TechSkills Very poor experience, poor instruction, unprofessional Greenwood Village Colorado

Very unfortunate experience. The mentor (equiv to teacher or instructor for a course of study) had little or no knowledge of the subject matter beyond what was listed in the mentor's manual and on their answer forms. And if you press for answers or over inconsistencies between mentor responses and industry info (ie, if you actually double check what you're being told through internet search and industry inquiries), you make an enemy and find yourself having to fight for everything - getting your new courses turned on before the mentor leaves for vacation, getting the books you need, getting access to a system, getting the correct paper work for the books issued - never mind ever getting any responses to actual questions.

Quite often, the response back is simply that you don't really need to worry about knowing this or that, or you're asked to remind the mentor later when they're not getting ready to leave the office in an hour or so etc. In the end, the message is, take what we tell you or don't but don't question anything inconsistent with industry info or call attention to questions TechSkills mentors don't know answers to.

On a more personal level, I recall several occasions that left me not trusting any involvmnt with the mentor for anything short of the musts, like activating a course. At one point I heard from the center director that they'd heard the mentor had spent hours creating a resume with me. I've had a resume for a decade, and actually, we'd spent 20 out of 45 minutes together reviewing my existing resume and hearing the mentor's suggestions. When I did a search online, I found the changes the mentor suggested were actually recommended aGAINSt by experts in the field.

And then I also heard from the center director that the mentor had supposedly spent hours/days assisting me with a job-search early on in the program. I was actually given one phone number for an agency to call..... informed by the mentor that they were expecting me..... were old friends with the mentor..... worked all the time with ea other. They had no idea why I was calling, didn't seem any more familiar with TechSkills than any other co that might have heard the name or seen it in print, but otherwise.... and the individual I spoke with contradicted just about everything that I'd been sold on with regard to getting into the industry and what's needed/respected by employers looking for new employees. I never asked for or took another contact from this mentor. (I had/have a job btw - my intrst and request was to get industry experience while studying at that point)

There are the number of months the program took worth of other examples of what I consider to be complete misrepresentations of how the mentor was providing assistance as presented to the center director. I found that even though the mentor stated worry for my seeming to rarely have questions and not needing as much assistance as other students, that the image being painted for the center director was that the mentor was hard at work and devoting great effort and time into me and my needs, right down to suggesting the mentor had done things they actually hadn't for me.

What I WAs able to get for the money I paid, I've found I could get for a fraction of the cost and none of the aggravation, online and through individual lectures/classes. After months of having to fight to get anything addressed, as well as fight the images being presented by the mentor, I now can't even get a formal doc showing completion of the course of study from them. My emails to the director have gone unanswered. Never mind that I wouldn't list the educational experience on my resume, I couldn't if I wanted to. The only proof I have of completing anything and of the grades I made, is a webpage print-out.

A very bad and very uncomfortable experience. I would recommend to anyone thinking of signing up with TechSkills, seriously research your potential mentor's work/knowledge background. Ask for industry references specific to the mentor that will handle your courses, and check with agencies in the area (independently - not just recommended by the school) and, without mentioning any school/training program names, find out what those agencies look for and what training/schools they'd recognize and want to hire you for.

W
Denver, Colorado
U.S.A.