed on computer skils, rather than the softer or broader administrative skills (reception, time management, diary management, intro to accounts / HR / marketing, using office equipment, communications etc).


NB The OP is almost certainly not on the higher tax-bracket! Don't use this is assessing the cost to her.

Avatar MIA

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

NB The OP is almost certainly not on the higher tax-bracket! Don't use this is assessing the cost to her.

I think that's called projecting :pac:

GalwayGrrrrrl

Have you checked Galway Technical Institute? They do evening courses in a variety of subjects. My gut feeling is not to do the Pitman course. You would need computer skills for admin jobs- how good are you on a computer already? Can you use Microsoft word/excel/PowerPoint/access? Can you use email like Outlook? If you are weak in one of those areas do a short course. A lot of admin jobs are "who you know" rather than "what you know" so try to get your foot in the door of whatever companies you are interested in. Good luck.

Butterface

My ex started a course with Pitman around 8 years ago, something similar to the admin course.

After starting the course she realised it was very basic. The first few weeks she was given a large ECDL manual and told to go through it by herself.. something she could have done at home in her own time on her laptop, but the rules were that you had to attend and do it at their office. She was working full-time and she just felt she wasn't learning anything she didn't already know. To be honest I remember thinking she was talked into it after going to an appointment out at their office, told she'd be guaranteed to a land a job etc

She quit after a month or so, and as she had paid the deposit and first installment, they made sure she paid for the rest of the fees. She was hounded for months to pay it all off.

I'd be super wary of paying that much for this course OP, unless they include a placement and there's a chance of a job at the end!
My Msc was less than 4,000, (although it was subsidised by the ESF!), but I was at least in a very good position to gain employment at the end of it!

Mayo Miss

I did a full time course there a few years ago. Be very picky about which course you do. I did a tutor/classroom course and I found it useful. But the more expensive course students were just sitting at a computer with headphones doing their own thing. There was a big sell sell sell attitude among the staff and they would promise the moon to get you to sign up.