Portobello Institute

Edg3

Hey all

Been a while since I posted on Boards but this begged for broadcasting.

Last year I applied to do a 2 part course in Portobello Institute as a GYM Instructor and PT (Personal Trainer). I was excited, being out of work for so long had me in the dumps and the idea of being able to get this course done in under a year and out and working really had me excited about getting in and dug in. I spent my entire savings on the course, 1960euro which I later found out did not cover any books or print outs which we'd have to provide ourselves. Tests were also not covered and since there were 2 individual tests I was looking at another 500euro+ due to having to pay in Sterling.

To save time I'm going to copy paste in the email I sent the college when I was appealing my refund. This outlines all the issues from day 1.

Main Issue : One tutor for two classes does not work, especially in an intense and compacted learning situation, and with focus placed on the further along group.

1) The course was badly run from day one. Our first day was spent in class with a more advanced group, covering stuff we'd never seen before, let alone could comprehend on day one.

2) Day 2 was a mess, left to our own devices in the GYM while the tutor focused attention on the more advanced class for 90% of the day, giving us "busy work" to fill in time. 20-30 minutes of work spread out over several hours. Then later in the day asked to help the other class create a circuit training for special population, without evening understanding the terms being used.

3) Second weekend was much the same, although we did get our Health and Safety covered the GYM day was another day of vague instruction while the tutor once again focused on the other class. Left for 4 hours without direction or help, then told at the end of it how we did it wrong, with zero instruction, direction or help.

4) Week 3 was much of the same, no instruction and other students did not show because of the lack of interest being shown by the tutor.

5) Week 4 tutor did not show up, never emailed back about assignments emailed in weeks before hand. I called the college to confirm if we even had college to be told the tutor was in the US and she could not confirm if his replacement would be in. I got a call back telling me he was in and when I showed up we were bundled in with the Personal Training class (I was in the GYM instructor class) learning PT level stuff. When I later spoke to the newer tutor he informed me I had to learn about brain chemistry, and this was something that had never even come up until this point, and is also not in any of our class notes, because as he said "Better safe then sorry" then walked off leaving me dumbfounded.

6) None of my assignments were ever checked over by the tutor, even though he said if I emailed them in I would get some feedback on what I could improve. I still have yet to hear back from him, this is 4 months later.

Now this is about 3 months on from when I first applied for a refund, the college gave me run around after run around and eventually today, on my second request for a refund offered me 500euro and to keep my credits so if I ever changed my mind I could go back.
I am meeting a solicitor this week to discuss where I stand as I do not believe the college has kept their end of the bargain and in no way has earned 1500euro for the course.

I was not the only one to have this issue but I don't want to go to much into other peoples details as I'm just giving my side of the story here.
In fairness, the tutors did try their best and when they were focused on us they did a fairly good job, but I also found another tutor to be very dismissive and offered little to no help one day when I came to him with an issue i was having, his basic response was "Suck it up and deal" then in the same breath told me I'd to learn something that wasn't even part of my course work.

Also we were told our notes would be uploaded weekly to the colleges website where we could access them for easy revision at home, last time I checked the site was still empty.

I do this only to try and help others who may be registering or considering it. I can't explain the frustration and annoyance I've been going through since last May.

bahktawra

Have you a centre in Sligo and if so do you do QQ I level 5 in childcare ?