All reviews of Beth Westlake
Review about: Shaw Academy
Excel Course. Advanced Beauty
I first tried Shaw academy during the corona virus pandemic when they offered free classes. Usually, the courses would be a tad expensive for me, but this was a great way to see if Shaw Academy was right for me without making a large purchase.
I first tried the excel course, which was far slower and more suited for beginners than I needed. It did, however, go on to several modules with more complex and useful skills and functions. It would not have been useful for myself, but for the inexperienced is a great start.
I have noticed that other courses go far more in depth and are much longer (for an example, around 50 minutes and chock full of content for the Advanced Beauty Course, ran by the friendly, engaging teacher who managed to both answer student queries and stay on track).
The set up of the classes is almost ideal. You can choose your own schedule and book classes ahead of time, usually you can schedule for almost any hour of the day. You can also reschedule if you know you will miss a class, and classes are recorded for viewing after the class - an absolute must. The only thing that would need alteration in my opinion is that you can only have two classes per week. Of course many people would be happy with this, but for the shorter, easier classes of the Excel course, 2 classes per week (and no more than one a day) left me wanting more as I initially felt I wasn't learning enough (or for some classes, learning anything).
A trial period or taster session would be perfect and certainly encourage me to purchase further courses and get further diplomas as some courses are more content-heavy than others. Of course though, this does depend somewhat on existing knowledge.
All in all, the Shaw Academy has some dedicated teachers who express a genuine interest in their subject field and their students. The recorded lessons are great for play-back, taking additional notes, and catching up. Unfortunately, both the course toolkit and actual certificate cost more money which somewhat dampened my experience and enthusiasm.