I paid £12 for my online course. It then cost me £35 to take an exam. I struggled with the exam because the online course had not explained things very well.
MW

My new employers made me do an online course before they let me make sandwiches. It was easy and kept me out of trouble. 3 weeks later I did the proper course. That was just so much fun.
KC

I paid £25 for an online course hoping it would help me get a job. At one interview they half suggested that I had printed the certificate myself. What a waste of money. PS I have got a job at last
PM

I was so nervous of taking a food hygiene test that when I discovered my local community centre was offering computer courses for free I jumped at it. I was much more confident when I finally took the real test. The trainer was brilliant though.

SC

Online and CD-ROM Training Courses - beware the hidden costs.

Ideal for larger organisations

Online and CD-ROM based training courses provide an ideal way for larger organisations to provide induction training for new staff before they start to handle food. May we suggest looking at CIEH eLearning. The CIEH offer a cost effective and flexible learning solution which is tailored to the needs of your organisation. The level one courses are particularly relevant.

Not suitable for individuals or small organisations

The online and CD-ROM based courses do not furnish the candidate with a recognisable qualification or certificate of competence. Having completed an online course and been issued with the organisations certificate of completion, the candidate may be eligible to take the formal qualification. By the time that you have added the cost of the examination fee to the fee already paid for the online course the total is likely to be significantly greater than the cost of attending a local traditional course.

Most courses do not adequately prepare the learner for the examination increasing the risk that the candidate will not be successful. Apart from the very negative impact that can have on the learner there is also the cost of the re-examination to take into account.

The certificates provided by the online course provider are of little value. There is no evidence that it was the individual named that completed the courses. A friend or relative may have taken the test for them. Some online tests let you repeat the test as often as you like. Where there are 4 answers available it does not take long to get 100% on all questions just by trying different answers!

Candidates cannot ask questions to help there understanding of a topic. Learners can go away confused or worse thinking that they know more than they actually do.

Why don't training organisations use them?

Wouldn't it be nice if we could just sit our clients down in front of a computer, at any time of the day, and still have happy successful clients? Instead we employ a trainer to deliver the course to a group who all have to be there at the same time. The truth is that our clients would find it wholly unacceptable.

The future

We are continuing to work on an online program that provides learners with some preparation before they attend a formal course. Aside from the essentials of being easy to use we wish to make this course available free of charge to all. We would like it to be available as an initial induction, an Aperitif, so to speak, or as an Hors d'oeuvre before learners attend the Main course. Please let us know what you want.