FDM Academy

Chris842

Hi. You may have seen my other thread. I just qualified as a secondary ICT teacher in June, have had 15 interviews and can't get a job. I forgot a lot of the programming skills I learnt on my undergrad degree so have been teaching myself them in the last few weeks and last week, began applying for some IT jobs.

This morning, I had a phone call being invited to an interview with FDM in a month's time. But when I typed "FDM Academy" into google (to research them), FDM Academy Scam came up on google's autocomplete. Has anyone had any experience of them?

They say they give you 16 weeks intensive training (free training, but unpaid, and they say you have to support yourself during this time), following by a 2 year placement as a java professional on 18k-20k a year. After googling FDM scam, I found out they write into the contract that if you leave during the two years, you have to pay for the training which is £20,000).

- Can they do this, and write this into the contract? Do many IT employers do this?

- Would I be able to continue claiming JSA during the training?

- (for anyone with experience of them): Are the work placements always good ones, or do they place some people in rubbish unrelated jobs where they are then stuck for two years? I heard this is true from my research on google. But looking at their website, they have won awards such as Best Business and Best Company to work for.

- If I do it, would I have no chance of getting a teaching job after 2 years, given that I'll have been out of teaching for a long time by then? (or would it help to land a teaching job - do schools prefer industry experience?).

I do still want to become a teacher. I figured I'd apply for IT jobs and stay if I like it. But if I dont, to continue applying for teaching jobs whilst in the IT job. I hate being unemployed!