Upskilled Education. Highly Disappointed. Buyer Beware

Lcuriousgeorgie on 21/07/2020 - 00:31

Just want to share this info, so that no one will have to endure such hardship and wastes $1000's.
While their website is slick and features current and up to date content and articles, Once you enroll, you will be extremely disappointed.
Upskilled DOES NOT provide their own original learning material. They just direct you to Pluralsight, LinkedIn Learning and ClickView. (FYI. LinkedIn learning is available freely from any public library!) You could save $1000’s just by watching these videos yourself.
Also, their trainers are just 3rd party contractors. If you have any difficulties with your course, they will just tell you they don’t actually work there. and google the answers
Finally, their assessments and assignments are outdated and haven't been updated in the last 4 years! Their course on IT has assignments on Windows 7!
Hope this will help people

Have a look at the multiple negative reviews at
https://www.productreview.com.au/listings/upskilled

RTO Number: 40374
Upskilled

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Comments

  • sheamas88 on 21/07/2020 - 07:39
    +1

    If it makes you feel any better, university degrees in Bachelor of IT are a bit of a joke too (IMO). Most of the graduates I see are missing a shocking amount of fundamental knowledge. University degrees for a number of career paths are more "pay to play" rather than actual learning. Most employers for those industries just want to see a university degree and a decent GPA, they don't care about what you actually know if your going for entry-level jobs and so those alternatives to uni won't even get you past the first round of a hiring process (at big companies, YMMV for smaller places).

    People who do these "bootcamps" or other online courses are really doing themselves a disservice as you pay a lot of money but don't get the piece of paper that most employers want to see. There is also a huge amount of online learning resources that are freely available. You can get online courses from Harvard, MIT, etc for free and that will be a much better standard than some bootcamp charging $$$$ and both ways you don't end up with the thing employers want most, but atleast one was free…

    It's stupid and pointless, but in my observations that's the way the industry works in Australia.

    • SnoozeAndLose on 21/07/2020 - 08:30
      +4

      You just learn 1 thing at Uni, how to google.

      University actually teach you how to resolve the issue while learning new things. Of course, there is material covered only for the specific field but it is more teaching you how to help serve and problem-solving which is what you need at work.

      • sheamas88 on 21/07/2020 - 12:34
        +1

        You'll learn far more problem solving skills on the job than you can learn at university. University should be giving you the technical skill set to do that, but the actually problem solving skills come from actually using them on real world problems.

        All universities struggle to give people on-the-job skills without having work placements because it's not something that can be easily replicated in an education environment. They should be focusing on giving students a solid technical foundation and leaving it to them to get work placements or internships to use that knowledge to learn how to problem solve.

    • [Deactivated] on 21/07/2020 - 10:16

      University - problem solving, resource management and fundamentals for further academic advancement.

      Technical school - learning a process for immediate and direct application.

    • conan2000 on 21/07/2020 - 11:37

      I remember when I was a graduate and worked with someone that had a Bachelor of IT/Information Systems, and didn't even know what a database was.

      • Quantumcat on 21/07/2020 - 16:22

        Bachelor of IT would be more about networking and helpdesk stuff. Databases would come under software engineering or computer science.

        • chanhoz on 26/07/2020 - 09:44

          Depending on the university. In some uni, computer science is just a major of IT.

    • Ghost47 on 21/07/2020 - 12:20
      +1

      I wouldn't say it's just Bachelor of IT degrees but most degrees. University degrees in general can be very theoretical without much hands on work.

      It's all about the piece of paper these days, even moreso than 10 years ago because of how many people get degrees in this country. To really stand out you need to do multiple internships, start a side hustle etc. Good grades and a degree means nothing.

      • sheamas88 on 21/07/2020 - 12:28
        +1

        University degrees in general can be very theoretical without much hands on work.

        Yes completely agree, it's almost impossible for a university to give any real world skills unless they have a lot of work placements (medicine, teaching, engineering, etc) and so their focus should be on technical skills, and leave real world skills for students to work on themselves by getting work placements and internships.

        My point is that at least from my observations, they fail at teaching some things that I would consider very basic knowledge, like really basic knowledge. Perhaps it's because IT is too broad, I dunno.

        It's all about the piece of paper these days, even moreso than 10 years ago because of how many people get degrees in this country

        It's also because it's an easy way to filter out applicants. Jobs advertised online can get thousands of applications and so filtering by degree and GPA is easy for HR to do.

        • Ghost47 on 21/07/2020 - 12:34

          Yep, I agree as I've seen and recall lecturers who have trouble teaching basic concepts. The fact that some lecturers can't even speak proper English so that students can easily understand them is a massive inefficiency in the system too.

          And yes the degree is used to filter people out easily. Although I know in my workplace resumes are scanned using OCR and keywords are searched up. I know HR don't scan for the word "bachelor" or "degree" though (mainly position names such as "Business Development Manager", "Accountant" etc.)

          Universities are just paper printing businesses, and Australian degrees are overrated.

  • tomsco on 21/07/2020 - 08:22
    +2

    If you haven't, I recommend submitting a complaint here: https://www.asqa.gov.au/complaints/complaints-about-training…

  • netjock on 21/07/2020 - 09:25
    +4

    Most employers for those industries just want to see a university degree and a decent GPA, they don't care about what you actually know if your going for entry-level jobs

    You know why?

    1. To make sure you are able to carry through a commitment (3 or 4 year degree)
    2. Decent GPA means you've got a memory to recall stuff you have learnt, making sure you got a long term memory
    3. You know approximately what you're going to do
    4. What you know out of uni is like doing learners and just past the driving test, there is no way they are going to give you a B double or a Ferrari to race around the track.

    Back to the serious issue: unless it is bricks and mortar education institution which existed before the internet actually attached to some alliance (ie. The Go8 universities in Australia, Russell Group in the UK or appears on Global rankings), most of these new organisations are just recycling content for a mark up.

    If you wanted to spend thousands you could do a 2 day short course pumped out by Harvard and tell people you went to Harvard. There is people who do that. There is like a $60k 4 week Masters in Business intensive which sounds like an MBA but not the full 1 year $100k USD program.

  • pharkurnell on 21/07/2020 - 12:01
    +2

    So many stories online, and current affair style stories of dodgy online training organizations and places disappearing with peoples money in recent years.. So many promises by Gov Co, but little changes.

    I'm looking for some online training to do now while things are dead and quiet… Not even sure what course, but no idea who to trust. So many promises from many of them.

    Like anyone I cant afford to be robbed and bull$hitted to.

    • Ghost47 on 21/07/2020 - 12:43

      You can use Udemy. Granted pretty much all courses aren't officially certified and some are really bad in that they haven't been updated for a few years so the information is obsolete. I would not personally put them down on my CV like they mean anything. Otherwise Harvard have free intro courses on edx which give you a certification (it would still be weak to put it on your CV as it'd be the equivalent of saying "I did one intro subject At a university level").

      The most important thing is that you are learning something new and applying it to real world projects (the latter of which is not really done at universities).

      • pharkurnell on 21/07/2020 - 12:50

        Yea steering away from Udemy for the reason you mentioned on nothing official, and some being really poo… I believe anyone can create a course for there.. who knows if they are legit… :)

        I dont mind paying for a good course, with proper outcomes… but some are crazy $$$

        • Ghost47 on 21/07/2020 - 12:57

          The highly rated ones are still good. As I said the main thing is that you are learning and applying knowledge.

          You can learn a lot more from a Udemy course on Python programming than you can at university and for 1/10000th of the cost. Granted there are pitfalls like you wouldn't learn much about programming paradigms in a course on Python, but you'll get hands on experience. For the cost it's a no brainer IMO especially when Udemy courses are often free.

          But yes, no official certification if that's what you really want, which sucks because that's the way the world works. I'm sure some HR people out there would say "Oh you have no piece of paper showing that you went to uni but you created a piece of software to simplify your personal life? No thanks not interested in hiring you."

          There was the discounted uni courses in the news a month or two ago, but I'm fairly certain spots for them are filled up. They were mainly for grad certificates and we're discounted pretty heavily actually.

          • pharkurnell on 21/07/2020 - 13:07
            +1

            @Ghost47: It is sad the world relies on bits of paper to prove knowledge over experience..
            I've worked in IT for 25yrs, havent done a bit of paper in longer.. I'd hate to be looking for work now.

            Specially with all the brain dump sites and rubbish and cheating around and about..
            We interviewed a few people years back for job, they all had flash bits of paper, but couple of them couldnt answer basic questions on setting up new users…

            • samfisher5986 on 21/07/2020 - 15:04
              +2

              @pharkurnell: At least in IT, I find a degree completely useless for saying they know anything and in fact makes them a lot worse as a potential candidate because they think they know something or will pretend to.

      • curiousgeorgie on 21/07/2020 - 13:21

        LinkedIn learning is also an excellent resource. Free via most libraries

        • pharkurnell on 21/07/2020 - 13:38

          Just looked at it, but it doesnt appear as though you can see any info or details on the courses, what courses, time limits, how they are done anything without starting your free month…

  • samfisher5986 on 21/07/2020 - 12:22

    Upskilled were perfect for me, but I was already knowledgable on the subject, so I just skipped through most of the learning videos and went to the assignments and exams.

  • Clear on 21/07/2020 - 21:07

    Been tempting to use them for my GradCert because of price but those reviews have been a real turn off.

  • secondhandsixty on 30/03/2021 - 11:14
    Merged from Upskilled Education: Waste of Time, Waste of Money, out of Date

    Upskilled Education is a waste of time and a waste of money. Most of the course questions are out of Date and are based on MS Windows 7 and Server 2003. The learning material could easily be obtained from youtube of a similar library and you could save thousands of dollars. I fell into the trap assuming that Upskilled provides their own original learning material, this IT course is a load of rubbish.

    After i joined the marketing people sent text messages directing you to sign up to Pluralsight, LinkedIn Learning and ClickView to learn the course content to answer the out of date course questions. I found it unexeptable that i had to google the questions to learn material and do short courses with other brand companies to learn. Don't waste your time with them.

    • Hybroid on 30/03/2021 - 11:18
      +6

      Don't trust anything that only offers "online training". They're no better than the Udemy crap. Get a refund.

      • buckethat on 30/03/2021 - 12:16
        +1

        To be fair, some of the courses on Udemy is pretty good.

        • macrocephalic on 30/03/2021 - 15:05

          Some can be, but many (most?) are about the same quality as you'd get from a free resource.

          That said, most university courses could be learned entirely from the prescribed textbooks if you had the motivation to do it and assess your learning - so a $3000 subsidised course content could be learned for $200 if you buy the book (or less if you borrow or pirate it).

    • kanmen on 30/03/2021 - 11:23

      RTO's: Waste of Time, Waste of Money, Out of Date

    • knasty on 30/03/2021 - 11:41
      +5

      My impression was a lot of these 'education providers' are only in business to allow for international students to get/maintain a visa?

    • holdenmg on 30/03/2021 - 11:44
      +1

      Welcome secondhandsixty. :+)

    • Hithere on 30/03/2021 - 12:04

      Upskilled Education is a waste of time and a waste of money.

      What did they say when you challenged Upskilled Education about this?

    • [Deactivated] on 30/03/2021 - 12:18
      +3

      Be careful with your choice of words. Unacceptable has a very different meaning from what the imaginary word unex[c]eptable would mean, if it existed.

      • bobbified on 30/03/2021 - 13:48

        OP needs a refund on that course too! 😆

    • SF3 on 30/03/2021 - 12:38
      +1

      I thought I read “Unskilled”, nevermind…

    • Headless on 30/03/2021 - 13:08

      But facebook has a 5/5 rating!

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