The Skills Network - Selby

Libby B.

I would strongly recommend people avoid these courses.
I applied for a course on children's mental health, that was funded. I have just finished a master's in counselling and psychotherapy (for which I got a distinction) and I also used to teach at a University. I wanted a course talking about children's mental health, what common experiences there are, perhaps the causes of these and how to help young people. I have a psychology background and I thought it would be a good refresher.
The course is terrible, its all about social work, actually it looks like a module from a social work course, rehashed as an stand alone course. I failed my first assessment because I didn't talk about social worker care plans and how they work, or design a road to recovery for a hypothetical person. First of all, we were not taught these things in the course - you had to go off and do extensive reading to understand them. This is a GCSE level course, usually these are mainly taught with a small amount of reading, not a small amount of teaching and a lot of reading - that would be more like degree level.
Also, I wanted to learn about children's mental health not social work and how a social worker would deal with a child's mental health. Why would I need to write a care plan, also the road to recovery - how could you possibly know? Everyone has different roads to recover and believing that we know how that should look from a one paragraph description is just ridiculous. In fact it is teaching the wrong thing - that we know best and can 'fix' people in a certain way.
The next module involved reading load and loads of legal legislation - why? I wanted to learn about children's mental health, this seemed a bit irrelevant unless - guess what, you are going to work in social work or another profession with these legal obligations.
Also, my tutor was quite offensive, suggesting I needed help with maths ( - I have a maths A-level I am fine) and English (again I have an A-level in this). Also suggested I should go and speak to their careers people - who would no doubt tell me to become a social worker.
Anyway, anyone who has failed an assignment - don't feel bad. I have a PhD in psychology (which I assumed this would be mostly based on) and I failed one.
I asked to be withdrawn based on the fact the course was not about children's mental health and therefore it wasn't what I needed. It is also a ridiculous amount of work with lots of deadlines close together and huge amounts of extra reading.
They insisted I carry on, and when I didn't do more of the assessments they have told me I need to pay £100.
This is completely unfair as the course is not what it is advertised to be. If it was advertised as how social workers work with mental health in children it would be fine, but its not. Also it had a lack of evidence backing up its points and appears to blame a 'lack of resilience' as the cause of mental health problems, essentially blaming the children themselves.
Finally, the real kick in the teeth is that all the children I know involved in mental health services don't seem to have the things in place that this course suggests should be happening. So it is basically just a fantasy of how social work should be fixing everything but isn't.

S

Absolutely awful service. I was the only woman on a course with 15+ men and during the session in the breakout groups I was constantly spoken over/ignored and chat messages were also ignored. My tutors response to this was to blame me for not mentioning this during the session. They absolutely refused to make any adjustments for me so I could continue the course and then withdrew me with no warning. If you’re woman considering doing one of their course AVOID. Gender based discrimination is perfectly fine for them in 2025.

Andy B.

Completely awful service . Missed an assessment and be withdrawn and charged £100 . 3 emails sent to me to be reinstated but when I called them they were worded incorrectly . Lots of others out there don’t bother with this cowboy outfit. Try ct skills , so much nicer and helpfull and have the same courses available .

Brogan F.

They remove you from courses immediately if you don’t meet 1 deadline., even when you ask for extensions for deadlines due to health and personal reasons (pregnancy). They offer no support and guidance. Wouldn’t recommend at all

Valentyn

I attended the Software Development Skills Bootcamp in 2024. Unfortunately, my experience did not align with the promises made in the course advertising or by the Learning Advisors, who painted a picture of a bright future after completing the programme. The Careers Support Team and Personal Tutor support were also far below expectations, and the course description on their website did not reflect the reality of the programme.

The course content was disappointing, with 95% focused on theory through slide presentations, which tutors merely read aloud, and only 5% dedicated to actual coding — an alarming statistic for a software development course. Communication between the Learning Advisors, Personal Tutors, and Careers Team was disjointed, with no clear understanding of responsibilities. For example, the Learning Advisors claimed the Careers Team would provide individualised job-seeking support, yet it took the Careers Team two months to respond to a single email. When they finally did reply, their response was unprofessional and dismissive, including one instance where they simply asked, "What do you want?" in response to an enquiry I made via WhatsApp after receiving a Skills Network bot message about needing support. Personal Tutor who is supposed to guide you with 1:1 support has no knowledge and experience in coding and the software at all, doing only administrative tasks like asking how is our course.

It is disappointing that such issues persist in a programme funded by government resources through the Department for Education. These funds are intended to help eligible students gain skills and secure employment. However, in my experience, the quality of training provided by this bootcamp was subpar. The guaranteed job interview, a key selling point and a requirement for obtaining the course certificate, was not delivered.

Ranjit S.

Scammers, didn’t communicate my funding nor any information to me then started chasing my assessments when I was unaware. Despite me going through a rough situation at the time. Don’t use these people they pressure, scam and misadvise you

Emily H.

Terrible course. I was disappointed to be accused of cheating during my first unit. Especially as the assessor couldn't tell me why they thought that. Everytime I would email, they wouldn't get back to me. There was a lot of repetition throughout the course. The answers to the assignment questions weren't all covered in the course meaning that you had to teach yourself through other methods. Everything they asked you in the assignment, should have been taught in the course.

Jasmin R.

I don't think I could have had a worse experience. Work was never marked when it was supposed to have been, not even months later was it marked after I'd followed up on it. Over a year after completing the course and not received my certificate, I sent several complaints in to be told I was never even enrolled properly (despite completing all the work and having it all marked, ergo passing the course) and told the course had now changed so I had to complete further work. Completed the additional questions anyway, despite my annoyance, and even then, had to complain several times before I was sent my certificate out. My partner is currently completing a course and has had no feedback, no work marked or anything and it's been months. The course might be funded by other companies but there is no excuse to deliver this poor quality of service to anybody trying to get additional education. Wouldn't bother doing another course as I don't have the time or patience chasing up on it for months on end. Told my partner not to bother either. He won't be paying for the course if unfinished because the company hasn't delivered any level of service that was promised upon signing up for the course.