Good value Prince2 course

BigAunty

Looking at online self study options as its a refresher course for me - mine lapsed years ago so I am de-registered.

So far, the best price I've found is £199 for the foundation course including the exam on a Groupon offer. A foundation course will be fine enough though Practitioner, for not too much cost on top, would be nice.

Google has ads from providers offering special prices on Foundation & Practitioner courses for £98 (these must exclude the exam fees which can be very dear) but when I enquire, I get back prices of £500 plus.

Tuition for both elements for around £100 excluding the exam fee would be bearable if the exam fees on top aren't too wild a price.

BigAunty

Ok, quick update, just in case anyone uncovers this thread in the future.

I didn't find anything cheaper than £199 for the Prince2 Foundation online tuition course & online exam fee - there are a couple of Groupon offers on at the moment by large established training companies.

This compares with many providers chargings £400 upwards for online Foundation with exam courses, and £500 upwards for classroom based ones.

There seems to be a few US or EU training companies that offer the exams for the Practitioner qualification for around £210-300 which exclude tuition material.

There seems to be plenty of free teaching and exam practice resources online, plus cheap exam preparation books on Amazon for those with the skills to self study.

So it is possible for the self-study motivated to gain Prince 2 Foundation and Practitioner online for under £500, compared with having to shell out up to £800 for online or £1000 for class room based equivalents.

molly12345

Hi, I was just wondering if you signed up for the Groupon offer in the end? If so, how has it been?

lincroft1710

molly12345 wrote: »

Hi, I was just wondering if you signed up for the Groupon offer in the end? If so, how has it been?

You may not get an answer as it seems BigAunty hasn't posted anything for a year.

jobbingmusician

I managed eventually to negotiate (and think I could have done slightly better - read on).

I got the Foundation and Practitioner courses, online, with exams and manual, for £580. Looking back I think I could have negotiated them down to £500 and bought the manual 2nd hand (check carefully for correct edn etc.) This was with West London College.

I also think there was a slightly cheaper option through The Knowledge Academy, but their salesman told me such a lot of 'implausible things' to put it tactfully that I was put right off them.

(I spoke to the eventual provider on the phone and they negotiated me a 'special price', so it is worth approaching this like you would a mobile phone renewal )

Now all I have to do is to study the wretched thing! HO hum......

BenCheung

I took the PRINCE2 Practitioner online exam with Knowledge Academy last month. They told me by email I will be able to use the pdf version of the book during the exam, but the invigilator said there is no such arrangement and I had to use the physical copy of the book instead even though I did not prepare for it. The online system was extremely unresponsive, it took several seconds for each questions to load. For an exam at that level, that is a lot. Also, questions from the real exam were very different from the practice questions and mock exams provided by Knowledge Academy, both in format and in the knowledge depth required. After the exam I raised these issues to them and demanded a free re-sit. It's been over 2 weeks and they still haven't got back to me. My advice is if you want to sit the exam, go somewhere else.

BenCheung

This article on The Mirror also reflects how Knowledge Academy operates, I wish I had read it before I paid.

---

Something odd is going on at The Knowledge Academy, a company aspiring to be “the Amazon of the training world”.

Their website claims to sell up to 40,000 project management, business skills and IT courses “in over 230 countries” - even though there were fewer than 200 when I last checked.

But that’s not the only problem.

A number of their courses appear to be running in the same city, at the same location on the same day.

York is one of them, with five different courses listed for the same venue, each month for the rest of the year.

Which is a worry, because the venue appears to be a hotel with a single training room.

So either they'll be five different courses being taught simultaneously in the same room, or four of them will be cancelled or changed from face-to-face tuition to online training.

The Knowledge Academy website states the final location will only be announced once bookings are complete, but these five courses in York are all listed to take place on Blossom Street.

And there’s only one feasible place that I can find on that street for those courses to take place - a single meeting room for hire in the Premier Inn.

Surely there’s no way The Knowledge Academy would expect to hold five courses in one room, or indeed in the cinema, pubs or residential properties along the street.

I asked company directors, husband and wife Dilshad and Barinder Hothi, about these apparent course clashes but didn’t hear from them.

While trying to solve the mystery, I happened across the company’s terms & conditions and read them in full.

They reveal how The Knowledge Academy can, at its discretion, “change prices at any time”, “cancel or reschedule any course” and swap their courses for a “Virtual Training” alternative.

If you don’t accept this swap, the clause stating that all courses are “non-cancellable and non-refundable” still applies.

The company also makes sure to cover itself by stating that it will not reimburse customers for out of pocket expenses if the venue is changed.

I also asked the Hothis if they considered virtual training to be an equivalent product to classroom courses, but again heard no reply.

Strange - you would think a company that counts management and IT courses among its products would respond to phone calls and answer emails.

Update 7/3/2016

Barinder Hothi, director of The Knowledge Academy, has issued this statement through her lawyers:

We take utmost care never to mislead out clients and we act at all times in accordance with standard industry practice. Our website sets out our training schedule of available courses (which are offered in over 230 countries). These courses will be delivered according to demand where there is sufficient take up. Our approach to pricing of our courses is entirely fair and transparent. Prices for courses are clearly notified to customers before they make a purchasing decision and prices are always updated on the website as soon as they are changed.

Venue changes, if they occur, are usually within close proximity to the original venue. Very occasionally, we offer alternative solutions such as virtual training which is delivered in real time by a live connection between the instructor and the learners.

If there are any clients that are concerned and would like to talk to us they can reach our senior leadership team on Customer-First@TheKnowledgeAcademy.com

jobbingmusician

BenCheung wrote: »

I took the PRINCE2 Practitioner online exam with Knowledge Academy last month. They told me by email I will be able to use the pdf version of the book during the exam, but the invigilator said there is no such arrangement and I had to use the physical copy of the book instead even though I did not prepare for it. The online system was extremely unresponsive, it took several seconds for each questions to load. For an exam at that level, that is a lot. Also, questions from the real exam were very different from the practice questions and mock exams provided by Knowledge Academy, both in format and in the knowledge depth required. After the exam I raised these issues to them and demanded a free re-sit. It's been over 2 weeks and they still haven't got back to me. My advice is if you want to sit the exam, go somewhere else.

Were/are you aware that PRINCE2 changed at the end of December? Before then, you could sit the 'old' exam. This year the 'new' exam is the only thing on offer. I don't know what's changed except that the old exam gave you the qualification for 5 years, whereas the new one lasts only 3 years.

I suspect you may have been prepared for the old exam, and then had to sit the new one - the questions I did in my PRINCE2 were very similar to the preparation questions (I didn't study with the KA but there were plenty of sample questions all over the internet and these were fairly consistent).

JReacher1

I did not think the foundation part ever expired. It was only the practioner part that did. I am therefore not sure why you would pay for the foundation course again

jobbingmusician

JReacher1 wrote: »

I did not think the foundation part ever expired. It was only the practioner part that did. I am therefore not sure why you would pay for the foundation course again

Looks as if you are right, it's only the practitioner that expires

No_Nonsense_SKS

Hi all

I am now looking for a similar thing - a Foundation and Practitioner Prince2 course with exams which is cheap!

What are your recommendations?

Thanks

Shivani