Distance Learning

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Rune
Rune Registered Posts: 91 Regular contributor ⭐
in AAT Level 3 (Level 6 in Scotland)
I need advice!

I am thinking about distance learning for the Technician level. Who would you recommend?

Premier seems to be the cheapest! But I have have heard good and bad about Kaplan. And BPP?

Could I please get some feed back. I really need your help......:thumbup:

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  • numberjunky
    numberjunky Registered Posts: 88 Regular contributor ⭐
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    Firstly you need to decide if distance learning is the only option for you. Personally, I did a simple GCSE Accounting through a distance learning program and it was hell! Nobody to turn to when I really wanted help and nobody to motivate me when I found it tough (and I'm certain Level 4 is going to be tough)

    After my GCSE I went into a classroom situation at college to do AAT Level 3 and found it brilliant. Problems were solved almost immediately and support was always on hand from both my tutor and fellow students. So the bottom line for you is...

    1. How good is the support for the course?
    2. Are you motivated enough to learn on your own?

    I can't comment on the learning providers but the BPP books we used at college were generally very good despite having a few errors in them (mainly typing errors but some caused confusion as they were answers)

    Good luck
    Be aware that Level 4 is a B_I_G step up from Level 3
  • jilbo
    jilbo Registered Posts: 197 Dedicated contributor 🦉
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    I am half way through technician having just sat the 2 tax exams and hoping to complete this level by the end of this year. I am a distance learner with Premier Training Immingham and my tutor is very supportive.

    Premier use Osborne books which I prefer to BPP, although I can't compare them to any others. Premier were also a good choice for me as I could pay for my course over 4 months which helped my cash flow.

    On the down side I can only get hold of my tutor during office hours by phone, so as I am in full time employment I am studying in the evenings or at weekends and have to wait until the next working day if I have a query with something. There are however a couple of other tutors who can be contacted by phone 2 evenings a week up until 8pm, suppose I'm being picky here by having a favourite! I can of course email but sometimes it takes a while to get a reply.

    Their aim is to mark and return assignments within a week of receiving them, this generally happens now but I have been waiting up to 3 weeks during busy periods.

    On the whole I am very happy with Premier but obviously have no other experiences to compare them with. Hopefully you will hear from students using other companies and will be able to make comparrisons. Why not ring a couple, ask them about tutor contact, marking deadlines and which text books they use, and then you'll get a general feel about the level of service you can expect to get from them.

    Good luck with your studies.
  • jp27
    jp27 Registered Posts: 9 New contributor 🐸
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    Hi, I have just completed my Certificate level, and am thinking about the best way to do the Intermediate level, with cost being quite an issue. I can buy all the books I need to do the course for a little over £100. to do the next level through Premier, which I did the first with, will cost £439. I haven't used my tutor, other then to send 2 assignments. I find that they dont chase me up if I'm late with anything. Is it owrthwile having the tutor there, or has anybody else thought about putting themselves through it, with no tutor?

    thanks
  • Rune
    Rune Registered Posts: 91 Regular contributor ⭐
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    All good points. The hassle I have is that I think that I 've failed on section 2 of FRA, so I will need to resit this one in December. The college that I'm studying with at the moment is refusing to let us proceed to level 4 until level 3 has been passed. Which means that another academic year will pass before i can continue with AAT. I know I could get a job BUT there are no firms where I live who want or seem to want to take anyone on that has no qualifacations in this area. So it's the old story of no experience no job and no job no way of getting experience.

    Yes I am motivated yes I do have the time so where do I go from here?

    I have even thought of offering myself for free to companies just to get the experience, but again we were also told to get work experience during the last 2 weeks of college. That was a laugh, the amount of people who wrote to companies offering themselves for work experience for FREE and not one person got any sort of work experience.

    WHAT IS THE WORLD COMING TO????:mad2:
  • hanapospis
    hanapospis Registered Posts: 111 Dedicated contributor 🦉
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    Hi,

    I am also studying with Premier Training Immingham. I have just started two months ago and I have now finished all three assignments of unit5 and starting with 32unit.

    My tutor is very supportive and is always happy to help. However, I rarely contact him at all:001_tongue: I cannot say anything really bad about them. Only as it was said before you can contact them only in office hours by phone. I am in full time employment as well so I usually contact my tutor by email and the reply never take more then 24hours.

    They always try to return your assignments in a week or so. In my case it never took more then 6 working days. I am planning to take both exams in December and from January start a technician with Premiere again.

    I was doing my Certificate level at College. It seems to me too long and boring. I could have done it in much less time then 10months and that is why I have decided for distance learning. You can do it at my pace which suits me...

    Good luck!!

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