BTSC College Review

 

BTSC

Building Trade Skills Centre
Unit 7 Narwell Business Park, Leatherhead Road
Chessington, Surrey
UK

Tel: 020 8391 3055
Fax: 020 8391 3925
Website: http://btsc.com/index.htm

 

 

My Review

 

The college is located conveniently near public transportation (Chessington South) rail station. It is part of a complex of other businesses that share the same parking lot all of which have designated parking for those businesses. You cannot park just anywhere or you just might find a clamp on your car! Parking is provided for at the college but not in bays 1-12. The college has a strict parking policy. Bays 1-12 are reserved for possible new recruits (visitors). Also, they have designated parking for staff. If you can’t get a space for parking then they provide you with alternative places on certain streets that you can park.

 

 

The facility is relatively large consisting of 3 sections, multiple classrooms, individual work bays, offices, 2 break rooms, a cafeteria and testing rooms. It is very clean and well equipped. As far as preparedness to train and quality of facilities this college is at the top!

 

 

Every trainer I have met, and I have not met but heard from other students, have always been extremely helpful. Assessments are explained and demonstrated in detail. Students are helped by their trainers when necessary. The modules are very fast paced. They cram a lot of assessments (practical tests) into the week. You must be a quick learner, pay attention and be mechanically inclined if you are going to make it here. I don’t know how many people I have seen sleeping in class after paying a whopping 5 grand to be there. If that is what you plan to do, don’t waste your money! Most of the instructers are top notch and very experienced, but they cannot make up for you dozing off or not paying attention!

 

 

Safety, safety, safety! They are big on safety! You must wear your safety gear whenever you are in the work areas.

 

 

They have a security staff that has little to do it seems but watch the students and ensure you are not working when the instructor is not with you, have food or drink in the work areas, park in the wrong bays, or are viewed as dissatisfied with the course or it’s instructors. People do get escorted out of the college so save your objections for the appropriate time and venue. Their security station on entry into the building is unmanned most of the time so its obvious they are not worried about keeping students safe from people coming into the building. They have cameras all over the college and especially in the exam rooms, so no cheating!

 

 

The work areas are well equipped. No, searching endlessly for the right tools or who has what. Every student has the tools he/she needs.

 

Expect to put in a full days work while at a module! You will need to be there on time at 9am and will go until 5-6pm, Monday through Friday. If your lucky you may get out early on Friday.

 

 

I have read reports of how they deal with problems with some students and it doesn’t sound good. I can see some issue with how they deal with simple problems. For example, you have to post a letter detailing your request to have your account credited time if they delay too much getting you into a module. There is no reason why they can’t credit you immediately when the scheduler books your next module since she is looking at the screen and can see that the college has failed in their commitment to get you into a module within 4 weeks. Instead they make you post a letter… that is if you find out you have this right because they won’t tell you. Luckily, when it happened to me, I pushed on the phone for a solution to the problem and after some time of going back and forth the scheduler told me I needed to write a letter and post it to get credited the time.

 

 

For the most part, the office workers are average and maybe overworked. They keep busy and sometimes fail to schedule you properly.