Babington Reviews 102

I worked with my Babington Skills coach Elaine during my Operations or Departmental Manager diploma and standard qualifications. I had excellent support from Elaine throughout the process, understanding when to check in to provide support, and having regular catch up sessions to stay on track.

I'm really grateful to Elaine and the wider Babington team for supporting me on this stage of my professional journey.

Babington were extremely supportive throughout my learning journey, specifically my coach Elaine Porter, she shared her knowledge and experience to guide me through the programme. Achieving a distinction in my apprenticeship and an ILM diploma highlights the dedication and amazing support I received from Elaine. The apprenticeship provided me with the skills and understanding to support my advancement within my organisation; all skills learnt are the building blocks for further self awareness and development. I would recommend Babington to any potential students who can be assured they will receive the support required to be successful in their apprenticeship.

i loved taking part in this apprenticeship - Babington were amazingly supportive and my coach was always on hand to provide support and guidance as required

I have done a number of different level qualifications and Apprenticeships through Babington and this has supported my whole career.
Each time has been professional and well delivered.
I would absolutely recommend Babington.

Babbington currently support my apprentice teams within a huge organisation, I am super impressed with the way that they work - their coaches come onto site and I honestly feel as though they are apart of our regular in house team, they have a direct link to the operation and have a wide span of knowledge when it comes to our products and services, this link is particularly important for us as the apprenticeship and our operation are so closely interlinked, however in the past it hasnt always worked as seamlessly. They push our apprentices to be accountable for their work, coach them fantastically and are always on hand for any support that they would need... there is always someone on hand to answer any questions that we have... I truthfully don't have a bad word to say and would recommend Babbington to any large organisation.

I have been on an apprenticeship with Babington since October 2023, Babington are useless. They are extremely disorganised, failing to meet every target they set for providing us information by email, Teams calls, marking submissions and more. For example, submissions are supposed to be marked within a couple of working days, I have not had any marked for 3 months. The teacher makes basic mistakes in every lesson and keeps contradicting the books, when this is pointed out he says the books are wrong. The skills coach goes massively overtime in the calls, assuming they happen at all, one of my colleagues has not had a call yet with the skills coach as the skills coach has cancelled all seven that were booked. We are asked to fill out forms and then not emailed the forms. Deadlines are constantly missed.

Dreadful IT, no support for apprenticeship. Extremely disorganised and misleading.

I signed up in March 2023 for a course. The administration missed on deadlines and some were exceptionally rude as didn’t know what they were doing at all. It took them a month to complete correctly the paperwork! But the troubles did not really stop here. Took them over a month to get the link to the live tutoring right. There were new links and old links and they could not make their mind which one would be used. When they finally got it the recording link was then constantly showing error in opening. 6 moths in the course still have no record of the recordings to refer to or any contact with the tutor. Seem to have completely disappeared.
But if only this was the problem. The trainer, Jane Tansey who is supposed to help and assist the Apprentice would refuse to communicate by email and email any of the guidance, for instance what is required to complete the off-job hours, what evidence is required and she didn’t possess any knowledge on what is required by AAT, etc. She would be raising her voice when doesn’t suit her to answer direct question or accuse the apprentice of being rude, she would avoid support as she simply has been put there to spend an hour every so often and tick boxes. Absolute waste of space and time.
Oh, and Karl Edwards is another Babington delightful character. It is very difficult to get in touch with Karl, it took more than 6 months to get anyone form the Functional skills team. Although numerous emails no response was received. Exams were not booked although it stated they were booked. No links were received for the exams and no guidance whatsoever. The telephone presented for contact was belonging to someone else as there was a female voice recording and never answered. Complete waste of time and disappointment.
Not only as soon as the government finding was received, they have withdrawn the course and all communication suspended, leaving both the employer and the apprentice in a limbo.
IT’S A SCAM. AVOID AT ANY COST!

I took my rottie and staffing there I got my rottie back verry thin and three months latter I had to put her down

Terrible terrible provider. Had 7 different tutors as staff keep leaving. They have just made half the staff redudant and pulled a training programme mid through studying with no comms. Don't return emails or calls, absolutely shocking service. AVOID

Dreadful communication. I had to withdraw from the course due misinformation from Babington staff. This meant I missed out on other course option with a different eduction provider.

Also, the staff were unable to use Teams. Many issue setting up basic meeting. Also, the course leader had a private conversation on Teams with a member of the cohort which should had been secure.

Disappointed as the course seems to have good subject matter, but the execution is frustrating.

I remember looking at other options before investing time and money in Babington.

I worked at Babington as a Skills Coach and I found the induction to be below acceptable. I also got frustrated time and time again at the lack of adequate training following induction. Every Coach is drowning in work and they have an incredibly high turnover of staff although management will never admit it however learners know because they tend to end up with multiple coaches. I left due to bad management and ridiculously high KPIs some of the worst I’ve ever seen in my career. I was going through a stressful time in my life and the support wasn’t there yet they preach about well-being and how supportive they are. As a business they are all about the money. I’ve had a fair amount of employers and roles and Babington are in the top 5 worst. I actually feel ashamed that they are on my CV.

I would give 0 stars if possible. My government department paid £20,000 for my level 7 apprenticeship with Babbington. In exchange I got a skills coach who would help with English and maths, I have GCSE As in both so unnecessary. Plus a pile of Kaplan books which would have cost in total around £300. Plus about 3 hours of tuition per exam- they call it a ‘boot camp’. For my CIMA case study they asked me to submit 2 mock exams. They marked just one of them (well no marks in terms of numbers, just a few comments) and gave it back 2 days before the exam (took 2 weeks to mark?).
Contrast this with what Kaplan, BPP or other proper provider would give. A fully taught course with around 12 hours of tuition per exam. 3 or more fully marked mock exams for the case study. And because it is an apprenticeship it is the same price Babbington charge.
Someone in Babington has persuaded the government that this is a proper course, it isn’t. Shame on you Babington.

Completed the Digital Bootcamp with Babington, really enjoyed the content of the sessions and the opportunity to make relationships with other people on the course. It was completed quickly and efficiently. Mark was very knowledgeable about the subjects and had great experience to share. Overall a great opportunity for me to help me to expand my knowledge and career aspirations in the future.

Would highly recommend doing the Digital Leadership Bootcamp Course, I am only half way through this course and its a fantastic. The course allows you to explore all areas of leadership within a digital era!

5 Stars for Lucy Antony. I did my Level 3 in Housing & Property Management. Tough course to do while working a full time role with targets.

Lucy was amazing and knew just how much and when to push and guide me to keep me on track, and at times I was not an easy candidate but we got there finishing with a pass. Thank you so much Lucy

I have done 2 courses with Babington. Level 2 customer service ( 2020 ) was virtually delivered by Nicolette Aydn and that was a fantastic teacher. The sessions were highly interactive and she was accessible anytime if needed help.
In 2021, I also enrolled into Level 2 Digital Skills for Work which was completely online. I got adequate information and support from my assigned tutor. Even when I needed to demonstrate certain skill via a recorded video with my boss, she volunteered to act as my boss since I was unemployed then.

However, last month I made enquiries about a Bootcamp program and I got instant response to join the information, guidance and advice session but the follow up from then onward was poor. I got a missed call and the caller left a message for me to call her back which I did several times without response from her. I sent emails but never bothered to reply. Another one texted me and I called back no response, I left her voice message and also sent email no reply. Thanks to Jane Lord who called me later and answered my queries.

I would not give even a star if it was after me. Bad comunication, nasty unproffesional guys. My opinion, this is a big scam, to take money from the gouvern without offering any service. Waiste of time, and nerves. They get me so angry in the last few weeks in which i am trying like insane to register and start a course with them. I will never recomand them to anyone, just to mention that it is better to avoid them. Thanks y'all

Done a 2 and a half week course to be guaranteed an interview after. I've had no contact of being offered the interview, I've emailed various people to see what's going on and they can't be bothered to reply. It's a shame because the course was good but the after service is shocking.

Awful communication, tutor didnt care, took nearly 2 weeks to reply to my email. No positive feedback when i did get it, was always negative. Asked to change tutors twice and was ignored. One tutor told me the pass mark was 60% another said 70%. Wish i done my maths functional skills with another college. such a waste of time, they actually didn't even book me in for my exam so im guessing they recieved the funding for enrolling me and wasn't bothered to actually help me pass. The only positive thing about the course was Mark Frankland, he was a fantastic teacher, its a shame i couldn't of had him throughout my course.