TrainX December 2017 Blogs: In-depth Articles, Videos and Quizzes

Summary of Article

We suggest that you read the entire article - all of the material is public domain its easy to review it for yourself:

• QA prices up by 14.5% - well ahead of inflation

• Yet selling same courses at 50% QA website price through Focus On Training^*

• Both sites have misleading Star Ratings counter to Competition and Markets Authority rules

• QA's massive debt / loans - £93,736,270 in June 2016 as one example

• Jersey based offshore account ownership

• Profits from apprenticeships, some funded by Apprenticeship Levy, going offshore

• Sub-standard none Fire Safety compliant training room in advertisement

• Embarrassment for partners - QA are linked to the major tech companies and now several universities

• Substantial refunds due? Private purchasers may have been mislead by Star Ratings

• Business predicated on status quo - continued 'preferred supplier' role for NHS etc., irrespective of Brexit, currency, inflation...

• Seriously consider the wisdom of large upfront payments for 'training passports' - they EXPECT THESE TO BE PARTIALLY UNUSED!

^* 'Focus on Training', when used in this article, is the trading name of: Focus Project Management (Europe) Limited: Company 5702441, wholly owned by the QA 'group'. FOCUS ON TRAINING LIMITED Company 09561373 are an entirely separate entity with no association to QA.

Summary of Article

We suggest that you read the entire article and as all of the material is public domain its easy to review it for yourself:

• QA and Focus On Training^*1 review ratings are entirely unrepresentative and are hand-selected

• Their advertised training room is sub-standard and not Fire Safety compliant

• QA, owners of Focus On Training, use Focus to massively undercut their own pricing

^*1 'Focus on Training', when used in this article, is the trading name of: Focus Project Management (Europe) Limited: Company 5702441, wholly owned by the QA 'group'. FOCUS ON TRAINING LIMITED Company 09561373 are an entirely separate entity with no association to QA.

Background to this Example

The image has been appearing over the last year as part of QA's sponsored PPC campaign. Keywords / phrases that trigger it include prince2 training and agile training.

We finally had a good look at it and found numerous issues that point to poor practice and one issue that's particularly troubling.

The course appears to be a 'Best Practice' course such as PRINCE2 from the materials on the desks and the lack of IT in the room. The number of pages in the folders means that this is probably a three to five day training event.

At their current prices, with the 10 attendees shown on a five day PRINCE2 event, QA would have a revenue of £19,160 exclusive of VAT for the event which will return a substantial profit. With their upcoming New Year price-rise, this would be £21,410. It doesn't appear to have been spent on the classroom...