Apprenta Who Are They?

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Seen an advert today - never heard of this crew before - were advertising for ms.net positions - do not need IT industry experience - I phoned the number - and got through to a 'brochure' line - and was asked to leave a number - and a consultant would call me back - and conduct an interview over the telephone - I now don't know whether to go out and spend £10 to put credit on my phone - ARE APPRENTA ONE OF THESE OUTFITS THAT CHARGE £5,000 TO GET A JOB - RATHER THAN THIS BEING AN ACTUAL EMPLOYMENT VACANCY?

 

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Apprenta are an IT training company.

They supposedly guarantee all of their students a job at the end of their studies.

I'm sure that if you look at other posts in this forum you will find more information.

Welcome to CF BTW!

 

I contacted Apprenta too and they invited me for an "interview" to see if I warranted a place on their internship.

Had to do a test then they went into the sales pitch on how few MCSD.net cert holders and that they needed more on their staff. Would subsidise a max of £10k towards £16k worth of training and after 6 months of study you would be MCSA/MCSD.net & Biztalk certified, and could expect £££s salary. Job guarantee with them starting as a junior developer on £20k pa.

Must admit it had me thinking seriously about it...I still am not sure if it's just another clever scam or not....

 

the bit about the training being 16k says a lot to me... its far from that.

 

theres no way its 16k worth of training. to me it seems total BS.
either way you might as well get all the info that you can from them, like the duration of the course, certs offered, price etc.
just dont jump into anything and dont let them push you to do anything.

and if you go for the interview, dont let it get to your head > sign up if they say you were successful, because it is likely they say that to everyone, even though they say "only a few positions" or some junk.

 

Hey Guys...

Im new to this place... i stumbled across it while trying to find out whether there were any dissatisfied people concerning the 'apprenta' internship scheme by googling on the net after i felt there was something dodgy about the whole thing... and im glad i did!!

After seeing the full page advert twice in a National newspaper, i thought i'd find out some more. The office i went to for the initial interview was in Croydon... and yes its a small office space on the 2nd floor.. with only 3 or 4 sales people working there. There was a flimsy plastic banner outside with the Microsoft certified partner logo and ICS London information...

I was asked to sit down and complete a questionnaire which asks you basic questions like your personal details, work experience.. and a couple of questions about your understanding of the .Net platform and what Biztalk is ...

Soon after, you get taken into a room and a 'senior consultant' talks to you about the company. They start talking about their establishment and their links to CCS in Jordan (From what i gather, not a key player at all). I then got showed a demonstration on computer (It was an old PC as well) about the whole Internship program and what you could potentially earn and also watched a short demo of .Net and its uses towards the London Stock Exchange. Towards the end, the consultant asked me to ring back the following day to see if i would be accepted.. and oh yeah, just as i was leaving, i asked him 'dont you want to see my degree certificate? And dont you want the questionnaire i just filled in for you? He didnt seem too bothered.

So yeah... It seemed really fake to me... so i thought i'd check things out...

And oh my days! Am i so glad to have found this place and the advice from users of this Forum... I was actually due to meet one of the advisors for apprenta tomorrow to take things to the next stage.. the stage they call 'registration' where they take your deposit for £2,500 if you want to qualify for the discount.. where you basically pay £5,000 instead of the £6,000 (£2,500 deposit... and £2,500 C.D.L, which i might add... they apply for the £5,000 C.D.L and give you £2,500 back!) As if im going now!!

Also, another suspicious thing was... I thought it would be a good idea to ask them about the course details .. start dates.. and etc.. to apply for the CDL loan in advance... but they were not open to this idea and insisted that i should come in and register (place a deposit down basically) and then they would give me these details. This was another reason that got me more worried...

I got suspicious when they started talking about money... I mean.. they didnt even offer to talk about the MCSD.Net c# in more detail other than the standard information about exams available through the microsoft website and their job guarantees and.. lol theres more how most people walk away and start earning 25-35k... after completing the Internship...
And yet they claim to fund £10,000 towards your certification... so it doesnt make sense to say that people walk away after six months.. i mean.. what would be the point of spending £10 grand on an individual? That £10 grand story is a load of rubbish in my opinion...

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im glad i used my head.. and im extra glad to have read some thoughts and advice from users of this forum... you guys are life savers.. you really are...

These learning providers should be vetted properly by a governing body ... I bet it wont be long before the media tap on to this and we see these 'senior consultants' being chased by undercover news reporters or detectives!!

hmm ok, well.. i gone on for quite a bit so ill stop...

Great forum guys... keep up the great work.. your doing a huge thing by making people realise to switch on their brains! like me! lol ...

 

Welcome to CF Sayed!

Why not pop over to the New Members Forums and tell us about your self.

A very informative and educated first post I might add!

 

Hi guys. just went to the interview in croydon today with apprenta.

i'm in two minds as to whether to accept it (presuming they actually offer me the job )

i have to ring the guy back on monday morning.

anyway i'll elaborate.

the problem is that ive been with compu teach for a year now and have identified the fact that it's very difficult when you have to 1 to 1 training with an instructor (except for the odd 2 day in house training)

also there is no work based experience.

both of these points i was assured i would get with apprenta today at the interview.

the way i see it is that apprenta don't seem that bad.
they say i pay 1500 pounds up front and they put in the other 4500.
when i get a job after 7 months (3months in class training, 3 months on the job training) i will start to pay that 4500 pounds back at 150 pounds a month.

i could expect to be earning 20000 pounds to start with. i really need some advice as to whether to accept.

considering i paid 4800 pounds to compu teach for a part time no 1 to 1 training the apprenta one doesn't seem to bad

 

Have you actually read the last few posts above?

So you've already paid around £5k to someone and you weren't happy with that, now you're thinking of doing the same thing again?

 

oh and when he said that people walk away to a job earning £20000 i presumed he meant walk away from the training. into a job within the company.
not away from the company itself.

 

i've read the posts. but there does seem to be some disagreements between certain things.

like they say they were told they'd be earning 25 to 35 grand and mine said 20 grand to start with.

i was also told it was a total of 6grand for the training. 15 hundred up front and others say they were told 16grand.

the reasons i'm disatisfied with compu teach is there is very little 1 2 1 training and no on the job training.
so you get the grades and then try to look for a job when most jobs expect a few years work expereince. not a certificate.

these things i was told apprenta would give me.

 

Hi, I'll say this really clear:

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There is no magical quick solution to getting an IT job and you should never be under the illusion that after gaining a few certifications you can expect to work into a £20k+ job, it just doesn't work like that. Do you really think 12 weeks is enough time to learn these topics and so become qualified? As an IT professional I find this incredible insulting, IT is not easy and you can’t expected to pay £6000, gain a few qualifications and the walk into a nice well paying job at the end. Come on guys!!

Do what a lot of the people on this forum are doing and get a good book sit down and study hard, if you find you need some 1-to-1 tuition look to your local area and take up a night course or something to help in your studies and then when ready sit the exam.

 

take upa book and study hard?

this is what i'm doing with compu teach. i get the odd 1 2 1 training every few months.

but this is not enough.
surely this would be a step back as when i get my qualifications i would have a bit of paper but no proper work experience?
i can't expect to get a job like this can i?

on the other hand with apprenta i train full time. full time with 1 2 1 training. 3 months on the job training after the class room training.
which i would think is better getting hands on trainig than sitting at home with a book.

i'm merely trying to see things from both sides here. just getting an understanding of the options. playing devils advocate if you like.

 

3months intense college and 3 months intense on the job training has to be better than a year at home on your won with a book no?

 

i'm rtemembering lots of stuff now

they said that they would offer you a job them selves or a job with one of their affiliate companies.

so i presume that their friend company would give them back the money that they invested

 

I understand where you're coming from postal postie there is no substitute for experience but in the same sense there is no shortcut to success. Have a good look at their sites look at all the different links and see what you think, I did this and I got a really bad feeling. The two videos they have on their main page are of absolutely horrendous quality; if you were a leading software development company and IT trainer would you portray your company like that. Have a look at what companies they have developed software for and what their current projects they are working on. They don’t have any affiliates apart from their own company in Jordan compare this with other software development companies and see which one looks more professional. Finally do a search for their managing director Fayez Samera and see what you find, is this good behaviour for a leading software development managing director?

In the end you need to make you own decision and I’d go with you gut feeling, I did.

 

http://www.ics-info.com/

found this info.

i think i will take your advice. thank you.

you asking me to google the director and the comment had me worrying. not sure what you were refering to though.

are we talking criminal activities or desperate acts, threats?

 

oh and thank you for continuing to reply to me even though i may have sounded like a 'know all' that thinks all of you don't know what your talking about. i certainly DON'T think this
but when reading my posts back i get this feeling.

 

When you are only trying to get a better picture of things and have been told one thing by one person and another by another person it is easy to slip into an 'aggressive' tone of questioning.

What helps us all is when we are prepared to listen with an open mind what is being said, and follow advice and suggestions that are made to us.

I believe that you ahve taken the advice in the manner it was intended, to be of benefit to you and others.

Good Luck in your career path Postal Postie.

 

No worries postal postie, you need to look at something like this from all angles and then decide on the best course of action for yourself. I'm glad you took my advice and looked into them as this is probably the best piece of advice someone can give to someone else when they are contemplating signing up to a training provider, Research and then more research and once you have a good insight go with your gut feeling about them.