Online Academies Reviews 

I have had such a positive experience with online learning academies. Thank you Kiera and Allison for your prompt responses. I thoroughly enjoyed this course and after sales service was just as good.

Very helpful

Kiera was so helpful in assisting me with a query that I had. She is friendly and gave speedy assistance and responses to my email.

Excellent in depth course
Lots of information that has helped me move forward with my business and increased my knowledge so much on herbalism.
Definitely a Level 5 diploma
Take the last test for full ABC award

I have always found Online Academies courses and content pretty decent and useful, a welcome (and usually more affordable) alternative to Stonebridge College, especially if you pick up discount codes or use a Groupon voucher. However it's important to have a clear understanding of what they are, and or not, and it's possible OA themselves (like Stonebridge) have not always been clear in this.

These are mostly NOT 'qualifications' as such - a bit like you can do a 'MOOC' Mass Open Online Course on EDX from Oxford or Harvard, but is not the same as an actual recognised 'qual'. It is a sort of 'accredited prior learning' certificate rather than an outright qualification. You can use them to 'shore up' other quals you have -so I did the ILM Leadership & Management elsewhere, then added Supervisory and Ops Management from Online Academies.

The courses are often genuinely interesting in the content and a useful boost to knowledge, and have given my CV a slight edge on the other person when it's come to jobs. Just important to understand they are 'additional learning' not 'core qualifications'.

Just like millions I took hundreds of hours to complete my course with Online Academies. I passed everything and received, online, my Diploma Certificate which obviously when you print it the quality is not good and looks like a made up certificate, many high level security companies require an authenticated certificate not just a print out from a laptop and I need an authenticated certificate to gain employment and I have tried many times to get in contact with Online Academies by email, online chat without success and the number I called from their online page goes to another company called "Leandirect" which they were very helpful but they did not provide my course, so I think Online Academies is a scam and be very careful because my certificate is not worth the paper its written on and I cannot gain employment without it.

If Online Academies is not a scam then get in touch with me via this message system.

Prove me and many others wrong!

just completed my Foot health practitioner course. A huge shout out to Online Academy and my tutor Natasha . Excellent course Excellent support. Thank you

Purchased a course via OnlineAcademies, did less than 5% before realising it was a false course with no real accreditation, emailed to cancel immediately with no response. Repeatedly emailed, no response until a month later when LearnDirect (in association with OnlineAcademies and Stonebridge) responded to say I owe £20. It's been ongoing for two years and ever single day I get emails and texts with them threatening legal action and marking my credit file. A truly bullying company who won't get a penny from me because there is evidence I followed the guidance as per the terms and conditions of the website I purchased the bogus course from. This has been ongoing since 2020, a few weeks ago they offered me a refund via email but required my account details, I asked for an email to confirm it was purely to refund me and that no money would be taken but nobody replied. I chased it daily for two weeks and then was told the cut off for claiming the refund had passed and that it's going back to square one. A true shambles of a company.

Natasha has been extremely helpful throughout my course, I’m very pleased with my result and hope to achieve another course soon.

Excellent program of study from Online Academies, Psychology Diploma. I learnt a lot from the user friendly and technical content. Topics relevant and the right amount of detail per section provided. Tutor support also very helpful. The certificate on completion makes the study process worthwhile.

And you do not even deserve half of that. Worked for 2 years as did my extra level after main course. Not a single bit of support, I passed every element most 100% but did I because I paid for extended level 4 and I have done all 44 essay's to no reply, from phone on-line support nothing, not a reply....
Why when you have scammed me out of £25 extra for this extended course and the first course I completed isnt worth the the paper its written on.
Thanks for making a 43 year old beliefs in this flop. I used what I had learnt on therapies for my osteoarthritis mum I care for full time, they helped her no end but to take a profession. I would never be insured with qualifications you give because you are nothing but a scam. No last certificate after paying more do not do this course or any associated with them SCAM SCAM SCAM

Pretty sure this is a scam. The website is very professional and makes it appear as though it is offering genuine, accredited courses (though the company is not actually accredited anywhere, and at the end they make you pay extra for a 'CPD accredited' version of the certificate, which I will not be doing, thank you very much) , however when you get onto the learning portal (and they've already got your money) the quality of the website massively goes downhill. It's very very basic and looks like a word document, no images or anything to engage you. The content is even worse-it looks like someone has just copied and pasted bits from google. I actually copied and pasted paragraphs and searched them into google, and chunks of the information was pretty much word for word taken from other websites. There's also poor grammar and spelling mistakes everywhere. The 'assessment' is a handful of multiple choice questions which are very basic (and most of the time poorly worded with or with parts of the question missing so it makes zero sense and you've got to guess the answer). Some of the answers to the questions are actually incorrect too, so by selecting the right answer you get it 'wrong' (even though in the course it states that to be the right answer).

Getting through this course was physically painful but I was going to get that certificate if it killed me because I'd already wasted my time and money so I at least wanted something to show for it.
I haven't tried to contact the company but judging by other reviews its not worth trying to. I bought this on groupon for £20 (rather than the £200 on the company's own website), so I guess its my own fault for thinking something so cheap could be any good. If I'd paid full price I'd be absolutely furious.

One small positive is that the certificate is easy to download at the end-other reviews stated they had problems so I was worried but I had no issues.

100% would not recommend, don't buy from them,

I loved it! other courses have videos thats fine and all.. but i can also let siri read me the text.. i love that its just papers and text you can print and actually study with a book everywhere you go i will be dong more courses here!

The course has awful grammar (sometimes not making any sense), and missing lots of information, e.g. they will talk about something and then not tell you anything useful about it.

AND THEN.............. they ask you for more money for a final 'master' course, and pressure you with a limited time discount lol

Good balanced course material, helpful Tutors-Bob Oliver was mine,

I really enjoyed my course (my Tutor Natasha Pennet) was always helpful
It's the 1st diploma course I've ever done and to get a distinction I'm over the moon 😁

I have really enjoyed my study with Online academy. Also my tutor(Susan Barrett) was excellent and patient with me. Thank you for your guidance and advice.

I have done a few courses with online academy ;tarot card reading, master herbalist course, and Pilates instructor course . I was already experienced in all fields but wanted a certificate.
I only ever emailed them once with a question about the platform and I never receive a reply.
Hebalism : the text and format of the learning material wasn’t pleasing to the eye nor was it organised in an easy to read manner. Just a lot of crammed information. Unfortunately the course expired before i had completed it (12 months) tarot: the learning material was fun and easy to read. A satisfactory beginner course. Pilates: contains good learning material, a catalog of pilates exercises and a step by step guide on how to carry them out. You will need to invest in practice time. Modules cover anatomy, The body etc. modules are cover the main core subjects as any level 2/ 3 fitness course. Courses are not accredited but you accreditation is necessary for you, you can do this through the academy or independently. Pilates exercise are organised in alphabetical order and doesn’t include the standard pilates flow. Having said that all 36 exercises are included. there is enough material to create your own work out and lessons. The quality of the teaching material from online academy varies course to course. With Pilates You are tested based on the material contained in each lesson. The test is an online multiple choice and requires 76% and above for a pass.

I found the pilates course to be equal in quality (learning material, and core modules,) to level 2 fitness courses run by most UK colleges.
The herbalism course did contain good information just a horrible format and difficult to read font..

Do not have anything do with them. Contact diabolical, no one would answer phones. Paid for a certificate, still waiting. Steer clear at all costs.

I have just completed the Master Herbalist Course, booked through Groupon. I'd been accepted for a BSc in Herbal Medicine but then refused a student loan, so I decided to do this for my own interest. I actually found the customer service good; had initial problems accessing the course but this was sorted out by a phone call. One or two slight technical problems, but again, solved via their on line chat, which responded very quickly.
I have to say though, that the course design and material was not good; just reams of information to read through in a very boring format, followed by multiple choice tests, which one could complete without having read the material in depth. Not at all interactive. I'm a teacher myself, so was not impressed; they could at least have included some illustrations or the odd video! I think the person who wrote the course knew their subject, just not very aware of teaching methodology and testing! There was some information that I have printed off because it will be useful for future reference. As for the diploma! I was able to print it off successfully but I imagine if I displayed this on my wall, friends and colleagues would collapse laughing. I realised before starting that it wasn't a valid qualification, so not too disappointed on that score. I would have been able to get most of the information by myself on line and it would have been more interesting than the stultifyingly boring course material. Still, it was something to do during lockdown, but God help anyone I tried to treat using only this qualification!