Precision Training Farce
PRECISION TRAINING FORMALLY WOUND UP: NOW THE HEAT IS ON
SOME GOOD NEWS FOR STUDENTS - THEY WILL GET E-PORTFOLIO's BACK - SKILLWISE & OFFICIAL RECEIVER ENABLE RETRIEVAL OF COURSEWORK AT NO COST TO STUDENTS
DETAILS OF NVQ TRAINING SCANDAL OFFICIALLY REVEALED - COMPANY WAS A COMPLETE FRAUD
Precision Training, along with the very shortlived non-existent sister company Aspire Training, were formally wound up at a hearing in London's High Court (above) Wednesday morning.
The hearing itself was very short, a virtual rubber stamping, lasting only minutes. However, now that the formality of the hearing is over, the major investigation is beginning.
The good news for students is that they can now get their e-portfolios back and will not be charged. Details below.
An interim hearing had been heard at the High Court previously because of the company's owners refusal to comply with requests by government investigators. This was an emergency measure which gave extra powers to the investigators, and Wednesday's hearing will now see the screw turning on Salim & Nichola Shivji, the directors who abandoned the company, its students, staff and creditors.
With this hearing over, statutory powers available to the Official Receiver are almost draconian in that refusal to hand over evidence, or to answer questions, is a criminal offense.
Although the bad news still being that no assets have been discovered as of publication time, the Official Receiver told Balita Pinoy that they want all creditors, students and former employees to contact them. In the case of students, this is very important as they will have to contact the official receiver to get their e-portfolios back. Officially nothing is yet being announced, but an agreement has been struck between the Official Receiver and the company that handled the e-portfolios which will mean the company will hand over access to former students of Precision Training of their portfolios.
All those students should contact the Public Interest Unit of the Insolvency Service to retrieve them. Contact them at this e-mail address marking the e-mail "PRECISION TRAINING":
It is important to note that students must contact the Official Receiver, this is beauracracy but that is the procedure as the Official Receiver will have to confirm to the company handling the e-portfolios that each student is genuine.
It should also be noted that the company holding the e-portfolios are victims of Precision Training themselves, being owed many thousands of pounds; however, they will not be charging students for the return of their portfolios. A statement below issued by a spokesman from SkillWise details the basic facts and procedure to be effected.
"We were contacted by the Official Receiver (OR) when he explained what was going on.
As SkillWise is committed to enabling the Learners e-portfolios to be returned to all the students affected by this situation, SkillWise have told the OR we will carry all related costs so there will be no additional burden on the students affected.
The agreed approach to this is that the OR will send the learners a letter which will include an explanation and details on how they can access their portfolios and get access to their "evidence". Essentially they will get their username, password and the URL to get access. Should the learner be in a position to move to a new training provider to continue their studies, SkillWise will also carry the cost of allowing the learner to complete their portfolio on the SkillWise system, which should help reduce any disruption in their learning.
We will not charge the learner or the subsequent training provider any fees. It must be emphasized that the students must contact the Official Receiver in the first instance who will liaise with us to effect the return of their [students] e-portfolios".
The last sentence in their [SkillWise'] statement is twofold, one is that it enables the Official Receiver to gauge the true extent of students affected, and it means SkillWise will not be swamped by individual students. The Official Receiver will submit student details in batches to SkillWise so as to minimize any possible hiccups in the procedure. SkillWise have already indicated to Balita Pinoy that they hold in excess of 1,200 e-portfolios.
Fortunately for those students who were using the e-portfolio system, there is the realistic opportunity to get their work back.
In conversations with SkillWise, they disclosed that as they held the database, Precision Training would be unable to "lose" them or conceal the numbers involved. SkillWise also disclosed that since Precision Training abandoned the company last summer, they have been stymied as to what to do with the e-portfolios.
SkillWise stated they are a educational software company providing e-portfolio and apprenticeship tracking solutions to colleges, universities and awarding bodies and are not an investigative company, so did not have the ability to track down the hundreds of victims of Precision Training. This deal brokered by the Official Receiver and SkillWise is the perfect solution for the students.
As indicated in the investigators report, the Shivji's have not been forthcoming with the true location of the student's portfolios, and if any are on paper, they are in danger of being lost (if not already lost/destroyed).
The original interim petition was granted after the submission of the Company Investigation Branch team's damning 65 page report (a link to this report is below). The investigation team, part of the Insolvency Service, had originally thought their task would be over in three to four weeks. In fact they started in November of last year and continued into January of this year by which time enough evidence was amassed to go straight to the court for an interim (provisional) order. The investigations are ongoing, and because of the increased powers now available will be more extensive.
The time difference between the original estimate (three weeks) of the investigation and the actual time taken (thirteen weeks) was because of the complexity of the issue surrounding Precision Training and refusal of the Shivji's to tell the truth and surrender all records.
A link to the complete investigation report is below, it is a 65 page affidavit. What are listed now in italics are some of the damning extracts from it:
"To my knowledge not one of those students obtained a qualification through Precision."
"The education training provided to students has been nothing less than appalling."
"Mr Shivji lied to students ... claiming that Aspire was in no way connected to Precision. Mr Shivji acknowledged this was a blatant lie."
"Both Mr & Mrs Shivji have lied or seriously misled me on a number of matters, including the existence of Mr Ba'al and circumstances surrounding the transfer of Precision's business and abandonment of its creditors, extent of fixed assets of Precision, what they earned from Precision in remuneration and benefits, the whereabouts of books and records, failure to disclose applications for Train to Gain funding and transfer of business into Spire."
"The information obtained from former Precision assessors mirrored complaints from students and care homes, that Precision completely failed to provide an adequate level of service in the way of training students, with the company effectively ignoring those concerns and continuing to focus on its main activity, generating new sales."
"The main thrust of Precision's business has been the recruitment of students and taking in fees, emphasised by selling courses at promotional prices well below the company's own break even figures ... provision of any actual training to students appears to have been no more than a secondary concern to the Shivjis."
"Mr Shivji has used a number of aliases in dealing with Precision creditors, and indeed with the government agency Jobseekers Allowance, who know Mr Shivji as Mr S. Salim"
"Mr & Mrs Shivji failed to disclose their involvement with another company following the claimed failure of Aspire, Spire Training Limited, instead both claiming to be unemployed" (and indeed claiming unemployment benefits)
Claimed students were employees to mislead a bank
"Lack of business probity and instances of misrepresentations and fraud by the protagonists of the companies, Mr & Mrs Shivji."
Other interesting facts disclosed in the investigator's affidavit were the existence of another company the Shivji's were involved with as directors, Academia. Of even more curious interest was a USB flash drive handed over by the Shivji's containing letters from Affinity Training regarding a Filipino's application to an entry clearance officer at the British embassy in Manila. This was not fully explained by the Shivji's and leads to a suspicion that a link between the two companies somehow existed. (Affinity Training went into liquidation and there were suspicions that documents from Affinity were stolen and spirited away to Precision Training).
Apart from the students ability getting their portfolios back through the official receiver, the main thing now is to see what action the Insolvency Service will take towards the Shivji's. Along with clear evidence of fraud, there is the matter of employees' withholding taxes and National Insurance contributions not being remitted. Welfare benefits claimed by the Shivji's whilst running a company (Spire Training), as well as what appears to be prima facie evidence of flipping an bank overdraft into a government guaranteed loan days before abandoning Precision and after Aspire was set up will be among the many things the receiver will consider in the weeks ahead.
Clear evidence of duping creditors and suppliers of services emerges.
The investigator's report (the link is below) clearly states the information contained in it is not comprehensive as the Shivji's have avoided giving full information to them in an attempt to conceal the full extent of the scandal. Now the Insolvency Service have the full investigative powers after Wednesday's hearing, a more complete picture may emerge.
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE INVESTIGATORS REPORT ON PRECISION TRAINING
The petition to wind up the company was presented in the public interest by the Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills following an investigation under the provision of section 447 Companies Act 1985.
The Official Receiver was appointed as provisional liquidator of the company on 18 February 2010 and has a duty to secure the company's assets pending the outcome of the hearing of the petition which was held on 19 May 2009.
The Official Receiver has not yet recovered any learners' coursework. As mentioned above, contact them and they will then contact the company concerned to arrange access
If you are owed money by the company please provide information in the first instance by email to
MARK THE COMMUNICATION "PRECISION TRAINING"
Companies dealt with by the public interest unit
XXXX
PRECISION TRAINING - COURT PROCEEDINGS BEGIN
Click the link above for details
The imposing entrance of the Shivji's new office at No 1 Royal Exchange Avenue
If you want to visit, they are on the first floor, and now known as Spire Training
Click on the images for a larger view
"We're back in business" - The Shivji's bounce back
Governor of the Bank Of England Mervyn King will not be best pleased when he discovers who his new neighbors are.
Owners of the rogue NVQ company Precision Training Salim (Ali) Shivji and wife Nichola have set up camp in the shadow of the Bank of England, Britain's central bank.
One of the mottos of the Bank of England is: "A safe and stable financial system is essential to the economy. The Bank assesses risks to the stability of the financial system and works to strengthen the way it operates."
As former students of Precision Training, the staffers and creditors can attest, safe and stable are not descriptions anyone can use where the Shivji's are concerned.
Now calling themselves Spire Training, they have rented offices at the prestigious 1 Royal Exchange Avenue, London EC3V 3LT just off Threadneedle Street, home to the Bank of England.
The Grade II listed building is the sort of place respectable financial institutions would want, to give credence to their probity.
Their Freephone number for any of their old friends connected with Precision Training is:
0800 098 8231
The number for the main reception is:
020 7464 4000 or 0044 20 764 4000 if calling from outside the UK
However, Salim (Ali) Shivji may not answer to that name; he is known to use other names including Mohamed Ali, and Ali Habib.
UPDATED INFORMATION
Their website: www.spiretraining.co.uk is down and they appear to have left the offices in the City of London.
Their address in Southend is supposed to be:
2 Nelson Street, SS1 1EF
but as their website has been taken down, who knows
NVQ training "college" Precision Training left hundreds, possibly thousands of students as well as many care home operators adrift, with no qualifications they had already paid for.
This scandal came to light after Precision Training finally closed its doors in June, although students and care home operators had made numerous complaints to the two awarding bodies they were registered with, City & Guilds (C&G) and Edexcel. Eventually these two bodies placed final sanctions on Precision and it was this, coupled with an expected infusion of hundreds of thousands of pounds of goverment money that failed to arrive, closed the company.
In the meantime, students who thought they were getting much needed qualifications they had paid for, see nothing for their money and the company's owners have gone into hiding.
There is also a link to the BBC's own investigation into this scandal.
And below, is a selection of complaints made by students and care home operators about their experiences with Precision Training.
No more than a maximum of 70 students were ever actually registered with an awarding body, and there is no evidence whatsoever of any student ever gaining an NVQ through Precision.
What is certain is that at least 1,200 students, and possibly as many as 4,500 were signed up by Precision Training, led by husband and wife team Salim (Ali) and Nichola Shivji. The reason the true figures may never be known is that only the Shivji's have the real records, and they are in hiding after being evicted from their luxury rented home near to the Burnham offices for non-payment of rent and bouncing checks.
This is along with former staffers, suppliers of services and interestingly, recruitment agencies in the UK, who Precision used to recruit assessors and internal verifiers. It appears to have been the practice of the Shivji's to employ assessors, then fire them after a few months, naturally withholding pay and expenses. Several of these recruitment agencies are looking for their money, with fees outstanding of tens of thousands of pounds.
The duplicitous behavior of the two principals, Nichola and Salim (Ali) Shivji beggars belief. In the words of one former staffer, the only thing they appear to have been good at is marketing. They controlled all aspects of the fraud at Precision, aided by a small coterie of insiders.
A BAD COMPANY WITH NO AID TO STUDENTS
All the students and care home operators share one thing in common, they have paid in advance for a service they never received.
That money is almost certainly gone, as are the two directors of the company.
Allied to this is that the two awarding bodies, City & Guilds and Edexcel, having already indicated between them that no more than 70 students were ever registered with them by Precision have no legal duty of care to the students.
As 1,100 to 4,500 students were never registered by Precision, there is no official record of any work those students may have done.
With the Shivji's seeming to have gone into hiding, nobody can locate the course work, folders and portfolios etc that any of the students have completed; if they ever did. Certainly some students have told Balita Pinoy and others that they completed work and handed the portfolios to assessors. Others never even saw an assessor, or if they did, it was never the same assessor.
FILIPINO AMONG STUDENTS HARDEST HIT
Several hundred Filipino students paid up to £3,800 to enter the UK on NVQ training courses, in many cases it is the second time they have been ripped off, some of them previously having been registered with the now dead Affinity Training.
Others known to have been affected are Bulgarians, Romanians, Indians, Africans along with many British students. None to our knowledge completed successfully the training modules, none got certificates from the awarding bodies, Edexcel and City & Guilds, and it appears only a handful were ever actually registered with the awarding bodies in the first place.
A recent British Parliamentary committee reported on the case of fraudulent colleges such as Precision very recently, and is due to have further evidence submitted in due course.
The regulatory body for educational qualifications, OFQUAL, has requested and received reports on the Precision scandal from the two awarding bodies, Edexcel and City & Guilds, that Precision were registered with. OFQUAL received these reports and have said they are satisfied that both organizations acted correctly. It is hoped these reports will be published shortly.
Industry insiders have privately stated that this is only the tip of the iceberg and other colleges are coming under scrutiny in the wake of this and other colleges who have left many students in serious trouble.
Many in the industry have stated they became alarmed late last year when they saw Precision doing very cheap deals which were financially unsustainable for training courses.
Copying the supermarkets, they were doing such things as "BOGOFF's", Buy One Get One Free. A cursory analysis would show there was no way could the students get proper training at those prices. But Precision were getting away with it.
There were many complaints to Precision, the awarding bodies and agents that the students were not seeing assessors on a regular basis. Assessors are supposed to monitor and co-ordinate training, at least on a monthly basis.
Some complainants to Balita Pinoy have stated they never saw an assessor.
This shabby treatment of students and others was compounded by a very crude attempt at a "Phoenix" company being set up. Rather in the way Affinity Training became Wave Training, a company known as Aspire was set up, ostensibly by a "Revven Ba'al".
This was in fact set up by Salim Shivji. When the whole structure collapsed, an even cruder attempt to put people off was devised by the Shivji's stating the company (Aspire) had moved to, of all places, Aberdeen in the north of Scotland.
This was a complete lie and was obviously designed to put students, care home operators and other creditors off the trail.
Do you have any more information on this matter?
Text Heimdall: 07708 190184 if you are in the UK, 00447708190184 if outside the UK OR email:
THE OWNERS, STUDENTS AND REGULATORS
All the while, the Shivji's were living a few miles down the road in an expensive property for which the owner never received rent (the Shivji's were evicted eventually several weeks ago). The final straw appears to have been a £350,000 cheque the Shivji's were hoping for that never materialized in the late spring of this year.
In a desperate attempt to generate more income, the Shivji's tried to get on the "Train to Gain" bandwagon.
This is a government funded scheme to assist UK employers put their unqualified staffers through the necessary NVQ's. Organised through the Learning Skills Council (LSC), employers of European Union staffers get about 60% of the fees paid upfront, with the balance being paid when the student gets the NVQ awarded.
It seems their (Precision's) application for an account with the LSC was rejected after Precision failed to satisfy the LSC of their account probity (no surprise there).
Precision then approached another company who were a prime account holder with the LSC; this was on the basis that Precision would become a sub-contractor.
What happened was that all Precision's assessors and other staffers were racing around the country (officially) to sign up eligible students who had already paid for their courses to sign up for the Train to Gain scheme.
Although some assessors did indeed visit students (the rules are the application forms are signed by the students and responsible manager at the employers), we have statements from many of the assessors that to save money, the Shivji's told them (the staffers) to remain at their homes (saving expense payments) and essentially sign the forms themselves.
This was all to no avail as the company Precision were supposedly acting as sub-contractor for looked at the application forms and for some reason declined to become involved. (The company concerned expressed alarm when told that Precision were claiming they were partner companies, they are trying to sort out the mess as well).
THE NVQ HISTORY RE FOREIGN & DOMESTIC STUDENTS
The explosion in NVQ colleges offering courses to foreign students can be directly traced to increased restrictions on immigration into the UK. For domestic students, NVQ's are now increasingly becoming needed as the minimum qualification for many occupations. This is true especially of the care industry, with Scotland leading the way and the rest of the UK following on with a requirement that care home staff are NVQ trained.
Local authority education colleges cannot cope with this explosion, so many private sector colleges have been formed to take up the slack; most are legitimate operations, however, as has already been seen, some are seen as "cash generators" by charlatans in the business out to make an easy buck.
Under current regulations, students from outside the European Union may enter the UK and go on a "work placement" scheme. This entails them working and studying, in most cases either in care homes or hotels. The rules state they can work for a number of hours (usually 20 per week) with another set amount of hours studying and being paid for (work under supervision).
The students must be registered with a recognized college (such as Precision who were recognized under the old DIUS rules) with the college themselves being registered as a provider of qualifications by a UK awarding body such as Edexcel or the City & Guilds Institute. The theory is that the student whilst working is supervised and trained by the employer (also known as on the job training).
The college oversees the process, and is supposed to monitor this on a regular basis, (the guidelines being that each student is seen by an assessor once a month for a minimum of two hours, the assessor checking that the instruction being given is correct and that the student is progressing in the learning process).
Assessors should in theory have up to 40 students to look after, this is an average figure, but is seen by the industry as the optimum if each student is seen once a month for two hours. Balita Pinoy has evidence of Precision's assessors having to look after up to 200 students.
This is clearly placing the assessors in an impossible situation. Consequently, no students of Precision ever received adequate supervision. (Those who have been affected by this may make a complaint, these complaint forms are being made available to OFQUAL and any other regulatory bodies, your personal details will not be made public)
Text Heimdall: 07708 190184 if you are in the UK, 00447708190184 if outside the UK OR email:
FILIPINO STUDENTS
The case of hundreds of Filipino students who are victims of Precision's fraud is compounded by the fact they originally paid vast sums of money in the Philippines to agents of Precision, entered the UK on the work/training placement schemes and continued to pay monthly fees to Precision via the agents who took an additional cut before passing on these monthly fees to Precision.
These sums of money are £3,800 upwards. For many of the Filipino victims of the Precision fraud, this is the second time they have been duped. Many were originally placed with Affinity Training who went spectacularly bust last year with about 3,000 students left high and dry.
They were then transferred to Precision Training. There is also the problem that the visas the students entered the UK on were assigned via Precision.
As the owners have now departed the scene giving no forarding address, these students are now in limbo.
Advice being given officially is that they {the students} should get another college to handle them and inform the Borders Agency as soon as possible (we have been told 28 days, but as Precision are not yet officially bankrupt, there could be some leeway on this).
OTHER STUDENTS FROM OUTSIDE EUROPEAN UNION
They will be in exactly the same position as the Filipino students.
BULGARIAN & ROMANIAN STUDENTS
Students from Bulgaria and Romania are in a special position all of their own.
Whilst these two countries are in the European Union (EU), they do not have total freedom to work in all the other EU countries, the UK included.
In their case, they can enter the UK on a similar plan to that of Filipino students, but that they get a Yellow Card. We have evidence that the Shivji's were massively recruiting students from both these countries. Consequently students from these two countries have become victims as well. Not only were students duped but Bulgarian and Romanian companies were defrauded.
UK STUDENTS
It is not only foreign students who have been defrauded, there are many British students who are victims as well. Because of changes to rules being implemented especially with regard to employees of care homes, care homes are being told to increase the number of their staff who are NVQ trained.
In some cases, British students have paid for their own training to enhance their future employment prospects as within the next two to three years, all care home operators will require new staffers to have NVQ certificates.
CARE HOME OPERATORS
As mentioned above, British government regulations will soon be insisting that more employees hold NVQ certificates; in many cases care home operators themselves have paid for their staff to be trained up to NVQ levels.
In one case, a care home operator paid Precision £11,000. In another, an Israeli company paid Precision £52,000 (the largest single amount seen so far) for their own students to be trained.
In the case of Scottish care home operators, the situation in some cases is more critical.
As the Scottish parliament has its own rules separate to those of the rest of the UK, their timescale is far more advanced. As many Scottish operators have already paid Precision, they will have not only lost money, but more pertinently, valuable time has been wasted, and deadlines are looming.
These are that over the next 2 years, an increasing proportion of a care home's staffers must be qualified to NVQ levels, or their approval for getting patients and funding from local authorities will be withdrawn. (Many of the patients in care homes, especially of the elderly and disabled are paid for from local government funds, consequently care home operators need to comply with a myriad of regulations to stay in business).
THE AWARDING BODIES
The two awarding bodies in this case, Edexcel and City & Guilds, had their names used by the fraudsters at Precision Training in a massive selling exercise. Originally, Precision Training had got themselves registered as a center/training college. The basic tenet would be that students would be registered through Precision with one of the awarding bodies.
In theory, when a student successfully completed the required course of instruction, Precision would notify the awarding body which would then issue the required certificate to the student. This of course was dependent on Precision Training having first registered the student with the awarding body.
However, investigations have proved that the overwhelming majority of students were in fact never registered with either Edexcel or City & Guilds. In the case of Edexcel, they stopped accepting registrations from Precision in the June of 2008 after alarms were raised by Edexcel's credit control section. City & Guilds stopped accepting registrations from March of 2009. City & Guilds have stated that Precision never had more than 40 students ever registered with them. At time of publishing this, C & G have not given a precise figure of students awarded NVQ's by them via Precision, but is expected to be no more than ten.
Edexcel will not provide a precise figure, but that is equally minimal. Edexcel have also stated that no student ever graduated with them via Precision.
With both awarding bodies, students should have been registered as soon as possible, certainly within 28 days.
Clearly, this never happened with the result that the majority of students and care homes who paid money to Precision have been defrauded.
THE SHIVJI's
Husband and wife team Salim & Ali Shivji were the main people in this affair, starting up Precision Training after being involved in other similar companies previously.
From all investigations into this affair, it would transpire the Shivji's have been singularly unable to ever actually tell the truth. As the entire structure was crumbling, in a desperate attempt they set up a "ghost" company (Aspire) and told everyone concerned this new company would be taking over Precision's affairs, and officially resigned as directors of Precision.
The Shivji's also left their rented property near to the Burnham offices, owing thousands of pounds in unpaid rent and leaving the property in a distressed state.
The Shivji's had claimed they bought the property last October for £2.2 million; another of the many lies the Shivji's uttered. The owner of the property is now attempting to pursue the Shivji's who have naturally left no forwarding address.
One of the many attempts at putting people off the trail, a notice on the door of the now closed offices in Burnham, giving an address in the north of Scotland. This address is an office complex run by a company who had nothing to do with either Precision or Aspire and were innocent of any dealings.
A new person, named Revven Ba'al, was registered at Companies House as a director, with the registered office address being moved to an address in north London. However, this was then reversed on the 10th July when "Revven Ba'al" resigned as director, and transferred the (new) official address back to the original address at Burnham High Street, which of course is closed. The company is now adrift at sea with no director/s and an address which is equally abandoned.
THE REGULATOR's ROLE
OFQUAL, the regulatory body have now begun an investigation into this affair. After last years's Affinity scandal where 3,000 students were left out of pocket and without qualifications, the Precision Affair is one scandal too many.
What is worrying both to Ofqual and the British government is the damage this kind of fraud portrays British education interests abroad. British education earns the UK over £8 billion pounds per year, and scandals such as these are not needed, especially in the present economic climate.
Ofqual required both Edexcel and City & Guilds to submit reports on Precision. This was done a few weeks ago and Ofqual have issued a statement that they consider both Edexcel and City & Guilds to have acted correctly.
Early indications are that both awarding bodies have complied with the rules, all that needs to be seen is how far Ofqual's investigation will go from here, and if this is going to be another scandal where the criminals walk away scott free.
The British government's regulatory bodies charged with policing such matters have a lamentably bad record in prosecuting such cases. Had the Bernie Madoff scandal happened in the UK, various institutions would still be arguing as who would take the lead. The Serious Fraud Office's record is failure after failure with the villains laughing all the way to the bank. The US' regulatory bodies move a lot quicker and have a much higher record of success. A lot of complainant's to Balita Pinoy have already stated that attempts to make a formal complaint to their local police in the UK have met with a response of ..."it's a civil matter"..., it appears the police are unwilling to take complaints on board as it would affect their crime statistics.
As many of Precision's victims are foreign born with other experiences of police in their own country, Filipino, Bulagarian and Romanian among others, they are not well equipped to push the issue and go away frustrated. In essence, they are unwilling to force the issue as British born complainants would be.
PHILIPPINE REGULATORY BODIES
Unfortunately, these NVQ training schemes are not covered by RP's main regulatory body, the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA), as these positions come under education/training, so none of the agents based in the Philippines are required by law to undergo scrutiny by the POEA in the same manner as manning/employment agents are.
This leaves the whole system open to abuse, with no sanctions against rogue agents, no clear guidelines, and more importantly, no real recourse in law for those who have become victims.
CONCLUSION
As nothing has happened in the case of the Affinity Training scandal which left 3,000 students out of pocket in 2008, the fear is that this latest blatant fraud will not be investigated properly by either the British or Philippine authorities.
In the case of the two qualification awarding bodies, Edexcel and City & Guilds, they did eventually act, this was only after many prompts and complaints from students and other concerned bodies.
Both organizations have stated that their responsibility is to their clients (in this case Precision), the students are not their concern.
Whilst in law this might be true, as is the case that most of those (students) who complained to Edexcel and C&G were not actually registered with them should have raise alarm bells a lot earlier than in fact occurred.
Stating that the students are not their concern is the wrong attitude, it is the bottom line that the students are the ones who are underpinning all the awarding bodies finances, without students, they would have no income.
Most businesses are able to defend themselves, having financial recourse to legal assistance if it is needed; the same is not true of the vast majority of students. Especially in the case of foreign born students, language problems, ignorance of the British judicial system and processes and lack of funds to be able to take independent legal action leaves them the most vulnerable. A sea change in attitude should be taken by all the awarding bodies, if necessary, this should be forced on them by legislation or by Ofqual.
OFQUAL
As the regualtory body, they have ultimate responsibility in law to monitor such happenings. Whilst in the normal course of events they would not get involved in the colleges themselves, after Affinity, now Precision, who is the next?
Besides the humanitarian aspect of stopping thousands of students being systematically defrauded by cash hungry crooks, the damage to the image of the British educational system abroad, especially of vocational and tertiary education, is the wrong image.
Most foreigners still have an idealized view of Britain as being a fair and just society, with much lower levels of institutionalized corruption than in most of the Third World. These NVQ scandals along with the revelations of the MP's expenses fiasco's leave that image severely dented. The UK is not the only English speaking country in the world with good quality education systems; Canada, Australia, New Zealand and possibly South Africa could all look at this and start to market their own versions.
An £8 billion industry is not immune from competition. The treatment, or rather lack of such, by the regulatory authorities of students both foreign and domestic will leave a bitter taste. A pro-active attitude will go some way to help, as will a faster way of dealing with crooks like the Shivji's and their agents.
Do you have any more information on this matter?
Text Heimdall: 07708 190184 if you are in the UK, 00447708190184 if outside the UK OR email:
A SELECTION OF THE COMPLAINTS MADE TO BALITA PINOY
(These forms have not been edited, however all identifying parts, phone numbers, addresses and email addresses have been removed)
EMM in Manila - student
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:Php300,000 pus (paid while in the philippines), £850(school fee and registration fee)
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:all paid to genesis
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:i was previously enrolled at the affinity training ltd. the money which i paid (when i was still in the philippines) for the school was borrowed from a lending firm.they promised that i can go to the uk in 2-3weeks time but actually i was able to go to the uk after 6 months of applying which left me badly paying the borrowed money with interest.paid to precision via genesis but no proper training provided.i left the uk because i felt like i was illegally staying there already and now working very hard just to pay my debts.
Mr A in England - student
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:770 pounds
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:GENESIS
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:the family members of john valmoria and mark valmoria lives near the address which may know their exact were abouts.
Mr M in England - student
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:770 pounds
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:GENESIS
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:WE ARE ALMOST 30 STUDENTS AFFECTED HERE IN WERE WE ARE WORKING AND ALL OF US WAS SCAMMED IN PAYING THE MONEY WITHOUT ANY PROPER TRAINING FROM THEM,WE BEG THE AUTHORITIES TO HELP US THEY TOOK WHAT LITTLE MONEY WE HAVE WHICH WE BORRROWED FROM OUR COUNTRY.
Mrs S in England – student
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:550.00
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:precision
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:i paid precision after already doing my nvq level 4 with another company who went bust �550.00 i had completed the whole of the nvq level 4 in jan 09, which was two ring binders of hard work to which i have never received back and have been chasing for months my certificate and have now had information from edexcel that i was never registered with them, so my work is proberly in a skip by the sounds of these cow boys! i needed my nvq level 4 to continue running my business to meet national minimum standards with CQC so would like some help as i've completed the whole of the course and have nothing to show for it.
Mrs G – Care home operator - Scotland
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:£3,200
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:Precision
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:Paid this money in full to Precision last September and have been pushed from pillar to post by them ever since. Spoke on several occasions to another director called Jane Wileman - haven't seen her name mentioned in this report.
Miss S – Care home manager – Scotland
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:£3,000
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:Precision
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:This company paid money for 4 NVQ's in Health and Social Care Training at the end of 2007 and early 2008, and to bring in 4 Bulgarians on student Visas who have been on placement with us, working as carers, waiting for training to be provided by Precision. No training has been carried out and it has been a catalogue of complaints and different assessors provided by this appalling "company".
O.I. – Agency - Israel
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:80 appliacnts * 650£ = 52000£
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:directly to Precision
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:unfortunately even before there change name to "Spaia training"(we think this means Aspire) all the applicants that arrive to the country never receive the service and we have to register them with alternative college
Miss C – student - England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:£4,000.00
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:genesis manila
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:there are still Filipino people who has been refused to come to UK by the Philippine embassy and Precision has been sending letters to them here in UK. I dont think they know that the person has been refused to come here in UK.
Miss B – student - England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:£750
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:precision
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:i have tried so many times contacting them when i was not getting anything from them but nothing then i was contacted by aspire saying i will have an assessor in 3 weeks but still nothing and i submitted my student visa application to the home office and now i dont know what to do.please advise
Miss B – student - England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:1080 pounds
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:Genesis UK
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:I have asked Genesis UK before if we could get a receipt from our payments, Lina Barameda told me that its a lot of work for Precision to send all their students a receipt. They have returned my payment for month of April so i pay them 430pounds for 4months (107.50pounds/month) plus the 650pounds initial payment for Precision.
Miss D – student - England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:2150
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:1500 paid in genesis manila
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:650 was paid to genesis uk c/o lina barrameda paid tru the standing order
Mr V – student - England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:more than 3,000 pounds
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:it was paid in genesis manila
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:maybe i could give more information regarding this matter. i want them to stop this illegal activities of genesis. you can also check this websites: -http://genesismanila.com/ -http://profiles.friendster.com/67672690 they are also committing offense against data protection act. genesis-manila is also owned by genesis uk. i hope you could contact me so i could give more information to help in your investigation.
Mr S – student - England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:£1,080
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:direct debit to genesis uk
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:£650 for initial tuition plus £107.50 for four consecutive months total of £1,080
Miss C – employee - England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:5000
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:monies owing from Precision
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:I was employed by Precision Training
Mr P – student - England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:£1080.00
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:Genesis UK
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:I arrived here Oct.2008, and paid £650 fot initial tuition fee plus monthly debit of 107.50 for 4 mos made thru Genesis UK.Precision Training is claiming that Genesis just paid £43 per student thats why we were not given any assessors.I dnt really know who is telling the real truth.I hope this issued gets resolved asap.Genesis tried to get us another college but, its far away from our location.And according to them, money will no longer be refunded.
Mr S – student - England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:£500
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:Precison
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:I recieved no training from Precision at all. I had one visit from an assessor who himself was a victim
Mr B – student - England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:800
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:genesis uk
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:i am one of many student here who was also a student of precision training and handled by genesis uk, we are paying almost 100 pounds a month but we did not received anything from precision. the genesis uk doesnt give any receipt for what we pay for them. they said that all the money the debit on our account will be going to precision but until now we dont recieved any receipt from them.
Miss H – employee - England
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:i am currently still owed 3 months salary aproximately �3000. This is now in the hands of the solicitors . My husband is owed �57 when he had to pay for my business petrol for my company card as the Total card was not working . I had already resigned and had been asked to fill the company car with fuel ready for collection and was assuresd that the card would be active and it was not .
Following information submitted to: balitapinoy.net
Miss V – student - England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:PhP215,000.00 (£2,654 at current exchange rates)
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:both
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:i paid this amount in the phils thru genesis assessment inc.sucat paranaque city
Mr M – student - Scotland
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:£450
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:precision
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:enrolled with precision in june 2008 3 tutors and very little tuition was informed they had been taken over by aspire, i phoned precision 3 days after they supposedly were taken over becauce i couldnt access my e-portfoilo and they told me that there was a computer difficulty, said nothing about being taken over. disgusted that companies like this can steal our money especially when we only get paid minimum wage and we dont have a leg to stand on. the government says we need this qualification then they should pay for this.
Following information submitted to: balitapinoy.net
Miss H – student - Scotland
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:£450
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:Precision
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:....
Following information submitted to: balitapinoy.net
Miss C – student - England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:516 pounds
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:John Valmoria
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:I directly paid to Mr. J Valmoria Account in Barclays
Miss S – student - England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:£850.00
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:Precision
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:I signed up to do nvq level 4 managers award in october 08 & have recieved no support ever since. I wrote a letter of complaint to precision & have recieved no reply. I have rang them on numerous ocasions got told u would recieve a refund, but i have not. I am unable to sign up with another training provider due to not having the funds to do so. £850 is alot of money to pay out in one go & i need this qualification to do the job that i am doing. When cqc do my inspection on the home it will go against the homes star rating that i have not achieved level 4 qualification.
Following information submitted to: balitapinoy.net
Miss V – student - England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:Php 160,000
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:Both; Php 35,000 to Precision, Php 125,000 to Genesis UK
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:I personally met John Valmoria in the Philippines before I left the country. Because my previous agency Genesis Consultancy in Cebu was lost, I asked help from Genesis UK thru my cousin who is in UK also. Not in my mind that both companies were under the same management. So when I got my visa, I asked help from him. He told me to pay Php 100,000 for my immediate travel expenses and stay here in UK when I arrive. Yet when I came here, I got nothing in return. I still did pay for my travel expenses and my accomodation. Sad to say, what I paid was put to waste. Yes, I was glad because they have helped me got my visa but what an exchange of huge amount of money to spent on. But I was still hoping I could get what I should have or repay me for the money that was put into nothing.
Mr R – care home operator - Scotland
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:£550
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:Precision
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:COPIES OF CORRESPONDENCE SENT TO OFQUAL UK
Mrs A – student - England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:400.00
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:Precision
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:No Password, User Name given. No feedback about this course LMC registered since July 2008.
Mrs J – student – England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:400.00WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:Precision
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:No Password, User Name given. No feedback about this course LMC registered since July 2008.
Miss M – student – Philippines
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:Php300,000 pus (paid while in the philippines), £850(school fee and registration fee)
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:all paid to genesisANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:i was previously enrolled at the affinity training ltd. the money which i paid (when i was still in the philippines) for the school was borrowed from a lending firm.they promised that i can go to the uk in 2-3weeks time but actually i was able to go to the uk after 6 months of applying which left me badly paying the borrowed money with interest.paid to precision via genesis but no proper training provided.i left the uk because i felt like i was illegally staying there already and now working very hard just to pay my debts.
get what I should have or repay me for the money that was put into nothing.
Miss H – student – Scotland
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:£450
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:Precision
Miss G – student – Scotland
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:£450
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:precision
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:enrolled with precision in june 2008 3 tutors and very little tuition was informed they had been taken over by aspire, i phoned precision 3 days after they supposedly were taken over becauce i couldnt access my e-portfoilo and they told me that there was a computer difficulty, said nothing about being taken over. disgusted that companies like this can steal our money especially when we only get paid minimum wage and we dont have a leg to stand on. the government says we need this qualification then they should pay for this.
Mrs S – student – England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:£850.00
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:Precision
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:I signed up to do nvq level 4 managers award in october 08 & have recieved no support ever since. I wrote a letter of complaint to precision & have recieved no reply. I have rang them on numerous ocasions got told u would recieve a refund, but i have not. I am unable to sign up with another training provider due to not having the funds to do so. £850 is alot of money to pay out in one go & i need this qualification to do the job that i am doing. When cqc do my inspection on the home it will go against the homes star rating that i have not achieved level 4 qualification.
Miss C – student – England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:516 pounds
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:John ValmoriaANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:I directly paid to Mr. J Valmoria Account in Barclays
Miss M – student – England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:£150
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:precision on 20 june 2008
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:I paid £150 for RMA. No facilitation or service provision at all. I was assured by Nicola Shivji in March this year that I would be refunded but this did not happen. On June 4th I was informed when I telephoned again that Precision had ceased trading and was given an address in Aberdeen to contact. BUT my letter was returned to sender as rcipient not at that address.
Miss A – student – England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:969ponds
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:genesis consultancy
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:our payment is directly paid to genesis uk's account and no invoice or reciept is given to us.some of us is threatened to be deported if we will enrol to other school.
Mrs P – care home operator – England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:Approx £7000
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:Precision
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:This money was paid for NVQ training for our overseas workers from India. We have 2 Filipino staff brought in from Genesis Healthcare, who according to companies house changed to Genesis professions in Feb 09. When the problems with precision became clear another company called Genesis consultancy arranged alternative NVQ training for the 2 Filipino staff. I have been in contact Balita Pinoy and am emailing copies of all the complaints our staff and ourselves made to Precision. We have also today been to our local police station and informed them of what has happened.
Miss B – student – England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:£500.00
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:Precision
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:i recieved 3 different NVQ assessors and have been with the training programme for over 8months and havnt completed one unit.
Miss S – employee – England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:1500 (owed in wages)
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:precision
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:Worked for precision Training, was made redundant wih no pay .Owed 1,500
Miss O – care home operator – England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:£900.00
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:Precision
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:3 candidate, Miss X, due to start October 08.Miss J and Mr P due to start January 09. Phoned, E mailed and wrote many times with no reply.Precision made appointments with the candidates which they did not turn up for. All 3 candidates have never seen an assessor. , Manager
Miss R – student – Scotland
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:£636.00
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:PRECISION TRAINING
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:PRE 107057 enrolled in NVQ3 in \Health and Social Care 5/12/08.. not started until May,2009 and after my first meeting with my new assessor, i a received a letter in june,2009 stating that Precision was under new management and Aspire training will continue our training. i did not submit new application with aspire, and i would like to have a refund of my fees instead.
Miss M – employee – Scotland
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:0.00
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:Precision Trainin
g
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:I was employed be Precision Training to cover their Scottish learners for around 8 weeks. I religiously made appointments with these students and incurred travelling expenses for extensive mileage. However, I did not receive any remibursement for expenses and did not receive any salary. I was continuously told story after story about money being taken back from funding sources and this had put them into an embarassing situation and then I was told that I would be put on to an hourly rate and my salary backdated. Needless to say I have not received any money. I have now reported them to the Trading Standards who are investigating the company and I have also reported them to Industrial Tribunal who have set a hearing on 3rd September 2009.
Mrs W – student – Scotland
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:£550.00
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:Precision
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:An absolute piece of nonsense!!! Between affinity training and now precision, how can care workers expect to be trained when employers can trust NO ONE!!! Who safeguards us. A couple of us have been registered for a year and done absolutely nothing, had 5 assessors and only met 2 for half an hour? Something needs to be done about these type of people, is it that easy to set a company up and "steal" money from people. Law and regulations needs to be a hell of a lot tighter!!!
Miss M – student – England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:£700.00 (September'08 to March'09
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:paid to the account of Genesis UK(Barclays)
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:Im just confused who to blame really.. Is it Precision or Genesis UK??? I together with the other students paid Genesis UK directly to their account, but until now we have'nt received the OR from them.
Miss D – student – England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:£1,080
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:Precision
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:My training didnt even start.
Miss A – student – England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:500 pounds
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:Precision training
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:I am not happy with this situation and moreover I feel that the Recruitment Agency (In my case) (name removed) must be responsible for my lost. They are the one who enrolled me with Precision Training; I'm in this situation because of them ...Why they did not check the college???????!!!!
Mr G – care home operator – Scotland
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:£1300
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:PRECISION
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:ASSESSOR CHANGED CONTINUALLY CONTACTED BY ASPIRE WHO SAID HAD TAKEN OVER : NOW NOT ABLE TO CONTACT THEM
Mr W – student – Scotland
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:£500
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:Precision
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:Paid by credit card on 9.2.09 I heard nothing from them until April when I had one visit from an assessor.
Mr A – student – England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:500
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:precision
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:i have enrolled in both nvw level 4 in healtrh and social care and LMC....
Mrs M – care home operator – England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:£11,064
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:Affinity,Precision, Care International, Brook Borg
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:The above amount I paid does not include money I paid for flights to help my students to come over. I have already contacted my MP and she is going to raise the scam in parliament.
Miss O – student – England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:£1,500
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:NVQ2 and Advance NVQ3
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:Initially were asked to pay to International Care Lmd. (Derek Watson - as the school administrator) with a school acceptance named International Academia then upon arrival it was Precision Training that were registered.Our agency as Brook Borg Recruiment based in England.Hope you can help us for a refund for its a hard earned money.
Mr A – student – England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:£400.00
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:Precision
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:Even though I was assign two Assessors, one after the other, I never got my registered number.
Miss C – student – England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:500 pounds
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:Precision
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:Paid in march-may 2008, they provided assessors-5 or 6-march2008 till may 2009
Miss S – employee – England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:00
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:00
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:I worked for precision training i was unfairly dismissed and they owe me around �800.00
Miss W – student – England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:£400.00
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:precision
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:money paid by employer xxxxxxxxxx xxxx ltd
Mr R – student – England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:500 pounds
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:precision
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:I paid 500 pounds sterling in January 2009 for the LMC course- only heard from Aspire(who I understand is the same company as precision- Can you please give me an update as to how I can either recoup my monies or change training provider given that I have already paid. Please get back to me as my job will be seriously affected since I personally paid the 500 pounds and have no course to complete to be able to retain my job. Please get back to me
Miss V – student – England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:500£
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:reteined from salary
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:I loose the right to have blue card because the college fail on 1 jun 2009 and my yellow card is with 3 june 2008
Mr M – student – England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:£800
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:PRECISION TRAINING
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:I'm from romania and have been pursuing BTEC COURSE in HOSPITALITY LEVEL 2 with a view to acquiring a BLUE CARD this july.I completed some of the units and i don't know where to go from here...What should i do?Do i need to pay again to enroll?What are my rights?
Miss C – student – England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:500 pounds
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:Precision
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:because of precision training we have been refused by UKBA for blue card , we have to appeal
Miss M – student – England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:£400.00
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:precision
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:i paid my money in good faith to precision training up front and was told that i would complete my rma in 12 months. i never saw or spoke to another person with regards to the money or training and then found out that it had been a large scam along.
Mr D – student – England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:700
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:Precision Training
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:I am Romanian.For me more important than money is the fact: (4) A national of Bulgaria or Romania who legally works in the United Kingdom without interruption for a period of 12 months falling partly or wholly after 31st December 2006 shall cease to be an accession State national subject to worker authorisation at the end of that period of 12 months. (12) For the purposes of paragraphs (3) and (4) of this regulation- .. (c) a person shall be treated as having worked in the United Kingdom without interruption for a period of 12 months if he was legally working in the United Kingdom at the beginning and end of that period and any intervening periods in which he was not legally working in the United Kingdom do not, in total, exceed 30 days. www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2006/uksi_20063317_en.pdfOur problem is that we supose,we have to start again this period of 12 months which is not fair because we worked legal here these months and is not our fault if PT has been closed without notice
Miss C – student – England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:£650.00
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:PRECISION TRAINING
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:1 NVQ level 4 1 LMC paid in full 27/11/08
Mr B – student – England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:500
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:precision
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:another 8 staff that i work with have also paid and are in the same position
Miss C – student – England
HOW MUCH YOU PAID:300
WAS IT PAID TO PRECISION OR GENESIS UK:precision
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:i would like help as this was a lot of money to me and i feel very upset by it
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Precision Training's old offices in the sleepy Berkshire village of Burnham
Empty and abandoned, just like the hundreds of students, the staff and creditors, many of whom were from the Philippines