Anyone know anything about Home Learning Direct? (or Learning Library)

perthperson

Hi, Home Learning Direct signed up a young girl, on benefits, for a correspondence course on tourism. Cost is over £900 with 22 monthly payments by Direct Debit of £43. It was done about a month ago so too late for the cooling off period I think. The agreement for the course is on paper headed with "Stow College" (a genuine College in Glasgow) The credit agreement is with their finance arm - Equus (sp?) My colleague phoned Stow and they do work with Home Learning Direct on some subjects such as computer studies but not tourism, as (I think) that's not a subject they cover at that college (I think that's the story). Anyway, the bottom line is there is no way she can afford it.
I have googled (it didn't hurt) and found a debt forum with several people with a similar problem with HLD or The Learning Library which appears to have been its previous incarnation and seems to have had many complaints. The thing that struck me was that some of these people were also on benefits. Doesn't seem right to me and if there's not a law against it there probably should be.
My colleague is contacting trading standards and the CAB but I thought I'd ask if anyone here had any info.

Justicia

I have no experience with this particular group but from what you have typed in your post above and knowledge of similar companies, it sure doesn't sound good to me either...

Hermia

Correspondence courses can be very dodgy indeed. There are only a few companies which would be respected by a potential employer. They are not listed on http://www.learndirect.co.uk/. It's a good idea to search for courses (inc. distance learning) via learndirect.

sconhead

hello perthperson im sorry to hear about the problems the young girl is having but she would have been advised by the course adviser how much she was going to pay.I know of home learning direct as my brother works for them as a course advisor.The company has been around for over 16 years and they do not cold call people.They only visit people who have filled in a leaflet or phoned etc requesting more information.They do have links with a few colleges and promise to find you a job through an employment agency whaen you have passed your course

http://www.homelearningdirect.co.uk/index.htm

perthperson

But we're talking about a young girl on benefits who can't possibly afford the repayments - don't they do any checks on that?