Anyone used The Knowledge Academy?

Money_Saving_Mattie

sparklings wrote: »

I work for a PRINCE2 training organisation (i wont mention which company as its not about marketing it) and we have been training P2 for 15 years. We are old school, train people with good quality materials, small class sizes, interactive learning so that our delegates not only achieve the qualificiation, but will also be able to implement it in the work place.
The Knowledge academy are what most other PRINCE2 training companies class as an exam factory. We (and every other good training company) will only train up to 12 people in a class for this subject. The Knowledge academy have been known to train up to 35 people in a class, which dilutes the learning.
We have had a lot of their delegates who have failed the exam re-taking the training with us. One guy said he didnt have a desk and couldnt see the slides as there too many people in the class. They offer training at 1/2 the price, because they have double the amount of people. Their call centres are in India and they do everything they can to drop the price of courses to get more bookings regardless of pass rates and quality, which in turn affects the delegate.
One freelance trainer i spoke to who does occasional work for them said 1/2 the class failed the exam as there were just too many people on the course. They lecture, which isnt training. The accreditation board (APMG) really should address this. £500 for a P2 course is cheap, but still a lot of money if you dont pass the exam!! Do your research. Pass rates, class sizes, do they just lecture or offer interactive helpful learning? Do you just want to know how to get through the exam (which doesnt always happen with TKA) or do you want to LEARN the subject?
In regards to the above post, QA have a better reputation than Knowledge academy. Its interesting that Dean77 (a newbie with one post) suggests Knowledge Academy over QA .... the founder of Knowledge academy used to be a director for QA and left under bad terms.... and the knowledge academy are known for writing their own reviews and commenting as a delegate! Be wary!

Is there an easy way of checking class sizes? They don't seem to be published at all on the websites of the training companies.
I'm recently redundant and looking to take a Prince 2 course just to get me to interview stage, hence I want a decent pass rate and some learning from a course. Anyone have any experience of Firebrand or The Knowlege Train as both are offering reduced prices but have very different approaches to training.
Many thanks for all guidance - I want to invest wisely!

saintjammyswine

If you have been made redundant then contact your local FE College who may have some ESF Skills Support for Redundancy funding and Prince2 is often on the list of courses that can be funded this way, I know we do. If your local College dont have the funding then contact JCP who should know who has the funding locally.

Guni40

Sparkling I like your sense of humor as no surprise you work for QA. I have just been on the apmg successfull candidates register and seen that The knowledge Academy has more delegates passing Prince2 exams than any other provider globally. Also I have received an email from them confirming that they have never run a class with 35 delegates. I have had 3 other colleagues who have attended the course with them and all have passed first time. Open forums is not a place to throw dirt on competition as legally you could find your self in serious trouble. I have just booked my Prince2 training course with the knowledge academy and also just booked a msp training course with the knowledge academy.

F.Joy

I have recently completed the 5 day Prince2 foundation/practitioner course with The Knowledge Academy. As a Training Manager, I must agree with a previous blogger who mentioned the classroom sizes were far too large (approx 25 people). The 'training' approach is purely to run through the text book and swiftly highlight what may be in the exams. There is no actual training going on in terms of assessing your understanding. Even the pre-course work (which they say you should commit 5 to 15 hours to) which had to be completed prior to the start of the week long course was never asked for or checked by the facilitator. The facilitator actually mentioned that they don't tend to check the pre course work. Another blogger mentioned that The Knowledge Academy are a "exam factory", and from my experience I would agree.

Do yourself a favour and ask your potential training provider how they 'train' their attendees before you make any decisions. As a Training Manager, I should know better.

Msn77

Hello,
Just completed a Prince 2 course with the Knowledge Academy, outside of london, near Oxford and I highly recommend them. There were 10 in the class and the trainer was experienced and outstanding in helping with exam techniques. I passed the foundation exam on day 3 and await the practitioner results.
Having read some of the comments on here, I think many people are missing the point. The idea that you can go on a Prince 2 in one week and be "trained" is ludicrous. Project management experience is practical on the job. Doing an intensive course will give you paper accreditations- essential requirement for some jobs - but then you need practical experience. The Knowledge Academy excel in helping you pass the exams.
It is all good and well , paying a lot of money with the deluded expectation that
you can be "Trained" in one week, but if you do not get
accreditated you are back to square one! Many jobs will not interview you without
being a certified Prince 2 Practitioner. You can gain experience after at a
lower level, project co oridnator/admin etc, learn on the job, if PM is new to you.
I was so impressed with The Knowledge Academy, I will probably use them again for other courses. The trainer had an above average pass rate 85%. Excellent Trainer. Plus, everyone in group passed the Foundation exam. They do not treat you like school
kids, ie hand in pre course work etc, even the extra study throughout the week is
at your own choice. However, if you are not prepared to work hard, read, practice
questions etc on the course and for exams -then do not bother to waste your
time. The course requires work to pass and a good standard of English because
the wording of exam questions can trip you up if not prepared....plus good exam technique because in the practitioner you MUST manage your time (allocate 15mins approx to answer each of the 9x practitioner questions) I nearly ran out of time myself.....good luck to all. I am delighted with the results so far and
money spent at The Knowledge Academy. To those, who say Newbies do not know what they are talking about, well I am successful/well educated etc and you should always pick a training provider who can help you with exam technique
(likely type of questions, timing issues etc) because if you have all knowledge and
a poor exam technique (eg you run out of time, mis -read question (easy to do)
don't answer all the questions etc) then you will probably fail the exams. Maybe I
was fortunate with an excellent Trainer. Good luck to all......

Msn77

Just to respond to Sparklings comment - this Forum is not the place to rubbish training providers (your competition). I had considered for a long time where to study Prince 2 and in these cash strapped times, people just want honest feedback etc about where to study etc...My comments are totally impartial, unbiased etc and until I booked the course with The Knowledge Academy, I had not even heard of them! In fact, I had booked the course at my college but they pulled out because there not enough people, so I booked The Knowledge Academy, last minute and without reading any reviews. Had I read some of the above, I may not have booked. As stated above, I have just successfully passed Prince 2 Foundation (all the group passed) and I optimistically await Practitioner results. I should also add that I do not work in Project Management, it is all new to me - and my reason for studying Prince 2 is career change - to widen my job opportunities. I have found many Employers want Prince 2 and hope this helps me long term in my career advancement.

PeterNorton

Ha ha hah..I had a good laugh about this thread and the replies...And I joined this forum today just to share what I feel about the posts in this forum....My observation is that - guys from the knowledge academy and qa are just fighting with each other and trying to market their training course..Look at their profiles -

Msn77: Joined on 26-05-2012 and replied to this thread for knowledge academy and died :-) No more posts after that..You are from knowledge academy my friend..
F.Joy: Joined on 15-05-2012 and replied on this thread on behalf of QA and died..again just one post to market qa courses..
Guni40: From knowledge academy..joined on 11th May, replied and died...
Sparkling: From qa..joined on 26th April, replied and went away..
Dean77: From Knowledge Academy..joined to reply on this thread and then went away...

Apparently Msn77, Guni40, Dean77 are from knowledge academy (what's the number after your name? Some kind of code :-) I am sure all these ids were created by one person from knowledge academy)

and ofcourse Sparkling and F.Joy are from qa...

hahahah! Well I am never gonna join any of your courses...never..ever..and I am sure others will not as well...

:-) :-) :-)

topstar123

I would stay away from this company, despite the price looking cheap(ish) the class size is HUGE, i think we had 35 in ours and it was classed as a small one. The guy teaching us was "ok" but nothing special, glossing over most the information as long as someone in the room gave the right answer.

The location was change 4 times prior to the training week.
The room was far to small for the size of the group.
No lunch was provided despite the large cost.

The certificate never showed up and on contacting them they say it has been lost in the post and I have to pay for a new one to be sent.

They are very rude on the phone and via email


AVOID THIS COMPANY!!!!

Pay more and use a proper training provider.

hosk

Looks like TheKnowldgeCentre has some good people working on raising it's web profile but I am still unsure about them and ProjStudy as they both seem so ridiculously cheap compared to other companies. (For the record I am an independent IT contractor, so I have no axe to grand - just looking to save money as I have to get this qualification otherwise it's very difficult to get past agents who are filtering Project Manager CVs for P2). I have used QA for a couple of courses (ITIL and ISEB). They are very good, professional, small classes good course books, gear, etc, and I was going to use them again for P2 but they are quoting £1550 + VAT. That's over twice as much as Projstudy. I think I'll take a leap of faith and go for ProjStudy and report back on the 13th August. I just wish somebody else had done this before me. Watch this space.
H

honestsammy

I read these posts and it put me off knowledge academy but it was the nearest course for the iseb business analysis course so i bit the bullet and booked on friday for the course starting today. Well first day was good! Not sure if it was due to low expectations. Course was in jurys inn hotel in southampton, room was small but big enough for the 5 delegates plus trainer. He said his course sizes dont get much bigger, and room cud only take 3 more comfortably. Course is intense and much is designed to pass the exam but to be honest i preferred that as it kept me focused on the goal. Trainer is experienced and knowledgable and cant fault anything at the moment.

I'd imagine prince courses would be bigger particularly in london due to demand, but can only comment on my own course.

Btw i work for a local software company and have no affiliation to the trainer!! In fact i self financed the course so possibly more critical than others.