They cancelled a course of mine a week in advance then miraculously it was reactivated a few days before the scheduled start date. Eventually, within hours of starting, the participants walked out because the trainer had less knowledge of the subject matter than the students.
Looking back I think they only found a trainer willing to host the course at the very last minute. This ‘trainer’ had never seen the slides before and was hugely unprepared - so much so we were guiding the trainer.
It was really like an episode of The Office, and with hindsight quite funny. But never again will I deal with this company.
Strewth! I wrote back to them saying no to 450CHF for a 9 hour day (freelance rates in Basel are shite right now but not that shite!) and I'd run the course for 100CHF an hour and that the charge would be the same for every hour of preparation I would need to do to familiarise myself with the course materials and prepare the day of teaching. More for the comedy factor to see what comes back than for the actual work as they sound like cowboys. Funnily enough they haven't replied yet..... they found me via LinkedIn in the first place (I'm a freelance Project & Change Management consultant) and asked me to teach a 1 day course on negotiation skills.... I think they are scattergunning anyone with PM experience to offer them work
Much to my surprise they found someone and the course is happening. Venue is the Regus in Altstetten, so probably booked last minute as well.
As a confirmation, I got - last Friday around 11am! - a bunch of material and I was told I need to buy the PMBOK (the PM Bible) on my own and read the first 50 pages. Duh, thanks. Also it says that even though the course will run 9-5pm every day, the instructor will expect me to do "an additional 2-3 hours of reading every day".
I've already spent the money unfortunately, so I'll try to stay positive about this. I'll report back on Friday.
It was just the trainer and another guy, so it seems "2" is an adequate number of candidates to keep a course. We would've been three people only in a relatively small rented room in a Regus temp office in Altstetten.
It seems that a 1-day notice is OK for them, but if you cancel or reschedule 30 calendar days or later, a re-scheduling fee of 75% of the original course applies --> I know I'm not entirely innocent, but it seems like a practical scam, anyway I look at it.
My company promised to pay for the lost cost of the training with an additional training voucher, but I'm 100% sure I don't want to do this with TKA anymore.