Clarification over project requirements

pirate

Hi there,

I have been advised to take the project under the new standards.
I have been in a position to do this since the end of April and have gone through the book ready but I cannot begin aparently until the end of June due to old standards still being undertaken.
I am awaiting the results of skills tests submitted during April and still not even been marked. Elsewhere on the forum it seems that the skills tests submission has now been extended until the end of August with PT and with the marking being until the end of Dec. (as was always the case with the AAT)
Having spoken to PT they seem to be a bit more relaxed over the marking but this now puts me at a disadvantage as if I have to wait until the end of August (or if they now take their time to mark my skills tests and we go beyond end of June), I cant begin my project until the skills tests have been marked internally verified and passed to the AAT. This is what I have been told "As you have chosen the case-study scenario you will need to follow the new standards process and order the case study, which is not possible until the current standards are fully completed" I think fully completed means that I have to have all the bits finished and marked and on the AAT site before I move to the new standards as if I were to move now for example I would need to sit a bunch more things.


If this is the case I am greatly concerned as I am just "hanging on" at the moment waiting to get the scenario so that I can do the project and I have a personal deadline to get complete the technician level by the end of September which was discussed with Premier,

Does anyone know if this is right, about not being able to get the scenario until the other stuff is fully completed. I was hoping to order the scenario before had and do all the study
ready to submit it as soon as I can after 30th June

coojee

pirate wrote: »

Hi there,

I have been advised to take the project under the new standards.
I have been in a position to do this since the end of April and have gone through the book ready but I cannot begin aparently until the end of June due to old standards still being undertaken.
I am awaiting the results of skills tests submitted during April and still not even been marked. Elsewhere on the forum it seems that the skills tests submission has now been extended until the end of August with PT and with the marking being until the end of Dec. (as was always the case with the AAT)
Having spoken to PT they seem to be a bit more relaxed over the marking but this now puts me at a disadvantage as if I have to wait until the end of August (or if they now take their time to mark my skills tests and we go beyond end of June), I cant begin my project until the skills tests have been marked internally verified and passed to the AAT. This is what I have been told "As you have chosen the case-study scenario you will need to follow the new standards process and order the case study, which is not possible until the current standards are fully completed" I think fully completed means that I have to have all the bits finished and marked and on the AAT site before I move to the new standards as if I were to move now for example I would need to sit a bunch more things.


If this is the case I am greatly concerned as I am just "hanging on" at the moment waiting to get the scenario so that I can do the project and I have a personal deadline to get complete the technician level by the end of September which was discussed with Premier,

Does anyone know if this is right, about not being able to get the scenario until the other stuff is fully completed. I was hoping to order the scenario before had and do all the study
ready to submit it as soon as I can after 30th June

My understanding is that students are currently on both standards until you physically transfer yourself or your provider does it for you. This is because there'll be some people who have sat paper based exams this week who won't get their results til August (so can't transfer until then) but may want to sit an exam before then under the new standards (so need to be on the new standards as well)

I don't know whether it shows on the students MyAAT account but you should see that you're registered for both standards.

uknitty

PT have allowed me to register to start level 4 whilst I still have units outstanding on the old standards from level 3 - so this must mean you can be registered for both ?

I honestly think that PT should provide you with a partial refund. You pay them to study distance learning at a pace that suits you. That is the whole point of doing distance learning that you get flexible exam and coursework timetables.

If they do not have the means to provide this service at present (owing to their staffing levels) then they should not be charging you at the same price as if you were receiving the quality of training you signed up for. In fact if they can't provide the service they shouldn't be charging you at all !

I've had one of my units marked as comptetent ( I had computerised AC's outstanding for ages because I didn't have access to a PC on which to run sage until the start of this year) I got the competent email on 26th May and its not been through the verification process yet. Don't really have much faith in it actually showing up as complete for maybe another month !

If you are in a position where you really can't do anything because your work is stuck in a queue of marking then they need to apply some logic to the situation and bump you up. You can't just be kept waiting because they are short staffed !

pirate

I totally agree I have been marked as competent over 4 weeks ago on 1 of mine phoned today and told it needs to go through IV which is about 3 weeks and then after that 10 days to the AAT.
I have 2 that havent even started being marked but was told last week on monday that it would be marked by the end of last week but phoned today and again told it had not been allocated for marking. I have asked who I can complain to and surprisingly (given their incredible work load) no one was available to do so so will have to phone on monday.
I will also phoned the AAT as I am just really unsure now, I dont have anything at all on myaat re new standards
Will let you know

SharGardy

I am still on the old standards and left my unit 10 project til last, I only started it about a month ago and have put quite a lot of effort into it. I submitted my final draft report on the weekend but had a reply that it couldn't be assessed til 27 June due to holiday. I nearly panicked but the next line said that the AAT have extended the deadline from 30 June to the 15 August so maybe there would be time for you to do your project on the old standards still?

pirate

Shargardy

good point will give them a bell

I do hope this means that if I want to do the new standards I dont have to wait until the 15th Augu will check with them

Sparkly

Pirate,
I will be interested to see what response you get on this as I was told two weeks ago that I didnt have enough time to now complete my project under the old standards and should transfer to the new ones. My provider told me that the June intake was full, and that the next available intake was the begining of September, which I can't sign up for as I will be away on holiday. This is the first I've seen of an extended deadline for the project!

pirate

hi Sparkly

Basically I appear to be getting mixed messages from PT
So although the deadline has been extended now for them to receive skills test they are saying that they won't send out any new ones, but will allow someone who has failed to resit before september.

On my project they said the last time they accepted any new projects was december so I can't do it under the old standards but if I had begun it before december then I would now have longer to complete it.

The reason their deadline differs from what the AAT says, is that as a distance learner they have different deadlines due to the fact that a college has an intake with x number of students so knows howmany skills tests are due at what time etc etc. As a distance provider learning is all at different paces some taking the same as a college some shorter some longer. They have a lot of students who have left these skills tests until now and decided to complete skills test now before the deadline meaning they have over 1000 skills test that were applied for and submitted by the end of April. They had the deadline of the end of June as they were a distance learner. (they told me that the 30 December is for Colleges and also for the exams in June etc etc)

So as for the project I am unable to start my project under the new standards because they have not yet finished marking my papers therefore if I move now I had to complete these missing units under the new standards. This is totally contradictory to what the AAT and elsewhere on the forum says as this implies that you can be on concurrent standards. So I have to wait until they have marked them, verfiied them and uploadied them to the AAT. I have been assured that this will be done by the end of June, but given that this is next week and they haven't even started one of the markings yet and the one I was marked competent at the end of May still has not been Internally Verified, I am not confident. This means I am back to square one where I may need to wait until the end of September (if they are really slow) or perhaps August based on current performance before I can even begin my project.

The messages are really conflicting about what you can do. I can understand Sparkly that you might have to wait if you are with a college- this is why I did distance learning so I could do it at my pace and not have to worry about college deadlines and losing momentum in the holidays. However if you have already started your project then you can now finish it under the old standards, I understand. I complained that I have been twiddling my thumbs since April as I cannot do my project without the scenario and I can't get the scenario until my skills tests have been completed. If I had known that this had to be started before December then I would have started it as by now I would have finished it but as I asked to start it in January, they said it was too late which is annoying to me now as I know I could have done it.

I am going to try to get some clarification out of the AAT

will post morewhen I find out more

uknitty

Duplicate Post

uknitty

***BANGS HEAD AGAINST WALL*** ugh seriously. I am feeling for you ! PT are insisting on blaming the AAT - this whole thing about "its different for distance learning colleges" is the latest excuse in a long line of half truths. I know this because I am also registered with Kaplan ( I had to register to do my unit 32 skills test with them because they allowed until June to sit it and PT only allowed until April....) So, if Kaplan have always been able to alllow their distance learning students until June, why can't PT ?

You could try copying in AAT on all emails you send to Premier Training and asking the AAT to respond with their position copying in both you and PT - I doubt even that would work though.

Playing Devil's avacado - I do in part feel bad for the actual tutors who are having meltdowns trying to get this work signed off - but the owners/managers of PT need to take responsibility. They took on the work (i.e. took on students) when they did not have adequate resources to manage it.

The only other thing I can suggest is that you try a more accommodating training provider - Eagle Education are meant to be good, see if they will let you sign up just for unit 10, and demand a part refund from PT ? You paid to sit a unit. They are not allowing you to sit that unit because they do not have the resources available to teach/mark it. How on earth can they justify charging for tutor support they are not providing ?


ETA - my AWS part 2 showed up on my Statement of Acheivement today - it was marked competent on 26 May so credit where due - the IV and reporting went through pretty quickly. When did yours get signed off ? It should be showing up soon hopefully

pirate

Hi Uknitty

I have just spoken to the AAT about it and they are confirming that Distance Learners have a different set of rules than colleges. The lady told me that before I even asked. She explained that the deadlines imposed had causes a huge problem for all distance learners with the skills tests and all of them have had an unprecedented (if thats how you spell it) amount of people who submitted skills tests under the old standards and presumably due to the appeals and so on the distance learners made they extended the deadline for skills tests to be submitted by students of distance learning providers until end of september and they must report them by the end of December. Before this they had to have all their students though by the end of June. She was explaining that the like of Premier had thought about the fact that students may need additional questions and hence thats why they (and others) had imposed the end of April deadline for skills tests submission.

She has confirmed I am currently on dual so am on old and am on new:- but she can't see why I need to complete and have the skills tests on the AAT web site before I buy a scenario for Unit 10. After June 30 it will still all look the same I wont automatically convert. Although I cant see anywhere on myAAT where I could submit my project so perhaps if I order it it will automatically convert me over.

The lady also said that if I hadnt done my skills tests for Level 3, I could still do my project as I have completed everything else for level 4.

Its back to Premier now to find out. They have already suggested that I do a project of my own rather than buying the scenario in as its cheaper. However I still wouldnt be able to submitt it online.I have just started working for myself in accounts (was working for myself in other before) but then thinking up something that is weak (all weak LOL) may be more challenging.

The lady at AAT saidthat it could take 4 to 6 weeks for things to be reported on the AAT web site so to get fully qualified by the end of september I need to ensure I have put my final project in by end of July. This only gives me a month if i can get my scenario on 1st July.

PT received my AWS Part 1 11/4/2011, Part 2 14th, part 3 26/04/2011 - Part 1 marked as competent 3/06/2011, part 2 6th June part 3 10th June. So maybe I need to wait until mid July to see it on the AAT. On the AAT site the skills test shows as 1 line even though it was 3 skills tests so maybe they have to do it all at once.

I do feel sorry for them as well. I was working to the 30th June deadline as I hadn't even realised about the 30th April Deadline although they (PT) apparently sent an email out in december to explain this I didnt receive it. I got an email around the middle of march will dealines for application for skills tests that being at the end of March. They should have sent regualar emails out and got the tutors to contact the students to find out what their plans were. This way perhaps more would have done their skills tests sooner or at least it might have been spaced out more. So I did 5 in about 4 weeks so if everyone did that boy o boy what a lot of skills tests that is.

I don't really mind the time it is taking for them to mark them I would prefer that t hey were marked well and to the standards which is what they are doing, just frustrated over the project bit.

will let you know re the project when I find out more

pirate

Ok finally all is revealed

Ok so the reason I cannot start my Project under the new standards is because I am on 2 levels.
So I have done all the exams for level 3 and all of the exams for level 4 but only some of the skills tests for level 3 which means I am not yet competent in Level 3. If I was competent and had the certificate there would be no problem in working in a dual manner ie doing some of the exams under old standards and some under the new standards.

Everything has been extended until the end of September but it does mean that if students start submitting skills tests now that there is a danger that they wont be marked as they still have a large back log

Normally at any one time there are a maximum of 20 skills tests. Right now for this week alone they have 90.

Technically I could do my project under the old standards but I wont be able to get any support because they already cut everyone off on the old standards at the end of december. (which is why I havent done it yet as I need a scenario and have been unable to buy 1 for six months due to being under the old standards) and I hadnt appreciated the december cut off date as I asked to start it in January.
Whether other distance learner will accept the project under the old standards is entirely down to the distance learner.

There is also a very real situation that skills tests will not be marked and IVed by the end of June or even July or August. So for me there is a real danger that I cannot get my ICAS scenario until end of september. This is unlikely but a possibility due to the amount that are still left to mark.
They are allocating the marking on a strictly date order but many arrived after the 30th April deadline due to the bank holiday which is what happened to me there was no one to sign for it, but I am not sure when my supervisors posted it as they said it was posted well before but there you go.

So if you are with a distance learner you have now got an extension for your skills tests but you must check with your college as to whether they will accept any now.

Project seems also to have been extended but again different college different rules.

this is an absolute nightmare