This is going to be a bit long, so please bear with me.

I have been a stay at home mom for some years now. After I had my twins, I decided I needed to look after them till they are old enough to start working again.

I did small writing gigs here and there, but six months after my twins, I discovered (well my husband did, I didn't even know myself) I was pregnant.

This changed alot of things. I had to pause from online working. I did do little businesses to keep me busy but as soon as my last child was getting ready for school I decided it was time to upskill, because I wanted to stick to working from home. Works well for me and my family.

I used to see this ALX Africa on my Facebook offering free Virtual Assistant training. I normally would scroll past until one day I decided to enroll.

The selection test was a bit tedious but thank God, I scaled through.

It was an eight week intensive program, believe me. I'm sure anyone who has done it will understand.

During the period of my training, one of my kids suffered dysentery, I had so much going on, I had loved ones who visited, and it was a lot. But I told myself I wasn't going to quit.

I did all my milestones and submitted before the deadline, and I even made the MVP list �.

However, things turned sour. During the course of the training, we were encouraged to network. So I asked to join a group on Whatsapp, made of mostly fellow ALX graduates and the vision was to teach Virtual Assistant to Nigerians.

Mind you, the training covered Africa and was not just for Nigerians.

Responsibilities were been delegated by the admin who was also a graduate from my set and I opted to participate.

Now, no where was it stated that the materials to be used for the training will come from ALX. And the initial program was a pilot program which will run for free.

LuvsBeautifl:
This is going to be a bit long, so please bear with me.

I have been a stay at home mom for some years now. After I had my twins, I decided I needed to look after them till they are old enough to start working again.

I did small writing gigs here and there, but six months after my twins, I discovered (well my husband did, I didn't even know myself) I was pregnant.

This changed alot of things. I had to pause from online working. I did do little businesses to keep me busy but as soon as my last child was getting ready for school I decided it was time to upskill, because I wanted to stick to working from home. Works well for me and my family.

I used to see this ALX Africa on my Facebook offering free Virtual Assistant training. I normally would scroll past until one day I decided to enroll.

The selection test was a bit tedious but thank God, I scaled through.

It was an eight week intensive program, believe me. I'm sure anyone who has done it will understand.

During the period of my training, one of my kids suffered dysentery, I had so much going on, I had loved ones who visited, and it was a lot. But I told myself I wasn't going to quit.

I did all my milestones and submitted before the deadline, and I even made the MVP list �.

However, things turned sour. During the course of the training, we were encouraged to network. So I asked to join a group on Whatsapp, made of mostly fellow ALX graduates and the vision was to teach Virtual Assistant to Nigerians.

Mind you, the training covered Africa and was not just for Nigerians.

Responsibilities were been delegated by the admin who was also a graduate from my set and I opted to participate.

Now, no where was it stated that the materials to be used for the training will come from ALX. And the initial program was a pilot program which will run for free.

is dat the end of the story or u are still typing

To cut the story short, without prior notice we were removed from the program and without any explanation.

I am a kind of person that likes to get to the bottom of things. Their support could not give a reason why I was removed, so I kept e-mailing until I think I emailed one of their leaders and that same day a response was sent.

They claimed "a whistle blower" alerted them of our intention to plagiarize their material and sell to young Nigerians.

One thing to note here is I actually got removed from the group because they wanted people who were committed, but I wasn't because I had a lot going on. I wished them success and moved on.

When I got in touch with the pioneer of the idea (I respect his resilience), he told me someone HAD LIED that he intended to use their material, which he said was not true because he had sources for his own materials. I believed him because they had not even flagged off the program, so how did the person know what was being used.

Someone (and I think I have a clue who it is; I may be wrong, but if I am not, then I'm right) had passed the wrong information probably intentionally, but for what reason I do not know.

Our certificates were withheld, when the pioneer of the vision heard it, he was shocked and asked why, when I wasn't even part of it.

I was very hurt, but thank God I have recovered. ALX Africa did not do due diligence, they did not carry out proper investigations. They quoted some bunch of laws about criminal something, I can't even remember.

I did acquire some great skills, but I was very disappointed. It also felt like stereotyping. The workers/decision makers are mostly non-Nigerians. In fact the founder is a Kenyan. I might be wrong but is ask, if there were non Nigerians in the penalized group (All of us penalized were Nigerians, and the email said we wanted to sell to young Nigerians, what made them feel it couldn't have been sold to other Africans), will they have taken that Unilateral decision. Well, I'll never know

Forgive my typos.

And yes, I would recommend someone looking to upskill as a VA to try ALX.

My 2 cents.

@ SanctifiedSista

Sorry I was still typing .

Let me also quickly add that there were other MVPs that took up this matter and fought for me. I so much appreciate them, Nigerians and Non Nigerians. I cannot mention their names but they are all very much appreciated.

I took the Alx Africa stuff, although mine was in financial analysis. Learnt so much and passed the required exams. I'm sorry for what yo went through

@ wizzyvibes

Thanks

Have you being able to secure any job after the program and does alx help their students in getting jobs after their program?

I am an Alumnus of ALX VA prog... It is a great training to partake in.
Sorry about your experience... it's quite unfortunate

Babson4u:
Have you being able to secure any job after the program and does alx help their students in getting jobs after their program?

Not really. I have successfully had only one VA general admin task on Upwork. But by God's grace, I'm not giving up. Thanks.

dawnomike:
I am an Alumnus of ALX VA prog... It is a great training to partake in.
Sorry about your experience... it's quite unfortunate

Truly it is. I learned alot. Growth mindset and grit. Thanks.

LuvsBeautifl:


Not really. I have successfully had only one VA general admin task on Upwork. But by God's grace, I'm not giving up. Thanks.

Yeah that's the spirit, how did you get into upwork I heard it's a very difficult platform to get into and for the fact that you were able to get one job means more are likely to come.

I also do VA jobs but I get clients mostly from forums, am thinking of talking the ALX program on VA or maybe software development but the time demand is just too much I don't know if I will be able to keep up with it.

Babson4u:

Yeah that's the spirit, how did you get into upwork I heard it's a very difficult platform to get into and for the fact that you were able to get one job means more are likely to come.

I also do VA jobs but I get clients mostly from forums, am thinking of talking the ALX program on VA or maybe software development but the time demand is just too much I don't know if I will be able to keep up with it.

Go for it. It is time consuming true, especially software engineering. I heard it's very tedious, but remember, nothing good comes easy. The VA is tedious too but for a shorter time. It's an 8 weeks course. Goodluck.
I got into Upwork about 3+ years ago. Got my account approved but didn't work, it was just fallow. I only got serious about it after the VA training.
If you don't mind, can you share the forums you get VA jobs from?
Thanks.

LuvsBeautifl:


Go for it. It is time consuming true, especially software engineering. I heard it's very tedious, but remember, nothing good comes easy. The VA is tedious too but for a shorter time. It's an 8 weeks course. Goodluck.
I got into Upwork about 3+ years ago. Got my account approved but didn't work, it was just fallow. I only got serious about it after the VA training.
If you don't mind, can you share the forums you get VA jobs from?
Thanks.

Mostly reddit and other internet marketing forums