To wonder how these courses can be so cheap?

[RoseGoldEagle]

A course from ‘new skills academy’ keeps popping up on my Facebook page, it’s for a diploma in child psychology and is reduced from £299 to £20. It looks quite in depth, I’d be doing it for interest only, I don’t need the qualification. But I can’t help wondering how it can be so cheap and what the catch is! All the courses on there seem to be similarly discounted. Keep thinking ‘well what have I got to lose?’ but then I don’t want to throw twenty quid away if it’s likely to be crap! Thoughts appreciated, thanks!

Are they accredited? I've seen the courses you mean and love to think they're genuine qualifications but always assumed they aren't 'proper'

Sometimes you have to pay additional costs for assessment, exams or the final certificate

Some probably won't be accredited or accepted by institutions as recognised qualifications

I feel like these courses tend to be a culmination of things you could just find on the internet if you looked hard enough - for £20 and to not have to scour the internet I’d say fine. If you wanted to use it for an actual job though I’d say definitely not!

I've noticed similar but to do with acrylic nails. It makes me angry because I spent a year training. Yet, you can suddenly do a day course really cheap. How can you learn all the anatomy of the nail and technique in one day.

Look into the credentials onc the person so wrote the course. But otherwise, pile em high and sell em cheap is a model that is being used for online self-directed courses. The probably won't be any interaction with a tutor for £20.

Look at who accredits them and check them out. Having just done so myself seeing your post, I won't be signing up for anything from them.

Is the course subsidised? I sometimes work in a town with significant pockets of deprivation. Funding has been unlocked there for various organisations to offer courses to increase skills (child psych being one as it opens potential employment opps for mums looking for school hours work in childcare/educational settings.)

I can't imagine they'd add much to a CV.

I imagine it's just their own 'diploma' and not really worth anything. That's not to say there might not be some benefits to doing it, but it's unlikely to lead to a qualification that is respected by those in the industry.

schoolsweek.co.uk/how-schools-week-complained-about-a-job-advert-and-uncovered-a-strange-situation/

Most are just pure rubbish....
There are lots offered by reed especially, just complete crap, waste of life.
Not sure about your exact ones op.

Because they're bollocks?

I used to work in uni admissions and people would apply with countless of these sort of courses, spending thousands of pounds and we couldn't accept them.

Doesn’t mention whether it’s accredited so assume that means it isn’t. I wouldn’t be doing it to put on a CV, it’s nothing to do with my job, it would purely be because I’m really interested in the subject. But then maybe I need to research a well known course provider and pay a bit more I guess! Thanks for the advice!

Check out Future learn. They have plenty of free ones if it's just that you are interested in a subject. Also Openlearn

Just been browsing their courses. The Dangers of Texting While Walking certificate jumped out at me and Termination of Employment certificate then there's The National Minimum Wage certificate

It won't be accredited. Not necessarily a bad thing if you're only doing it for interest - for example, most adult education/community learning courses aren't accredited, but that doesn't mean they aren't good or worthwhile.

Not everything needs to lead to an accredited qualification to be worth doing - as long as the provider/tutor is good and it gives you what you wanted.

Although I'd be sceptical that anything being offered for £20 was ever worth £299.

I'm pretty sure OpenLearn has a whole section on child development/child psychology type stuff.

If you’re doing it for interest, I’d check out the free university-run courses on Coursera and similar platforms.

Their Excel course was good but no exam or certificate ..... I'd say that the Child Psychology one needs a lot of extra study time and the exam/course materials aren't included.

I've done lots of free and really cheap online courses out of interest/boredom/coz its a hobby, at a guess its not accredited but if its purely for interest that doesn't matter, I wouldn't put it on a CV but its worth it to learn more on a subject youare interested in.

I'd second the suggestions of futurelearn and coursera, I've studied with both and really enjoyed the courses.

The Dangers of Texting While Walking certificate

^^

Sounds like something from Viz

They’re cheap because they are useless for anything other than the pure enjoyment of learning, whereas most people doing a course would like to be able to include it on their CV or at least use it towards their career. I wouldn’t even think it’d be that high quality for £20, you’re better off finding a subreddit on the topic you’re interested in and asking for book recommendations for newcomers by a respected author.

Remember, it’s a ‘course’ for £20. The ‘was £295!’ is meaningless, and I suspect it was never sold at that price, £20 is the most they can expect to charge for it. So ask yourself whether it’s going to be of any quality!

I keep seeing one on my timeline for a ‘counselling diploma’ (not counselling, a different modality) costing £20 and taking one weekend. Ironically I already have a ‘counselling diploma’ that took a year at postgrad level at a respected bricks and mortar university, cost my employer £6k+ in fees, and was so gruelling and of such a high academic standard only a modest proportion of the intake made it to the end. And it required a relevant degree to even access it.

The sad thing is people will see that and think ‘great I can take it and offer counselling now’ when it’s useless.

I recommend futurelearn for really high quality free courses!

Also, some are wise to the accreditation queries and have gone so far as to set up a meaningless accreditation body so they can claim its accredited. I looked into the one I mentioned above out of pure curiosity and it was accredited, but by a body I’d never heard of (I’m in this field), who isn’t recognised by institutions and doesn’t enable you to register onto any professional registers, googling a bit further showed it was basically a back of fag packed accreditation body and therefore entirely meaningless yet so many people on the Facebook feed were asking about accreditation, being told ‘yes it’s accredited by fag packet accreditations LTD’ and being delighted and saying they’d sign up haha.

To be fair, both “termination of employment” and NMW are reasonably complex subjects, relevant to a lot of small employers or people working in HR that could very usefully be covered in a one day online course if (big if) it were any good.

The Texting while walking one is just weird.