The Institute of IT Training is cracking down
on unscrupulous IT training companies that use hard-sell tactics to
persuade people to sign up for expensive IT courses.
The institute has launched an accreditation programme for
training providers that will assess both the quality of training
and the tactics used to sell courses to the public.
The move follows complaints that some training providers have
been targeting individuals with unrealistic promises of jobs in IT
if they sign up to expensive courses.
"We get very few complaints about commercial providers, but we
receive many complaints from the public about mis-selling and
broken promises in this area. We are very concerned that the rate
of these complaints is growing," said institute chief executive
Colin Steed.
The Institute of IT Training has put together a steering group
of training providers to develop the accreditation scheme.
"We will set up the scheme so that the buyer is protected
against mis-selling in much the same way as the
FSA has cleaned up the financial services industry," said
Steed.
The institute is pressing
the Learning and Skills
Council to support the scheme by agreeing to issue career
development loans only to accredited training providers.
Training body promises crackdown on cowboys >>
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