Private college not providing satisfactory training

Hollyharvey

I have a problem that crosses over education and consumer and am not sure how to proceed.

I have been doing an NVQ at a private college. I am funding this myself as a private student and there are three others funding themselves this way. The other learners are all apprentices on day release.

Since I have been there, there have been a number of problems with the quality of training and the way that the course is run in general.

I have to take time off from work to study this course and this causes problems for me, which the college are aware of, and the fact that because I still have to fit in a full weeks' work I can't afford to waste any time.

Today was the final straw. The tutor promised to help me learn how to do something new that I am struggling with and I set up my work station and equipment ready for her to come and show me what to do at 9.30am. I didn't expect her to come to me straight away as we have clients in and she would need to go around to all of the learners that had a client to make sure that they were ok, but I did expect her to come to me after that.

By 11.45 she still hadn't been over to help me, and was doing work on a client herself for a large part of the morning (the learner who was supposed to do the client was passing up to her). As it was getting near to lunchtime and the tutor was having her hair done in the afternoon (which would take about 2 hours) I knew that when we went back at 2.00pm she wouldn't be able to show me what to do until about 4.00pm and we finish at 4.00pm there really was no point in me staying there.

So I gathered up my things, told her assistant to tell that I had left, came home and phoned the manager of the department with my complaint. The manager just said that all she could do was apologise and assure me that she will make sure that I am shown how to do this next week.

However, to me this is a totally wasted day (not the first time). I spoke to someone else on the course when I got home and she isn't happy either and she phoned another local provider to see if we could change to their training centre, and if our City and Guilds work done so far would be counted towards the qualification. The outcome of this, is that we can change to the other training centre, but this would cost both of us a further £2,000.

Does anyone know if it is possible for us to claim this additional cost from out existing college as they are not providing training to an acceptable standard.

I know that in certain situations under consumer law, if a service provider does not provide an acceptable level of service you can go elsewhere and claim the extra costs but don't know if this applies to education provision.