Learndirect - January 2025
This week Watchdog investigates online course service Learndirect. We’ve been hearing from customers who have booked onto courses, which they couldn’t take and then struggled to get a refund.
We meet Laura who booked onto an online health and safety course costing her £158. After booking, she discovered that the course had been discontinued so she applied to get her money back. She has been waiting for more than 90 days for a refund that should of taken 14 days.
We also meet Arya who used Learndirect to enrol onto a zookeeper course. However, Arya changed her mind something she’s entitled to do for the first 14 days, according to Learndirect’s terms and conditions. However, 30 days later she is still waiting for a refund, which again, should of only taken 14 days.
In response to our story, a spokesperson from Learndirect told us:
We contacted Learndirect and it said that with over 150,000 people currently learning with Learndirect, it was proud of the positive impact it makes through its courses, providing its learners with opportunities to further their careers or progress towards higher education, opportunities they would not have otherwise.
It said it cares deeply about its learners’ experience and their feedback. It said it receives overwhelmingly positive reviews from thousands of its learners on Trustpilot, where 91% of learners have given Learndirect four or five stars, the highest scores possible.
It said it was sorry therefore that Arya and Laura did not receive their refunds promptly – Learndirect said it has apologised to them both for the delay and can confirm their refunds have been processed.
You can watch the full VT here for 30 days /iplayer/episode/m0027ff5/the-one-show-29012025?seriesId=unsliced
