CRASH COURSE; Alison is among 3000 students left high and dry and out of pocket as study firm goes bust AFFINITY Training.

Byline: Additional reporting by JANE BARRIE

CARE worker Alison Craigen hoped a distance learning course would give her a step up the career ladder.

But instead of improving her prospects, she lost pounds 1669 when Affinity Training Ltd, went bust owing hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Alison, 49, called me in after finding there was little chance of getting any money back - or her Cambridge University-backed qualification.

Around 3000 students were hit by the collapse, including around 300 Scots.

Alison, of Govanhill, Glasgow, said: "I can't afford to lose this money. I've done all the course work but have nothing to show for it."

She first contacted Affinity Training15 months ago.

She said: "I saw a leaflet for an NVQ level 3 course. I could do it part-time and take two years to complete it. It was ideal.

"It's compulsory in the industry to hold an NVQ level 2. Level 3 is more management based and that's why I wanted to do it."

The course cost pounds 789 plus VAT and she agreed to pay by instalments. But Affinity took pounds 1669 from her account.

Alison, who has worked in the care sector for 10 years, complained and Affinity promised to refund the cash. But she has yet to receive it.

She said: "It appears they were taking double the money some months without my knowledge."

She completed the course and handed in her work via a local assessor. Weeks later she was devastated to find the firm was in administration.

Alison, who works with dementia sufferers, said: "I was so pleased at getting through the course. Now even the award-issuing body has no record of me."

She contacted administrator Leonard Curtis but said: "I don't hold out much hope of getting any money back but I am trying to get the qualification I studied for."

I discovered Affinity, run by Mathew Whittingham and his mother Claire Lucy Whittingham-Hodges had big debts - including pounds 400,000 owed to the Inland Revenue.

Another firm Wave Training Ltd, which was incorporated weeks before Affinity went to the wall, bought some of their assets.

Mathew Whittingham has been involved in 13 firms - six were dissolved two years after his appointment.

He couldn't be reached at addresses in Stourbridge, West Midlands, last week.

Cambridge Assessment - a department of Cambridge University - said they would do all they could to help Alison get her qualification.

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Devastated: Alison