Activate Learning Reviews 33

Appalling company.

Lack of communication and when faced with my concern over a data breach and possible GDPR issue just refused to answer any questions and ignored it.

Avoid at all costs.

What an absolute joke, I was meant to start the HE Law course in September 2025, applied for it in May 2025, was then told the course was full, and would be transferred to the February intake and my student loan would be transferred to the February intake, it’s now March, and last contact was in December. Do not use this company

Lack of Support During Serious Health Circumstances

I enrolled with Activate Learning to study Maths and English GCSEs. My Maths course was free under the government scheme, while I paid £800 for English as the funded places had already been filled.
During my studies, I was diagnosed with DCIS, which required multiple operations, many hospital appointments, and radiotherapy. Despite this, I attended all of my lessons, missing only one or two due to being in the hospital.
Because of my health circumstances, I requested to delay my exams from June to November, as I was undergoing radiotherapy in June. This was agreed.
However, students who failed their GCSEs in May/June were allowed to attend additional lessons in preparation for their November resits. I asked if I could attend these sessions due to the disruption and stress caused by my medical treatment, but I was told I was not eligible because I had not failed the exams in May/June. I found this reasoning unfair, given that my exams were postponed specifically due to health issues.
I was also told that Activate Learning was “being fair” because my exams were originally booked for May/June, and they would have to pay for the “resit.” This was misleading, as not all of my exams had been booked. I was also told they were being fair by giving me access to Century, despite the fact that all students had access to Century until November anyway.
In terms of teaching, my experience was mixed. In one Maths group, the tutor regularly failed to explain topics clearly, and when students asked for clarification, the response was often along the lines of “we need to move on” or “look back at the recorded video.” This led me to formally request to leave that group. I was then moved to another online class where the tutor was excellent—supportive, clear, and engaging. I genuinely couldn’t fault her.
Overall, while there are some excellent tutors within Activate Learning, I found the organisation itself to be unsupportive during a very difficult period of my life. Their approach felt inconsistent, and it appeared they selectively applied flexibility rather than supporting students equitably. I have come to this conclusion not only from my own experience but also from conversations with other classmates. I would not recommend Activate Learning to anyone who may require understanding, flexibility, or consistent support during difficult personal or medical circumstances.

Ref Oxford city college. Within one month of our SEND child starting , the parent having to chase weekly via email to ask why provisions in EHC are not being delivered. Whilst college have acknowledged this they have also asked we email them when provisions aren’t being met in class again so they can address it.

Again… relying on a parent to inform you every time the college is unable to fulfil a mildly disabled child’s needs and to just simply do your job is a cause for concern and an institutional failure and problem, which doesn’t look as though it’ll be fixed anytime soon

A very reactive approach and non beneficial of the child in need, when they have had all documents and information instrumental to meeting his requirements delivered months before term starts including local authority funding which is agreed to be used on child.

Whilst clear it’s an in-house college failures, there’s still no accountability , rather the reactive approach again.

Curriculum leader talk about how they enforce code of conduct in site and brags about how he told a student in front of me to wear their lanyards. Keep the same energy and remain accountable and fix up college failures before showing what you’re able to do in a position of authority. A very entitled and privileged attitude to have.

The problem is, there’s no where else similar in Oxford city centre so unless parents and children want to travel absurd miles, you’re stuck with a somewhat broken system in Oxford city college. Stick to 6th form where possible and avoid if you can. Special ed kids unfortunately are stuck having to go here.

Its a pain just to register for a course.

I'm going to look elsewhere as this college looks like its mis-managed from the start.

Please don't send your children here to do A-levels (Farnham College). My child hasn't had a Biology teacher for months so is trying to teach himself and their second Psychology teacher in a year is also suddenly leaving. These poor kids are in their second year and don't stand a chance of being properly educated. It's a disgrace

Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this college at all based on my child’s experience. Communication has been extremely poor, with students left without timetables or clear guidance, not replying to emails, leaving them to figure things out on their own. The lack of organization is concerning. My child has also mentioned that most teachers are very difficult to understand due to language barriers (accents), which impacts their ability to follow lessons. I’ve listened to recordings myself and found it difficult to understand myself as well. Additionally, teacher meetings are often cancelled at the last minute, with no explanation or new dates provided.

Another concern is how the school approaches inclusivity. While I fully support the idea of creating an inclusive environment, certain practices feel...distracting. For instance, children walking around pretending to be cats and dogs during school hours barking and screaming at other students seems inappropriate and disruptive. If other students say something about it they will get told off for not being inclusive. My child was also pressured to wear a specific LGBTQ+ lanyard for a student pass, which they were uncomfortable with. If they did not agree wearing this lanyard they were not given their new student pass... Inclusivity should be about respecting everyone’s preferences, not forcing students into situations that make them uneasy.

Lastly, the cafeteria raises serious hygiene concerns. While I appreciate the opportunity given to individuals with disabilities to participate, there seems to be a lack of supervision, which has led to unsanitary practices like improper handling of food. This is a significant health and safety issue that needs to be addressed immediately.

Do not send your child here. I hope they take these issues seriously and makes the necessary improvements, but I doubt they will.

Studied level two esports and where do I even begin, For a start the teachers were consistently ill or there were changes in plans, not to mention there was not enough of the course itself, for example Tuesday was 9 am to 16:40 pm, and only an hour of it was esports, you’d think for a course about esports they’d give me more of what you’ve came for, but no…2024 and I had just completed my GCSE’s and sent my application for level 3 esports, I waited and waited…received nothing, no email or anything, so I email BOTH tutors, got absolutely nothing from either of them, and on September 4th, the day college is meant to start, they decide to email me, “sorry you didn’t get into the course” Which is just outrageous, how can anyone think it’d acceptable to drop that just as college begins, I’ve got barely any time to apply for anything now because I’ve been waiting for this. So anyone thinking of signing up to this college, word of advice, don’t. Go somewhere you’ll actually get what you came for

At first I was lost. I met a lady called Preeti . She explained to me the process in detail. Encouraged me. I’m so happy I met her because she gave me the strength and understanding to continue with my college enrolment process . Thank you Preeti

My first time at Reading College was back between 2017 and 2019 doing a Btec Science course. As I was really impressed with the college at the time, I though I'd return for the 23/24 academic year for a Btec Engineering course following a bad experience I had with another course I did at university. Although the first few weeks of the course went smoothly, it was after October half term where things started to go downhill quite quickly. Here's a summary of the things I experienced.

- As a mature student, I paid a good amount of money for the 1 year I'm back at Reading College. However, because I've missed so many lessons that have amounted to missing several weeks, I arranged a meeting with my faculty manager about getting a partial refund for these lessons I've missed. As he had to email the directors, I had to wait quite a few weeks to hear back, but to both of our disappointments, they DIDN'T refund me, and even my faculty manager said that if it was up to him, he would've given me all of the money I requested. As many other people have said, Activate Learning are clearly more worried about making a profit than giving their students the best experience possible.

- My next point is about one of my recent lessons, where I had an important meeting about my apprenticeship one morning, which I heard about back in March and would’ve been impossible to change. My timetable had been changed a few days before to an important lesson, so I emailed my lecturer regarding this, and he said that it would be fine for me to miss it, with me under the presumption that I’d be able to catch up. When I emailed him the following day about this, not only did he say that I wouldn’t be able to catch up as it was a teamwork based assignment, but he was also implying that I was at fault for prioritising my apprenticeship meeting that I had in the diary for over 3 months over this important lesson that was rescheduled only a few days prior. On top of this, he copied my tutor, faculty manager and other workshop lecturer into the email in an attempt to find an alternative solution to this problem. Again, this really annoyed me, as this rescheduling was out of my hands, and I felt I was tricked into thinking I'd be able to catch up.

- In my last 2 weeks at college, my timetable for my Btec class, including the week commencing the date I write this review, our timetable was rammed with early starts and late finishes (8-6 instead of 9-5) to catch up with missing lessons. This is an attempt to catch up with 6 assignments that we should've been doing for the few months prior, but those lessons were cancelled due to the T-Level coursework taking priority over ours. Overall, I feel like we've been treated like 2nd-class students that now have a mad rush to finish assignments through no fault of our own, whilst the T-Level students are now finished and now on summer holiday.

-On top of this, the T-Level students got a LOT more support than the Btec students. One important part of both courses is gaining work experience, of which it's compulsory for the T-Level students and optional for the Btec students. Whilst the T-Level students got help finding it, the Btec students just got a list of company websites to look at and were told to find it ourselves with minimum guidance and help. I know this is part of both of the courses specifications, but I feel like the T-Level lot get preferential treatment just because they're a more academic route.

Overall, I feel that this year at Reading College has been an absolute mess and disaster for students who are on the Btec route. I'm only giving a 2-star review as my first time at Reading College was excellent, but even that's being FAR TOO generous for what I've had this last academic year.

I passed my exam on the 15th of December but still haven’t received my certificate. I have called multiple times and send multiple emails no response .Horrible service.

laggy, logs you out and you have to redo the entire task. full of bugs, low quality design and terrible for learning would rate 0/10

It’s like walking through the gates of hell when you arrive at the Oxford campus,

I write this as an ex-tutor not as a student

As others in the thread have said , Directors are Bullies , that ooze arrogance they really do not care about education they care about money , the only time they are visible is on days such as open events then they scuffle off back into the holes the crawled out of ! Male directors are very misogynistic that just gas light you they lack any leadership skills , communication skills , they have zero compassion and most of all they lack any kind of integrity.

One member of staff who is now director had a relationship with a student, instead of being sacked they were moved and promoted.

HR are so poor that they allow teachers to work there with out DBS’s some hadn’t had them for 3 years - this is a major concern , they wait until they have lots to apply for , I didn’t have one for 7 months , I had to chase it up myself they didn’t seem to care, DBS’s are a legal requirement to work in any educational organisation.

It isn’t until you leave the hell hole that you realise how poor the company is , when you see the way other establishments are run then you truly understand the true extent of toxicity

As I tutor I tried to do my best for students but I was so over worked with an extremely high workload that my mental health suffered , management didn’t care , when I complained about my workload and the amount of work I had to do outside of the work place my manager said “ Your a teacher get on with it “ this is the same manager that refused to mark work outside of his working day and demanded extra payments.

Just writing this and thinking about activate learning gives me PTSD ,

Please take my advice don’t enrol on any courses under activate you’ll ruin your chance of education…… YOUR JUST A £-sign

I have applied for course and they said that will send me an email for enrolment but three weeks later I am still waiting for it. When I messaged them, they said we have sent you, but they definitely not. That is absolutely unacceptable because I have just lost my time.

Wasted time and money. Disappointed

I was enrolled in a course lasting 1 year with exams in June 23- promised I Could re-sit im November as I was unable to sit a paper - I enrolled this September just to re-sit in NOvember and they've just decided , after enrolling , that they can no longer offer me the opportunity to re-sit - which means I've spent 1 year and 1 month attending, revising, working for absolutely nothing! How can they reverse their decision so arbitrarilty - no-one cares- they didn't even respond to my emails by name - just a generic email with no name !! SO UNPROFESSIONAL -AVOID

Visited Guildford College as a prospective student and was slapped with a £60 parking fine which Activatelearning refused to remove. Needless to say, I won't be enrolling on one of your courses. Students beware, you can't park at their facilities without being handed a parking fine! AVOID!

Since buying out loads of Colleges, their "land grab then sell off for profit" approach means that almost all the decent and competent admin staff have left the campus' as they can't stand working for the awful management, who seemingly have absolutely no interest in education whatsoever, and a huge fixation with getting personally very wealthy and cruising around in top-end company cars etc. Just look around their sites - filthy dumps where they don't even pick up the litter; emblematic. A very sad reflection of the state of tertiary education in the UK.

I applied to do math GCSE course through this college as it was mainly distant learning and is achievable with having a small child to care for and no childcare during the week I did the enitial assesment and then was asked to enroll to which I couldn't complete as I didn't have proof if not having my math gcse below grade c so I decided to come back to it later to find I can't access the page being told my details are wrong and also a page stating 404 denied access I emailed activate learning 4 days ago with no response I've rang twice being in a cue from position 12 and getting to position 4 the phone cuts off and now trying to enrol says my details do not exist I think I've had a lucky escape and will look into my local college as this has been a dreadful experience so far.

active learn is really bad i think it should burn in hell because it really doesnt help