Access 2 Trade Careers Closing Down

[pete3]

I have just watched a piece on BBC Midlkands Today about Kidderminster/ Hagley based company Advent which they said was an IT training companythat has gone into administration, they showed the outside of the offices where i took my enrolment form for Access so i presume they must be part of Advent.

No mention was made about plumbing / electrician training.

I guess it will be on tv again later.

 

[dizz31]

hi, i started with access to careers around a year ago but due to my son being ill have never been able to get to one of the training centres so at current have paid £5500 for some books and the lovely cardboard box they came in .... great i also paid for the training direct to the careers centre so cannot do anything it would seem, i have read some of the advice on here which is really good, i was just wondering if any one is in a similar position to me and wondered what the next steps would be, there just doesnt seem to be anywhere to contact or anybody to speak to. Please Help

 

[Jurasic Spark]

Up until 4.30 yesterday afternoon I was teaching electrical students at Access2...
Told to finish the class and was summoned to a centre meeting. Then the bad news.... the company is insolvent, Barclays have withdrew funding. Now the really sick thing is we've just worked the month of Jan' and we now have to get in line and hope the reciever will give us a few coppers!!!!!
Don't think it will be enough to pay off christmas debts

To add insult to injury, we all recieved an email after christmas telling us £35M turn over and a full order book. And yes other comments are correct, the training was first class and and I am confident success rates in all quals were much higher than FE colleges.

There are no winners in this. I am gutted for the students and staff alike.

Anyone know of Electrical Tutors jobs anywhere in the West Midlands???

 

[doddy]

hi dizz31. im in a similar situation. i started the course about a year year ago. i have been to 2 practical weeks and was about to book my 3rd week. i have also paid in fully directly to them. i have no i know idea as where to start.

 

[albrights]

This is a bit of nightmare to say the least. Im about half thru my full electrical course at the moment and paid on finance like a few others. Just hoping I can get some of the money back, but sounds like well have to wait and see. Also wondering how im going to finish my training and if anyone else will accept what ive done so far. Called a few different places, not much cop most them – just tried to sell me the whole thing again. Called OCLI though, thanks for the tip Sammy. They said they’d take a look at what id done and try and let me complete just what I have left to do so maybe that could be go-er. If anyone gets any more news on the situation before insolvency lot then itd be good to know.

 

[WayneL]

Having only signed the agreement for this on the 11/01/10 and only done a weeks worth of studying I am seriously ****ed off as I'm sure everyone else is.

This kind of thing really gets my back up!!

It's not like the 'Directors' of 'Access 2 Trade' and their accountants went into work on Monday and said

to each other "Hey, you know what, we've run out of money, we'll have to shut down"


They've known this was coming for a while and yet they were still signing people up in January!!! -

I's a disgrace and they should face criminal charges for deception - offering something that they knew

they wouldn't be able to deliver.

I don't know much about big business and limited companies, but I also find it suspicious that they

changed a load of their directors in November last year, and then changed the name of the limited

company in December - from 'Anglo Capital Ltd' to 'Access 2 Carreers Ltd'

Smells a bit to me


I hope you all succeed in getting your money back and can complete your training elsewhere

 

[colinhills]

just read on bbc news that barcleys will sort out a new training course for people, but dose anyone now what number you need to call for the information.

 

[dizz31]

Hi doddy, whats worrying i suppose is the obvious all that money paid out and theres nothing you can do about it, also no one to speak to or anything, i havent even recieved a letter or email lke some people have, i was actually ringing to book a week course you can imagine my shock! does anybody have any ideas on how long the insolvency take to sort this mess out?

 

[colinhills]

hi mate have a check in your junk box for the email. found mine in there, it takes a while to sort out and find out all the names, if you think they are also it trainners and have about 6000 studants in the perant company and then there must be about the same on the electricnas and then the plumbers so about 20000 all together me thinks.

 

[doddy]

i know. noone to speak at all and the email was very short and not saying much at all. i just want this mess sorted out asap. i can imagine the shock you had. i had a shock reading the email this morning and im still in shock now. im just worrying about what im going to do now

 

[rookeryu67]

I am also a student, thank you all for your advice and info, somehow has relieved me to know there may be some light at the end of the tunnel, the info from access2 is absolutely pathetic. I have dug out my loan paperwork, the Barclays Partner Finance customer service number is 0844 811 9000 My mother is a Union rep, and is seeking legal advice from that avenue for me. If I hear any more will post back here. A piece of advice that I keep getting is that you should contact your MP. Good luck people!

 

[Ossie]

My thoughts are do you think the Directors considering they have more than 10,000 students and a great Business wanted this shut down, they also had 200 employees and had spent years building it. Why don't you blame the banks for what they have done as it's them that have caused this mess and the recession - they have pulled the plug on the finance and murderd Businesses in this country just for their fat cat Bonuses - makes me sick..... You think the government would step in - think what this Business was doing for the work force of the country - they were improving the standards across the trade industry....... As I said I'm sorry for everyone stuck in this mess.

 

[WayneL]

I'm not blaming the directors for this - nor saying that they wanted it to happen.

What I am saying is that they must have known it was coming - yet they continued to sign up

un-suspecting people who just wanted to better themselves.

The exact same thing happened when Excel went bust - they were still booking flights and holidays the day before the announcement - it sucks.....and something should be done about it!!!!

 

[saveloy]

I'm not blaming the directors for this - nor saying that they wanted it to happen.

What I am saying is that they must have known it was coming - yet they continued to sign up

un-suspecting people who just wanted to better themselves.

The exact same thing happened when Excel went bust - they were still booking flights and holidays the day before the announcement - it sucks.....and something should be done about it!!!!

From a business perspective the directors only option would probably have been to try and trade their way out of the situation. Unfortunatley for those who have lost out, the worst course of action that the directors could have taken, would have been to announce solvency problems. This would have destroyed any possible chance, however slim, of recovery. I doubt that there was any deception intended, it's just business. Not fair at all on those who have lost money, but that "GREAT" Britain for you.

 

[Martin Gauci]

Spoke to Barclays this morning and have said that they are looking for a new training provider to carry on the course so those with a loan agreement dont panic. All payments and direct debits have been suspended until further notice where a letter will be sent out to those concerned. I asked what if I wasn't happy with the new provider and they said i'll have to call back to discuss when that happens. In the meantime there's not much more you can do until you hear from Barclays so i wouldn't bother trying to contact A2T because they wont answer. For those who have already paid outright i'm not sure what your position is in regards to trying to get any money back. I wouldn't be hopeful however I'm sure if there is a new provider they may honour the rest of the course for you to take as part of any agreement with Barclays, but dont quote me. The best and safest option would be for the courses to be converted over to a government scheme and allow Barclays to provide the funding for those that need it but it would mean taking a lot longer to complete. The pros would be that it would be trustworthy, closer to home and allow studying to be done at evening college which in my experience makes you more disciplined to study.
Hope this info has helped.

 

[colinhills]

also spoken to barclays this morning and have been told the same thing. but they also said that they will only provide one trainning group and that is what you must go with. have also been told to email customer relations at barclays partner finance.com and inform them as i have payed of my loan. they will be sending out letters next week to everyone that loans are with them.

add on connaught are offering the courses and have training centers all over the country. so take a look and see if a center is near you then ask barclays for then to continue there training. one center is in a 40 mins ddrive on west london so great for me. hope this helps. but up to barclays in the end.

 

[SparkMonkey]

Still don’t quite understand how its come to this. I didn’t pay on finance, was paying on instlaments on my card so don’t think ive got it as bad as some of you. Had only just started the course but so not too out of pocket hopefully. Nearly went with olci in Birmingham before I started with access so tempted to try agaion with them, liked the place when I had a look around. Not giving up that’s for sure!

 

[Shaggy]

I too received the same email on Wednesday, I only read it on Thursday and have been trying to contact someone all morning, I even spoke to the head office of Anglo Capital Limited, not that they was willing to say much, the person I spoke to claimed to have no knowledge of the situation, but said they would look into it and get back to me, so I don't have much hope.

I was hoping someone my have more luck than me contacting someone, if so can you please post any number or email address you have success on.

I paid the course in full out of my own pocket last summer when I started with redundancy money I received when been laid off from my last job so obviously like many others I am very unhappy, you would think they would at least have the decency to come up with some kind of response team to deal with the questions I'm sure all students of the centre must have right now.

For what its worth the training I received there was top notch I was just moving on to the final phase of the 4 stage course so at least got my 17th edition.

I was hoping also that someone may start a facebook group for ex-students to share information on any progress made in gaining information or refunds.

 

[KieranS]

Saw my email this morning. Pretty gutted but I had only been signed up for 3 months so not as bad as some on here. Is anyone else thinking of getting their money back and not letting Barclays find an alternative? If I remember correctly Acess2Trade was a lot more expensive than many courses. I think I may look for a cheaper one myself rather than still pay £6000 for an inferior course.

 

[Shaggy]

I just read a message on there website that states that Barclays customers will be offered to complete there training with other companies, and that anyone who paid direct before 14th Jan will be refunded.

What I want to know is where me and others like me stand

I paid in full last summer when I started the course, I never took out a bank loan or any type of finance agreement, the money was direct from my bank account. I'm guessing this puts me in the you got screwed category by the sound of things, everyone one else can contact the bank and there is a fund aside to continue the course.

I would love to know who I can contact and if there is a fund aside for me to complete my course, or just a single person I can contact who can explain where I stand even if it is to break the bad news to me that I have no grounds to claim my money back or even part of my money back or continue the course elsewhere.

the lack of communication and information for people in my situation is ****ing me off more than the financial loss occurred. Its sick that I have found out more from this forum topic than I have from Access2