I first signed up for the Level 5 People Management Diploma in 2022 after a number of calls with a sales advisor. I was told that I could take as long as I needed to complete the course but that my tutor support would only be in place for 18 months. This worked for me as with my full-time job's workload fluctuating a lot, I wasn't certain that I could commit the same amount of time to studying each week. The first assignment involves a 12 month CPD & PDP which, as I didn't work in HR, I didn't have at the time. They recommend you complete the first module as much as you can and then build your CPD & PDP while you continue working on the next modules. I started module 2 only to receive communication that the assessment criteria for module 1 was changing. This meant that some of the work I had already done, would no longer be valid - frustrating. The CIPD update the course regularly based on feedback and I later found out that these changes had been communicated to ICS learn before I started the course, they just chose to leave it until the last minute to tell anyone. Shortly after this, I experienced some family bereavements and experienced a very difficult time. Unable to concentrate on my studies and really struggling personally, I asked for an extension on my tutor support. The person who emailed me back offered to extend my support for 3 months - not great but at least something. Towards the end of last year, I found out that what I'd initially been told on the phone was untrue. Not only does my tutor support end at the end of my slightly extended time, all access to course materials will end too! Had I known this at the time, I'd never have started the course. I'm now in a new role, working long hours and struggling to fit in my studies. If I want to complete the course, I need to pay for each month that I require an extension. I'm back studying and there have already been multiple changes to the assessments (once I've already started working on them), the portal is about to go down while they do some upgrades and generally, the course content is of very poor quality; littered with spelling and grammar mistakes, sometimes to the point I can make no sense of what is being said. I'm learning far more on the job than I do through this course and wish I had never signed up. Over £2500 spent on a course that has caused me nothing but stress. read more

ICS Learn is an Adult Education provider specialising in courses from A-Levels to IGCSE, also with courses in marketing, recruitment, accounting and HR. I signed up with ICS for a course to further my career, by social media profile and being one of the few providers to have a Wikipedia page, ICS Learn appears to be one of the largest Distance Learning Providers by the number of users. ICS Learn was founded in 1889 and they state regularly around their website that they have over 100 years of experience, but at points it seems like their website is 100 years old, compared to other distance learning providers I've used in the past including OOL, Open Study College and Cloud Learn, ICS Learn has one of the worst online interfaces in my opinion, too access your course is slow and retires too many clicks, the website also appears really slow to load and it just becomes a rather frustrating, poor and unprofessional experience. The courses are average-priced, often on par with another Glasgow based provider, Cloud Learn. The payment plans, however, seem the most reasonable and don't appear to charge any more for paying in instalments, which other providers do - this sadly is one of the only plus points I can find about ICS Learn. The sign-up process over the phone took a little while longer than usual which made the situation worse when I actually got my product, to be fair to ICS it took slightly quicker to get the course interface loaded than with rival products, which is contradicted by the poor online interface which is the main product offered, and left me with no choice but to exercise my right to cancel - They do have a 14 day refund policy for all courses however. If you're looking for a cheap course and don't mind about the speed of accessing your course information and an overall old-fashioned experience than maybe ICS is an option you'd want to consider, but overall the experience makes it one of the poorer distance learning providers I have used as it did get to the point where I had to cancel almost straight away (luckily I managed to get a refund when other providers wouldn't have done this), the speed of the return policy (and having one in the first place) and pricing mean ICS isn't one to avoid for everyone, and deserves a slightly generous two-star rating. read more

ICS Learn - Logo - Adult Education Near Me - Glasgow, GLG

MISSING THE HELPFUL CHIP: ICS ONLINE I commenced my CIPD Level 7, Advanced Diploma in HR Management in March 2020, with ICS online. Having completed previous courses online, I had a benchmark of what I expected. This included, clear instruction online, clarity of what is required and when needed, engaging supportive tutors. My experience however is that ICS and some of their tutors are indeed missing the 'helpful' chip and their online support and information is often lacking important detail. Without boring, but to casually illustrate; my early 1-4 modules, were straightforward with 'transactional' tutors in place. To be perfectly honest, this was fine, as there was not a need for extra support at this time. The problems were highlighted with the modules that followed, with a lack of clear direction online and inconsistency in marking from two tutors in particular, with many requests for paper alterations leading me to ask myself " Why have I not seen this requirement within the training material?' It was often trial and error to get the papers right, with no clear or consistent guidance from anyone. This made the submission of work a lottery, wasting a lot of time and effort. Inconsistency in marking was indeed extremely troublesome, but my primary concern and complaint diving this 'post' was the lack of support from the tutor lead and the cantankerous nature of one tutor in particular, let's call him Robin, who for example throughout a month, refused to mark any of my 5 paper submissions, without clear direction or communication. This was not helpful, a waste of my time and honestly not what I would have expected from a tutor. He could not even be bothered to engage properly ; absolutely shocking. All he had to do was write a clear friendly communication, advising of what was needed, solving the problem within a few days, not 5 weeks! I have completed all the modules and only require to the take the examinations, but my experience through ICS has completely removed my interest to complete this course, which I am aware is ridiculous. It is extremely disappointing that ICS and a few of their tutors, do not understand the importance of relationships with students regarding online courses. If they did they would instead of creating barriers, having random standards of marking and the absence of clear supportive communication, have supportive engaging tutors. The message I wish to give to all individuals considering using ICS for HR studies, is consider other companies first, looking for supportive tutoring programmes. We can all read from a book, but relationships are vital to guide, provide motivation and help students succeed. read more

My father passed away when I was doing the course so I couldn't complete. At the time I had asked for an extension to be told I had to pay yet more money after spending £3400 or so on a course. I called today to see if I could gain access to it as I am I a better place to now complete it and was told I couldn't extend had to pay another £2000 to them. I find that totally disgusting service. read more