“Good for Sydney and Melbourne, if you are in the regional areas, I will not recommend it to you.
Getting that support is very hard especially if you doing Workplace training and there is no qualified assessor, OPen College will turn their eyes away from you.
And boy it is not easy.”
“Cert II in Horticulture
I found it very difficult to progress through my course "at my own pace". Video assessment pieces were challenging, especially at first.
I was assured that I did not need a workplace placement to complete the course, but in fact, it would have made it so much more relevant and easier in the long run.
Modules were not unlocked at the start of the course and I was prevented from moving through while I waited on assessments to be completed (due to difficulties with videos), when I could have continued to progress.
Due to taking advantage of a discount I was talked into enrolling when I knew I would have no time to work on the materials, and in the end had to pay for extensions (partly because of the time wasted waiting for modules to be unlocked) and partly due to continued work and family commitments.
I also had some difficulty understanding one of the trainers when I reached out for clarification. It would have been easier to have one person to contact throughout the course, rather than have different people pick up questions on the discussion pages for each module's assessments.
Assessment items had limitations such as "one-page poster", "two-page leaflet", or "three minute video" when it was impossible to present all the information required within these restrictions. Almost every presentation assessment required explanation of WHS considerations, when we had previously completed a module about WHS, and this took up time when an understanding of new material could have been demonstrated.
I previously posted this review and was summarily condescended to in the response. As I was unable to respond I edited my review to add...
Thank you for taking the time to respond to my review, although it seems as though my opinions have been dismissed. I never expected not to work to gain my qualification, nor do I fail to understand assessment guidelines and why they are in place. My further study will not be completed through Open Colleges.
I have since completed two certificates (both Cert IV) with other RTOs and was much happier with them.”
Hello,
We want to thank you for your review, and for giving us some food for thought as we continue to improve upon the student experience.
We apologise for the challenges you faced while studying with us, but we thank you for bringing these issues to light. We can now use your feedback to review how we create assessments, as well as investigate the functionality of our courses and our platform.
While we investigate these issues, we do want to congratulate you on your graduation, and pushing through the challenges you faced while studying. Well done on persevering, you should be extremely proud of accomplishments. All the very best for your bright future.
Hello Brendan,
We thank you for taking the time to send us this feedback, as we are dedicated to improving the student experience.
We want you to know that since you studied with us, we updated our Learning Platform to the custom-designed Open Space X. OSX is much easier to navigate than Open Space and includes many new functionalities to ensure a smoother learning experience for our students. It also allows for better progression tracking.
We thank you again for your feedback, and we congratulate you on your graduation. Well done on remaining dedicated to your studies throughout your learning journey. We wish you all the best, as we continue to improve our student experience.
Hello,
We thank you for your feedback, which allows us to investigate our processes and look into areas of improvement.
At Open Colleges, we encourage our students to take control of their studies, and to study the way you want, when you want. But it isn’t meant to be a solo journey. Going forward, we will investigate this on your behalf, as it is not our will for our students to feel alone in their studies.
For now, we would like to congratulate you on your graduation! You have shown dedication, perseverance, and commitment to your studies, and we know you have a bright future ahead of you. Well done.
“Outdated learning material, sometimes with little relevance to Australia (UK centric). Almost impossible to get airtime or guidance from tutors. Exam grading takes forever. Overall experience was not great, would not recommend Open Colleges with so many others to choose from.”
Hello Roger,
We want to thank you for your feedback, as every piece we receive is so valuable in helping us improve the student experience.
At Open Colleges, we provide nationally recognised courses, which are part of the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF). Courses are subject to review and audited by the Australian Skills Quality Authority. Your course (Diploma of Human Resources Management) has been updated since you studied with us and and brand-new content has been created to meet the new industry requirements as prescribed by the AQF.
In regard to assessment grading time, we have passed this on internally, and our priority now is to improve in this area.
We will continue to improve based off student feedback like yours, but for now, we want to congratulate you on your graduation. Congratulations on all your hard work and effort. You should be very proud of your amazing achievement. We certainly are.
Hello Mandy,
We’re sorry to hear that you didn’t have a good learning experience with us. We want you to know that since you graduated, we have addressed feedback from our students, and are working hard to improve the student experience.
Congratulations on finishing your course. We wish you all the very best for your future.
“No support from the head of the course. Meetings were booked in AEST however whenever she called in regards to assistance I had booked would call her time which is 30mins later.
Wouldn't discuss why my answer was wrong just to redo the module. Wouldn't even help narrow down where in the module. This particular answer I was on my 3rd attempt at getting it right. I'd spoken to another trainer who had actually tried to help but her information was even more wrong than my first attempt.
Half of the links were broken and comments from other students showed this was an issue for at least 12months. I believe that if you aren't told about something it can't be fixed. As it appeared that no one was checking the comments other than students, I would email in advising of the broken links, hoping to improve the course for those to come. One particular section of a module was all links and not one of them worked. When I emailed the lead trainer to ask for assistance in links to learn the correct information I was told to just do my own Google search. I'm paying to complete this course. I shouldn't have to Google for the missing content myself. If it was part of an assignment then yes, but not as part of the reading/learning to do with the course.
Didn't feel supported by lead trainer and in audio feedback actually commented (however don't believe she realised the recording was still on) that I was a complainer and had just slapped the assignment together.
I did my course during COVID lockdowns in Melbourne. Since then I've been diagnosed with Anxiety. This course triggered my anxiety. Especially if I had to speak with the lead trainer or knowing that she would be assessing my assignments. To be able to complete my last 6 assignments I had to have a friend/mentor or my husband sitting with me so I could complete them.
Would not recommend open colleges or this course to anyone. Have colleagues currently completing the same course and actually told them to go through anyone else.”
Hello Pauline,
Thank you for the detailed and specific feedback, which allows us to investigate our processes and look into areas of improvement.
At Open Colleges, we provide nationally recognised courses, which are part of the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF). Courses are subject to review and audited by the Australian Skills Quality Authority. The course you studied is now superseded, and brand-new content is currently being created to meet the new industry requirements.
Broken links are extremely frustrating, we understand. We do use tech tools to sweep for them, but unfortunately, it doesn’t pick them all up. We are currently reviewing internally how we can improve upon this function.
In regard to staffing, we are so sorry to hear about your negative experiences caused by your trainer. We will take this feedback to education on the communication style of our trainers.
We want to end by congratulating you on your graduation. Well done on remaining dedicated to your studies throughout your learning journey. We wish you all the best, as we continue to improve our student experience.
“Please Avoid, hopefully my bad bad experience will save you that would be the only positive from this. They will say you will have all the support you need, everything is fine, until they have your money or sign up, because that was the sales team, who now wipe their hands of you and throw you into the fire which is Open Colleges aka ICM Training. A horror from Go to Woe even the Certificate was unattractive.
Don't sign up or if stuck with them please consult Training Advocates Hotline 133873.”
Hello,
Thank you for your feedback. We understand that we cannot improve the student experience unless we’re aware of the issues that our students are facing.
Due to the pandemic, we acknowledge that we experienced staffing issues that caused us many challenges, especially in our Health courses. This was an unprecedented time with all the new restrictions, and we know we fell short in providing you with the support you needed. We apologise for this, and we have worked hard to improve the student experience with more support available when our students need it. But feedback like yours is valuable, as it gives us an insight into the areas we fall short.
We do wish to say that we are proud of you for pushing through and showing tremendous commitment and dedication to your studies. Congratulations on graduating and persevering. All the very best for your future.
“If I could give 0 Stars, I would
Can`t recommend them at all
Learning material nor up to date
not enough staff to look after the students
everything takes to long”
Hello Dajana,
Thank you for your feedback, as it helps us address problems we may not have been aware of.
We acknowledge that your course had staffing issues and we apologise sincerely for that. We want you to know that we addressed this by discontinuing the steam you graduated in – physiotherapy. We want to make sure that our students are well taken care of, and we are always looking for ways to improve the student experience.
Lastly, we wish to congratulate you. Well done on your graduation! We wish you all the very best for your future.
“Had the worst experience with open colleges and their trainers/ assessors. No communication, weeks to get replies. 3 months to mark an assignment that I had to end up calling to ask about and them to actually do anything. Got told halfway through my practical assessment there was no one to assess me and I’d have to go back when they were able to have someone assess me. Trainer laughed at me on the phone because being in Western Australia in lockdown and borders closed was funny to them. No support and I have made sure to tell every person looking at study to look anywhere other than open colleges. Would never recommend open colleges to anyone.
Just for some insight, my practical assessment hours were done in January 2022, and I got assessed and signed off in May 2022. 4 months between the too. I was so very lucky that a workplace took me on knowing it wasn’t my fault I wasn’t signed off.”
Hello Jenna,
We are sincerely sorry for your negative experience with us. We acknowledge that your course faced major marking delays due to staffing issues and student volume. This coupled with the unexpected restrictions of the pandemic made everything very challenging. We also believe that many qualified workers went back to work during covid, due to the unprecedented demand, and this created even less opportunities for students.
We have raised this internally and are working on resolutions. This includes potentially overhauling our assessment processes and addressing staffing issues, which will take time to improve upon, but we remain committed to improving the student experience.
For now, we congratulate you on your graduation. Well done! We thank you for remaining with us and staying dedicated and driven. You should be very proud, and we do wish you all the best for your future.
“Would not recommend. The assessor didn’t read the whole assessment when marking, and even when I requested written feedback many times, I would be given audio feedback. The questions weren’t written clearly and this made it difficult to answer correctly. Communication was sparse and I usually had to wait 5-7 days for any reply. Would never go through open colleges again.”
Hello Nicola,
Thank you for your valued feedback as it helps us continuously improve the student experience.
We want you to know that we have changed the way we provide feedback – we give written feedback only now, and not audio.
We have passed along your feedback about response times, and we will work hard to improve in this area. We know that communication is key, and we are committed to improving our response time.
Lastly, we would like to congratulate you on graduating. This is a huge accomplishment, and you remained committed and dedicated throughout your studies. Well done!
“Course work was outdated, riddled with errors and accessing support took ridiculous amounts of time.
It is hard to attain reputable placement due to poor industry reputation and scheduling of meetings with tutors during placement is often impossible.
Did I get a role in the industry? Sure.
Would I study through OC again? No.
Would I recommend anybody study through OC? No.”
Hello Egan,
Firstly, thank you for your feedback, as each piece we receive helps us better improve the student experience.
At Open Colleges, we provide nationally recognised courses, which are part of the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF). Courses are subject to review and audited by the Australian Skills Quality Authority. The course you studies is now superseded, and brand-new content is currently being created to meet the new industry requirements.
We appreciate the specific feedback around the difficulties of accessing support and the scheduling of meetings of tutors during placement – this is valuable feedback, which we will be passing on.
We want to end by congratulating you on your graduation. Well done on remaining dedicated to your studies throughout your learning journey. We wish you all the best, as we continue to improve our student experience.
Thank you.
“I had very little quality support all the way through. I’d develop a good relationship with a trainer and then they’d disappear and no one would know where they’d gone. So then I had to start the process again…this occurred twice.
🤯😡
My last trainer/assessor (Michelle) was quality.
She was open with her communication and got the job done. Sadly it took until the very end of my course for me to experience that…”
Hello Christopher,
We want to thank you for your feedback, as every piece we receive helps us improve the student experience. We’re aware that your Allied Health course had some challenging staffing issues. We are working on ways to ensure we can provide students with quality trainer support that is both timely and sustainable. And for now, we have addressed this internally by choosing to discontinue the physiotherapy stream.
We are very glad to hear about your positive experience with your Trainer, Melissa. We’re sure she will be thrilled to hear that she provided you with the support you needed.
Lastly, we would like to congratulate you on your graduation. You overcame many challenges, and you should be very proud of your achievements, and of yourself.
Thank you again for your feedback. All the very best for your future.
“I completely regret my decision to study with Open Colleges! The new platform is terrible, no support whatsoever ! complaints have been raised by 100+ students from various course and nothing has been done to resolve any issues properly. The complaints department is a complete joke! I personally sent a complaint through after not being able to contact OC for months, with no explanation, no sorry for the inconvenience, nothing! So completely unprofessional.
OC, have a complaints form and a complaints appeal form, which in my opinion is pointless. No such thing as a complaints department as is only 1 person who reviewed and signed both my forms. They should have an appeals team separate.
DO NOT!! I REPEAT DO NOT sign up with open colleges”
Hello,
Thank you for bringing these issues to light. We value feedback, whether it is negative or positive, as they help us implement new processes to better improve the student experience.
In regard to the feedback on the complaints policy, we have passed this onto our management team, and our goal now is to improve in this area to make it a better process for our students. We know that communication is paramount, and we are working on improving our processes based off student feedback like yours.
We are happy to say that we have been working hard to improve upon the issues with our new platform. We are constantly improving it for a better and smoother student experience, and the content is being fixed.
While we continue to improve, we do want to congratulate you on your graduation. You have managed to overcome and remained dedicated and committed to your studies throughout. You should be very proud of yourself!
“Terrible support, won’t help with work placement which was near impossible to find and they make you jump though hoops to pass assignments for petty things and then charge to resubmit assignments. Don’t study with Open Colleges…”
Hello Gary,
Firstly, we do want to thank you for speaking up about the challenges you faced whilst studying with us. We know that we cannot improve the student experience unless we’re aware of the issues that our students are facing.
While it is the responsibility of our students to find an organisation to complete work placement, we’re aware that it can be very difficult. We do offer some support if you have trouble after trying a certain amount of places. But we know that placement in the health services was extremely difficult in the pandemic due to the unprecedented restrictions.
We are looking at more effective ways to support students in the search for their work placement in this post pandemic world, and it’s something that we are continuing to improve upon going forward.
We do want to congratulate you on your graduation. The health services industry is so essential, and we know you will make an impact there. We wish you all the best with your bright future.
“Terrible terrible experience!! If you wanna lose weight from stress and see how much stress you can possibly cope with and cry all the time then sure, yeah go for open colleges. Have fun. Im so grateful that I can do what I love in spite of the lack of “support” or help from open colleges. But I tell everyone I know not to go with open colleges. Such a nightmare. Seriously.”
Hello Lindsay,
Firstly, we do want to thank you for speaking up about the challenges you faced whilst studying with us. We know that we cannot learn from our mistakes unless we’re aware of the issues that our students are facing.
We want you to know that we are currently addressing student support by implementing a whole new orientation process to help improve the student experience.
We will continue to improve based off student feedback, but for now, we want to congratulate you on your graduation. Congratulations on all your hard work and effort. You should be very proud of your amazing achievement. We certainly are.
We thank you again for your feedback, and we wish you all the best for your bright future.
