How to raise a concern about your training, and how an assessment decision can be appealed. Every learner has this right, and using it never affects how you are treated.
A complaint is a concern about the service — teaching, facilities, administration, or the conduct of staff or another learner.
An appeal is a request to review a decision about you — most often an assessment mark, an attendance ruling, or a decision not to issue a certificate.
Both follow the stages below. Raising either costs nothing, and no learner is disadvantaged for having done so.
Speak to your trainer or the coordinator. Most matters — a timetable clash, a missing material, a marking query — are settled here, usually the same week.
If you would rather not raise it with the person concerned, go straight to Stage 2.
Submit it in writing, by either route:
Please give your name, CPR, course and batch, what happened and when, anyone else involved, and what outcome you are seeking.
If the Stage 2 outcome does not resolve it, ask for a review within 10 working days of the decision. The review is carried out by a senior member of the centre who was not involved in the original decision, and who may uphold it, vary it or overturn it. That decision closes the internal process.
For a mark or a certification decision, appeal within 10 working days of receiving the result. Say which assessment, and why you believe the decision is wrong — a marking error, a procedure not followed, or evidence not considered.
The work is re-marked by an assessor who did not mark it the first time. A mark may go up, stay the same, or go down, and we tell you the outcome in writing. Where the award is made by an external body, their own appeals procedure applies in addition to ours, and we will tell you how to use it.
If you have been through all three stages and remain dissatisfied, you may raise the matter with the relevant external body — the Education & Training Quality Authority (BQA) for the quality of provision, the awarding body for a certification decision, or Tamkeen where the course is sponsored.
Every complaint and appeal is logged with its date, category and outcome. The record is reviewed by management and forms part of the evidence the centre presents at quality review. Records are held in confidence and shared only with those who need them to resolve the matter.