A question about : The Complete Guide to Vision2Learn Free Courses
The Complete Guide to Vision2Learn Free Courses
I know that there have been a number of posts on here regarding Vision2Learn free courses, which lead to genuine national qualifications. Looking at the feedback from these threads I thought it may be worthwhile to offer some advice and dispel some negativity that surrounds the company.
Can you do a free course?
Anybody can do a free course as long as the following conditions are met:
You must be a resident of England.
There must be a college within your area that have signed up to the scheme.
For a few of the courses you must be in employment.
If you are doing an IT course you may require certain software (but then if you know where to look it is possible to get any software for free on the internet, although I would not ever advocate this!)
Why is the course free?
The courses are paid for by the government.
Vision2Learn has won the contract to allocate free places and therefore themselves receive money from the government.
What Qualifications are available?
There are a number of free qualifications available, the ones available to each individual will be dependant on which area of the country they live in, I have split the list in two: 1) those that DO NOT require you to be employed 2) those that DO require you to be employed. I have noticed that people were stating that you had to be employed, you only actually have to be employed to do National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) which make up less than a quarter of the courses on offer.
1) Do not require you to be employed
OCR Level 2 Diploma for IT Users (CLAiT Plus)
OCR Level 2 Certificate for IT Users (CLAit Plus)
OCR Level 2 Certificate for iMedia Users
EAL Level 2 Certificate in Business-Improvement Techniques
NCFE Level 2 Certificate in Retail Customer Service Skills
NCFE Level 2 Certificate in Employment Skills
NCFE Level 2 Key Skills Certificate in Improving Own Learning and Performance
NCFE Level 2 Key Skills Certificate in Problem Solving
NCFE Level 2 Key Skills Certificate in Working with Others
NCFE Level 2 Certificate in Equality and Diversity
NCFE Level 2 Certificate in Infection Control
NCFE Level 2 Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety
NCFE Level 3 Certificate in Personal Effectiveness at Work
NCFE Level 1 Certificate in Employment Skills
NCFE Level 2 Certificate in Nutrition & Health
NCFE Level 2 Certificate in Sports Coaching
NCFE Foundation Certificate in Exercise Studies
2) Do require you to be employed
Level 1 or 2 NVQ for IT Users
Level 2 NVQ in Retail Skills
Level 2 NVQ in Business and Administration
Level 2 NVQ in Customer Service Skills
Level 2 NVQ in Team Leading
What do the 'Levels' represent?
Level 1 Qualifications are the equivalent of a GCSE at grade D-G
Level 2 Qualifications are the equivalent of a GCSE at grade A-C
Level 3 Qualifications are the equivalent of an AS/A Level
Do I have to attend an exam?
NO! none of the courses require you to visit a college at any time. This has not always been the case, but all courses including assessments can now be completed online at your own pace in front of your own personal computer.
Please note that NVQs require between one and three visits to your workplace from a qualified NVQ assessor to watch you for around an hour and ask you a few questions, for this reason you must have the prior approval from your employer THIS IS WHY YOU MUST BE EMPLOYED FOR SOME COURSES.
What happens when you sign up for a course?
After completing the relevant online application forms you will receive an email acknowledging your application.
An enrolment form will be sent to you through the post with a pre-paid envelope, this form is quite long and assesses things such as your basic IT skills to ensure that you are capable of doing the course at home by yourself. This form could take upto a couple of weeks to arrive.
Once this form has been returned a member of your local college will contact you to discuss your course and explain the course structure, this person will be your personal tutor who will mark your work and give you help if you need it.
You are then given your password, I would estimate the total time from application to course start to be approximately 4-6 weeks (based on the three courses I have done with Vision2Learn) Your password unlocks a virtual learning world with some fantastic lectures, practical sessions on each subject to help your learning and an extensive online library! It also gives you an internal email called 'V mail' which is used solely for your communications with your personal tutor.
You are then left to complete the sessions and the practical's at your own pace and submit when you are ready. The general length of a course is 100-120 hours of work (so divide that by the number of hours you can do a week and you have the number of weeks it should take you), however I have completed all of my courses in much less time (approximately 30 or 40 hours for each qualification).
Your tutor will mark you work as you go along, if there is something wrong with it then they will give it back to you to change the answer, there is no limit to how many times you get something wrong as long as you get it correct in the end!
My personal experience of the tutors
I have had three different tutors on each course and I can tell you that they have all been very helpful and prompt, albeit once was slightly moody but still helpful in his own way!, and even give you their phone number so that you can call them if you need to!
Negative Points
The only negatives I can think of are as follows:
The actual hard copy of the certificate can take a while to come through, one took four months but another only took three weeks. This is not the fault of Vision2Learn or the personal tutor but simply because colleges generally only print certificates twice a year for economic reasons (generally july/august and January/February to coincide with busy exam periods). You do however generally find out if you have passed the course within a couple of weeks of submitting your last assignment. Two of my tutors DID warn me about this at the start of the course.
The process from application to start of course can be up to 6 weeks, going on the experience of myself and a few others.The online learning portal is not the easiest to navigate and it took me a few hours to find my way around! (this is once you have your password) although everything you need is there if you look hard enough!
What do you do now?
Go to www.Vision2Learn.com and apply for a course that you wish to do.
Also if you are a Vision2Learn student such as myself you get a ten pound amazon voucher for every interested persons email address that you give to them, as much as I would love to encourage you to give me your email addresses for amazon vouchers I am not allowed to do so as per forum rules! - (Edited)
So to summarize, a fantastic opportunity to improve your Curriculum Vitae with a genuine nationally recognized qualification without paying a penny and without leaving the warmth of your living room! Hope I have been in someway helpful, its nice to give an hour and a half back to this forum as I do use it to my own benefit quite a lot! Good Luck!
Best answers:
- So information about free courses shouldnt be on a freebies board? despite Vision2Learn having been mentioned on this very forum before?
And to which referral link do you refer sir? as I have clearly provided the direct website link and only mentioned the fact that people can ask me to refer them if they so wish, i believe the link to which you refer is in fact my email address my friend. - Ryan, to answer your reply... I agree it is a freebie... not debating that! but may have been better suited posting it in the thread that already exists concerning vision2learn... not really a problem just may put it in a better context? :confused:
I also refer you to the following forum rules; please remove the referral link/personal email from the post... :rolleyes:
"REFERRAL POSTS
Posts from which site users gain are permitted only on the Referrers Board. This includes links to rpoints etc threads. Any posted elsewhere will be moved to the Referrers Board. Links to the referrals board from the main forums are not allowed.
This also includes members saying "Please PM me for code" or "check my post on referrers". The overriding rule is that no advertising is allowed on the main forums.
USERNAMES/ PERSONAL DETAILS
No usernames should contain websites or email addresses – if you see one please report it to abuse@moneysavingexpert.com so it can be changed.
Forum users should not post their or anyone else’s personal details (full names, email addresses, home addresses or telephone numbers)."
Thanks... - Note: I don't think these courses are available to people in Wales. Just those in England. It may have changed in the last 2 years, but that was certainly the case 2 years ago.
- Edited as per request.
Also, I have stated that you have to be based in England! but thanks.... - Worth checking out posts on vision2learn... here:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...t=vision2learn
and the last few pages of this thread:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...t=vision2learn - I wasn't sure if, I wasn't able to do the online study for free, then they would hit me for costs to sit exams or something. This clears it up. (Old news now but..) Ignore those who moan about it. Jack-asses with no lifes.
- I've completed business and admin and equality and diversity! Love this sort of learning, also completed well before the dead lines and didn't wAit long at all for my certificates
- Hi,
Are there any good free online learning course providers; that also offer free certificates upon completion?
I'd be grateful for any help,
Thank you - check out www.vision2learn.com
I did Level 2 in Health and Safety - was a great course - I would just like to point out that a lot of the information in the first post is now incorrect and this thread should be deleted. The funding rules have changed and now the condition of residency is that you must have lived in the UK or an EEA country for 3 years prior to the start of the course and courses are available whether employed or unemployed. You also must be 19+ as courses are SFA funded.
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