Hello Fenland.
I worked as an instructor at Erith from 2005 - 2012
To answer your questions
1st Q > am I able to book it my self as I have money A Yes,,,the college only worries about getting the money........ and not who pays the fee.
2nd Q > and how difficult is the course A It is a easy as breathing....
Remember There is no assessment in a part 1 so you can not fail. As you are not being assessed, only trained....that said
At Erith the lads on part 1 courses are allowed to throw fittings down from the scaffold directly into the fitting bin that gets wheeled into place with a pump truck under the scaffold
Even if you take a couple of days off most of the instructors don't give a toss as they are only interested in maintaining a good achievement rate for the centre.
There is a written test at the end and if you fail it, I know that most of the instructors at Erith will tell you what to write down, just to make sure you pass as they just want to go home themselves. Don't forget the sooner you all pass and leave, the sooner they get to go home as well as they only work to 12:00 on the Friday.
One instructor at Erith Used to show porno movies through his computer on to a big screen in the classroom for the lads on his part 1...or so some of the lads that came back for the part 2 informed me.....
I even had to watch a lad pass a part 2 that could not base out a 2 x 2 tower on his own.. During the assessment,.... he had standards attached to both the inside and the outside of the same ledger and transoms below the ledger at one end and above it at the other. He admitted that he had never worked with tube and fittings, as he only worked with Layher material on site. But passed all the same.
When he returned to the centre for the final assessment he was allowed to go home in the morning. As he had a conflict with a member of NCC staff.
Still the report that was submitted to the NASC stated that he had been witnessed erecting & dismantling a cantilever and pavement gantry and completed his professional discussion with an assessor about the information he had submitted in his portfolio...all this was completed by 10:00am, not bad when the final assessment began at 8:00am that same morning, and the instructor in question had also been conducting a Youth part 2 youth course at the same time................ so I would not worry too much if I was you. I suspect you will be just fine unless you are hoping for a genuine training program where you will learn something.
This is why I resigned....it is a joke