Community discussion forum
Volunteer for Hampton Fund ?
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Would anybody want to volunteer a little of their time to help our NON PROFIT site get up and running ? We need user testers, experienced site folk, and any opinions/criticism of how we run and do things.
We try to give people a new start and a new career by training them and putting them through apprenticeships in Microsoft technologies. We only get paid from donations/fees from alumni (no public donations, and no govt help).
If you need any more info, please email me at rami@hamptonfund.org
Thanks for any contribution that you are able to make, and thanks for your time in reading this far !
Rami.
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Hey. I've seen loads of ads online for this "Hampton Fund" scheme. But I'm not sure if I should go for it or not. The information i've read seems a bit too good to be true.
Anyone have any information, or previous experiences with this company?
P -
Hi there, P. Hope all is well.
Thanks for posting. We're a non-profit (currently doing our best to finalise our full charity status). The Career Partership apprenticeship/training program that we run isn't for everybody, there's nothing like it anywhere else (as far as we know). There is a selection process (computerised, to reduce human error), and you don't pay us back anything until you are finished, in work, and earning more than 18k.
I'm going to try to put up our own discussion group on the www.hamptonfund.org website in the next few weeks, so hopefully you can communicate with others (students, employers, tutors etc.) online there, but in the meantime if you have any questions please either mail me at my own personal email rami@hamptonfund.org, or else if you feel more comfortable, post them up here directly, and I'll try to answer as many as I can.
Finally, please excuse the website as it stands: we know its a little confusing, but we're polishing it each day. If you, or anybody, have any comments, suggestions, or criticisms, then please drop me a line, and we'll do our best to accommodate as many as possible.
Thanks for reading !
Rami.
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Great idea! I can't believe I have come across this site; getting real life experience within industry to get into the job I want and all the help I need, exactly what I was looking for ..... too bad everytime I log on to the site and enter all my details an error message appears?! What to do? What is the next step? Someone please help me to fix this bug...!
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I would like to get involved.
Can you provide more info about what's going to be done?
Thank you!
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Please, please, please read our forums about this before committing any time / money to the Hampton Fund.
http://www.fusionboards.co.uk/showthread.php?t=192
This "charity" does not appear to be a charity and is linked with ICS (London) (also trading as Apprenta). We have more information on ICS (London) in our forum, too. -
So sorry if we upset you somehow Fritter. It was not intentional. You are completely correct, we are NOT A CHARITY (not officially registered), although we may apply to be one next year if all goes well. We are a non-profit, but currently are making donations to Prince's Trust, the UN, and others. So sorry for any confusion caused ! Also thanks for all the help offered, especially Costin Trifan (so sorry for not getting back sooner, please mail me at rami@hamptonfund.org if you want to take any of our courses, for FREE of course). We won't be trading until at least 2008.
Just to recap, we don't want any money from anyone, and even if you volunteer, we pay at least minimum wage, and all cash flows one way, FROM US, OUT. So sorry again if I didn't make that clear.
Thanks again, all.
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Dear Gullible/Fritter,
Thanks for the posts, and again sorry if we upset you guys.
We really DON'T ask for money, we don't take any money from Career Development Loans, we have no sales folk and we take no commissions, and haven't asked any student to sign contracts to date, and we really are a non-profit. Being "too good to be true" is really not for us to decide.
All our work in the UK to date has been with institutions and individuals on a free basis.
Just check out the HF homepage and you can see HF student blogs and their opinions. If you guys are students of HF yourself, and we underperformed in some way, just let me know and we'll try to make it up.
All the best,
Rami.
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Doesn't sound like you were happy with your experience. Sorry about that. Have you (or your boyfriend) tried sending a letter to ICS explaining you problems, and what you think went wrong ? That's probably the first step. Hope this helps.
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Dear Gullible,
You're quite right on the quote ! Clive Harry actually said the following:
"(Hampton Fund) provides a very nice means for young people to maximise their potential. It will increase their employability enormously...employability linked to IT is almost an international passport. There are plenty of IT opportunities in small companies so (the Hampton Fund apprenticeship) gives a whole range of employability potential to young people who would otherwise not have it."As a non-profit we really need folk like you to alert us to bugs/ommissions/mistakes on our site, so thanks a lot for helping us out (although I understand that may not have been your intention !).Hampton Fund is an experiement to try to build the best, sincerest, and most accessible career development solution that we can. We're always looking at ways to put together a "dream package" for students. Any criticism for or against is always welcome, if it helps us get things better.We've never asked money of any individual, nor signed any personal contracts, so sorry again if we got on your wrong side in some way.All the best all,Rami. -
[quote]We've never asked money of any individual, nor signed any personal contracts[/quote] That is just a blatent lie. Apprenta asked me for money. I never signed up but I was asked to take out a "career development loan". Apprenta, ICS (London) and The Hampton Fund are all the same scam.
You spend way too much time worrying about your company image on forums, too. You even rang me and threatened me personally with legal threats about defamation. Trouble is, you know as well as I do that even if posting opinions on an internet forum was illegal (wow - what a busy place the courts would be) - if the information gathered is factual and offered in good faith (ie: I really don't want anyone to lose money via this) then there really is no complaint to uphold.
I've stayed away from this topic for some time but your recent posting activity appears to suggest you are starting a new wave of recruiting. I just hope to god that prospective students run a quick search for info on The Hampton Fund before signing up. -
Sorry Ihateicslondon, but without knowing more about your case (like who your boyfriend actually is, for example !) its difficult to know what to advise here.
All the best anyway,
Rami.
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Hello again Fritter,
I think that you might have confused Hampton Fund's operations with those of the other companies that you mentioned ! HF is a unique business model, has only been taking in students since early 2007, and I'm certain that nobody has ever been asked for money yet (but I welcome any information to the contrary !).
The Hampton Fund experiment is really an attempt to bypass the very difficulties that you have highlighted in the case of other commercial training companies. In particular some individual students have been left with just the misgivings that you seem to have when considering traditional fee-based learning.
Right now, our only way of attracting new students is our work with the Charity Technology Trust, but as ever we'd really be grateful for any suggestions that might help us to make our service better !
Rami.
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You only ask for money when the student is employed at over £18,000 per year. This constitutes a loan, for which you are NOT authorised or regulated by the FSA and, as such, are operating illegally. If you want to argue this, just read your web site. Those are the facts you state on there.
Working with the Charity Technology Trust (if you actually are - I can't verify this one without contacting the CTT) is yet another way of hinting that you are, in fact, a charity when you are not.
These traditional fee-based learning companies that we're talking about, Rami, were set up, operated and owned by yourself! So seriously, cut the crap on this because anyone reading this topic with half a brain is going to see your company for what it really is. Anyone stupid enough to sign up after reading this deserves to get fleeced.
On a side note - if anyone reading this is actually being asked for money by the Hampton Fund, I'd speak to a solicitor, because I'm pretty sure the "commercial contract" you have to sign isn't watertight. Any loan provided outside the authorisation of the FSA becomes pretty hard to upstand, I'm sure. Not entirely sure how the Hampton Fund could possibly prove you're earning more than 18k a year, anyway. -
Same idea, only they don't pretend to find you work afterwards. Or promise you a job at "International Computer Solutions (London)" or whatever that fake IT company was (with the suspiciously similar acronym!). Same man who set both companies up.
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right.... I've had a quick read through this thread and an even quicker peek at the web site... it seems some of our users on here have some serious concerns about the validity of this scheme and web site.... so in the name of democracy and for the sake of any Googlers finding this thread, so as to keep the information about concerns highlighted available, I've not deleted the thread.
I'm locking it, however, as it seems it's been discussed enough, so people can make an informed decision as to their next course of action.
If anyone has any queries, please contact one of the administrators from the contact page. Thanks.
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