Liffey College Fiasco

Paddytheman

I purchased an online deal to complete a "Train the Trainer" course through Liffey College, I have completed such FETAC courses previously but have never dealt with such an amateurishly run college.

After the first day it was apparent that our lecturer didn't fully understand the coursework or more importantly the exam brief, which was mailed to us shortly before midnight on the Saturday to discuss on the Sunday!?

It was very difficult to remain focussed as the lecturer kept rambling on about life experiences and losing his train of thought. His response to one question regarding dealing with trouble students was "tell them to shut up", in a professional environment, really? At lunchtime the first day several of us ate together and were all of the same opinion that he lacked structure, knowledge and the ability to keep us interested. In the afternoon he contradicted some answers he had given in the morning and half answered more questions.

On day two it got worse, by break time we had lost the will to return, only that we had to give a presentation to sharpen our public speaking skills which was being recorded toward our final mark. It was after this class that several other students called me outside to ask whether I could answer questions they had raised in class. This was the first time I had spoken to these students and their opinions reflected those of my "lunch buddies". So with everyone in the same boat the consensus was that we were all intelligent enough to complete the course ourselves and gain the qualification, but this wasn't what we were there for, we were there to be taught. My "lunch buddies" however were working in the field for some time and merely required the certificate so were going to bite the bullet.

I thought about it for a day and eventually contacted the college directly to raise my concerns and was told the head of department was off for a few days. Basically after many calls and mostly unanswered e-mails I contacted Groupon who investigated themselves. As of last week, 4 months after I initiated my complaint to the college Groupon fully refunded me for the course, the reason given being that Liffey College simply refused to respond to their investigation, they had hit the stone wall I had.

I am unsure how much negative feedback the college received as many people just wanted the certification, other than than that all feedback forms were distributed and collected by the lecturer himself. From my experience it is normal practice for a third party to collect feedback thus ensuring student can respond honestly.

The colleges refusal to respond to me was extremely disappointing but to ignore their business partner also shows how many levels they have issues on.