Tech Talent South, Richard Simms, Betsy Hauser Advertised an education course. Failed to execute. Current class considering class action lawsuit Atlanta Georgia

Betsy and Richard,

Since the completion of our coursework on March 13^th, we have had the opportunity to digest the experience and collectively come to the conclusion that Tech Talent South failed in a variety of ways to fulfill its pre-enrollment assurances. We did not receive the value that was promised going in to the class. Many of us used hard-earned savings, borrowed money, and made major sacrifices to learn skills we believed would at the very least earn us a paid internship.

We've compared notes with the previous student body and their reality was distinctly different from ours. That being said, we want you to be aware of our grievances and what we think is a reasonable way to lessen the burden of Tech Talent South's shortcomings on its graduates.

Specifically, we would like you to consider the following areas of concern:

1)    Curriculum:

a.    Your quick action on replacing the initial instructor is applauded, however this set the class off on the wrong foot and quite frankly, should not have been an issue to begin with. At the price point we paid, the instructor should have been pre-vetted.

b.   There should have been a defined syllabus for all 8 weeks so that the change in instructor would not have changed how, what, and when it was learned.

c.    Personal projects were abandoned in deference to the Twitter project, which didn’t provide educational value.

d.    “Homework” as defined by the portal did not relate to the concepts defined in class and provided more confusion than clarity/

e.   There was no regular follow-up on student progress. 

2)    Class Space:

a.    The initial space, by your own admission, was a failure. It was cramped, uncomfortable, hot and certainly lacked any of the technical resources one would expect from a coding class. Moving downstairs was not that much better as we were told numerous times that the room would be “set up” to make the class more conducive to a class environment. This also was never seen through.

b.    Due to continued requests by you and TJ (TTS staff), we were continually asked to “keep our voices down” preventing or at least inhibiting a collaborative environment.

c.    The next term will be at ATDC which, among other benefits, allows those students direct contact with job/internship placement with the numerous tech companies that utilize those offices.

3)    Schedule

a.    We recognize that you cannot control the weather, however, we were required to sit through exceedingly long sessions on Saturdays without our approval or input.

b. The Full-time program, according to the website, should have been from 8-12:30 however it was reduced to 8-11. There were also supposed to be “labs in the evening” but class was typically followed by

1) Individual “study” time

2) A field trip to a startup office or a guest lecture,

neither of which were greatly beneficial. 

4)    Expectations

While we acknowledge that TTS never guaranteed internships/job placement at the conclusion of the program, it was certainly constantly stressed how all but one of the previous term's students had received job/internship before the conclusion of the term.

In conclusion, because we didn't learn as much and as in depth as promised, to have to pay the full tuition would be shortchanging ourselves. We understand that you are trying to build a business and we would love nothing more than to give you, TJ, Betsy and TTS a ringing endorsement. Unfortunately due to the points listed above, we are unable to do so at this time and respectfully request a partial refund in the amount of $3000/student.

We are confident you understand our side of things and look forward to working something out in the coming days.

Sincerely,

TTS Alumni March 2014