"Good course some issues"

This course fills a gap for me, in a time I can complete. I'm so glad for this option. The first unit with Justin was great, way he teaches and he answers emails really fast. Second unit with omar not so great. They have pulled the assignment briefs so now only get them on second lesson so less time to complete. Also omar missed first lesson and no reason why. Wont answer email to give tutor support. I need clarification on assignment brief and xant get it. Not ideal and did pay to be taught some not just self learn. I really hope things turn around because this is a great way to learn just need to change a few things.

Have another 6 units so will update as things progress.

Having emails answered quickly which is nice. Getting feedback which I need. I have 3 days left and my assignment is good just citations are wrong so omar has arranged a 1 on 1 session so I can finish and pass assignment. I feel that Im getting the help I need now and am happy with unit. Its good to see things improving so fast.

Update 20/2/23
Self teaching seems easier than the lessons. You get 3 lessons but not much information to help. They say marking in 30days but mine and others are pasted 30days no grade yet.

Update 9/6/23
Changing things and making it harder to learn. Normally have 2 weeks between lessons so we can study and ask questions. This unit it's 1 week so may miss stuff. Only get 3 lessons per unit any way. Unit takes 45 day so having alot after 3 lessons with no direction.

Customer service says no issue and should be fine. I ask maybe change times or get brief earlier but its no and they think no issue. It's a hard unit and this is messed up to give less help.

11/06/23
Omar got us to download revit and gave us a quick run through. This has made this unit a bit easier even tho the lesson timing sucks. Having a teacher with real world experience of designing helps.

"A disappointing onboarding experience that went on…"

A disappointing onboarding experience which should have been a warning, constant chasing and little updates.

Emails not replied to, rude individuals on the phone, the learner had no direction, no contact and the first group call the learner was invited to was with other learners at all different stages of their learning which isn't appropriate when you've just started your apprenticeship.

Besides the tutor being unprofessional and unapproachable during delivery, they confirmed marking is behind and not up to standard etc

CEO responded to email to say they would look in to complaint, weeks later, still no reply. Learner pulled from programme and moved on to a provider who wants to nurture and grow our future generation.

Disappointing for what should be a positive, learning experience.

"I can’t be bothered to waste my time…"

I can’t be bothered to waste my time explaining all the reasons they are so poor. They’ve wasted enough of my time already. Just avoid at all costs.

"Completely hopeless in every regard!"

Scheduling has been all over the entire length of the course. Whoever does the timetables is apparently incapable of understanding the concept of bank holidays, or else they don't care. Our online lessons were on a monday and this meant we were constantly being put behind schedule (it took them over a year to issue a timetable that took into account bank holidays). This resulted in them issuing assignments before we'd received any lessons on the subject, making the subsequent lessons redundant because we'd already had to self teach the content to do the assignment. The timetables were also issued in a haphazard manner, sometimes as a table and sometimes as outlook calendar invites which caused a lot of confusion.

The lessons themselves were good initially (when delivered by Chris Mitchell). He always made them interesting setting individual and group tasks and avoided simply reading slides to us.

Chris then left (I can see why) and since then we have had 4 different tutors all of whom have been poor and often had no idea what they were supposed to be teaching when the lesson started. Since Chris left, most of the lessons have consisted of the tutor slowly reading slides to us (ofsted would have a field day).

Tutors also don't reply to emails for weeks and when they do it's rarely helpful. The current trend is to apologize for the delay, promise to send the requested info shortly, and then never send the follow up email.

Customer service are pointless too. Don't seem to ever achieve anything other than apologize.

Additionally assignments are consistently late back. I don't think there's been an assignment where one of the people in my group hasn't had their assignment handed back after the 30 day period they're supposed to return them in.

Assignments are also poorly written with briefs that don't meet the success criteria and success criteria with requirements that just aren't correct english.

In summary I would strongly recommend you find a different provider.

"An excellent group of people from the…"

An excellent group of people from the tutors to the customer service team. Always very helpful, friendly and polite. Couldn’t endorse them enough.

"Great Tutor, Great CEO"

I have been studying with Skills4Stem via an Apprenticeship, doing the level 4 and level 5 NVQ Diplomas in Construction Management.

I have at times struggled with the assignments and fallen behind, I have to praise my tutor Patrick Edwards who persisted and challenged me, ensuring I passed my assignments, I have definitely evolve as a person during my time studying here.

Would also like to thank Sarah Davis, Who also didn't give up on me, given me help when needed. The Pandemic was a difficult time for different companies for staff, pressure, deadlines etc. but can say I felt Skills4Stem always gave me 200% when needed.

I would recommend them, it's a good course to study remotely while working, you have quite a bit of time per assignment too.

"Poor tuition and service"

Poor tuition, terribly written assignment briefs, inconsistent service.

I and my cohort have had a number of issues with this course. It was ok last year when we had Chris Mitchell as a tutor but the new tutors aren't very good at all. They have given confused and jumbled up instruction making completing assignments very hard to do. The assignments themselves are hard to decipher with disjointed briefs that don't match with the grading criteria and when you couple this with the tutors not responding to emails it makes achieving even a pass grade difficult to do! Furthermore assignments are not marked within the agreed timeframe. I submitted one in October of last year and I'm still waiting despite chasing for months and being promised it today on the 11th of March. Customer service seems to depend on who you get and the rules for things such as extensions seem to have changed suddenly.

Had I been within my 14 day cooling off period when the first shambolic Unit 1 webinar had been held I would have demanded a refund and found a different provider. I will be asking for a partial refund as the service has not met my expectations for the cost!

"A bit of a shambles really"

As an employer with an apprentice using Skills4Stem my experience of them is very poor. Classes that tutors don't turn up to, classes that tutors turn up to but the students haven't been told about, it's all an absolute shambles. I spent nearly half a day on the phone to them trying to check that an email from someone saying they were Skills4stem asking for my bank details was legitimate. I wouldn't use them again.

"HNC Construction and the Built Environment (Civil Engineering)"

From day one to the day i finished up with Skills4stem I've had a brilliant experience, any queries I had was quickly resolved, Chris was very helpful and any extra help I needed he provided, Sonia couldn't do enough for me throughout, school was a distant memory for me so I was very anxious on returning to study but it was very easy to get back into the swing of things with the great support from skills4stem, Thank you....through my HNC with yourselves I've now been promoted TWICE, highly recommend this distant learning experience!

"I am currently doing Level 4 Building…"

I am currently doing Level 4 Building service course. After several cancellations of start dates and the re scheduling of the course schedule, the course has finally began. There are no pre-planned lessons from the tutor and seem to be winging it once on the webinar. The communication from there customer service is between little and none. I could go on for pages on how badly run this company is. Pick another company.