I helped an elderly male friend who has no internet skills gain his RSA (Responsible Sales of Alcohol) and Safe Food Handling Course (Follow Workplace Hygiene Procedures) certificates, as he needed to update his credentials for volunteer community work that he has been doing for years.

We researched and found that the Australian Online College offered reasonably priced courses.

After payment, we hit the first roadblock. He needed to fill out a short government survey in order to start the course. He filled out this survey many many times and each time he hit submit nothing would happen. It seemed to be a dead link, but we could not skip this step, as all steps needed to be completed in order to be considered competent. Finally it accepted it, arbitrarily it seemed.

We did email the support address given, only to discover that the emails would bounce back undeliverable.

He completed the tutorials, watched the videos, and completed the quizzes. he was found competent and downloaded his certificates.

Only to find out that the RSA offered on AOC is not accepted in NSW.

Back to trying to contact the AOC, again, emails are undeliverable. I tried the support phone number. There's a message with NO mention that the number belongs to the Australian Online College, and that the person who the phone belongs to must be busy, or out of range. But, it's a landline.

I try the mobile number that I find on another part of the site, it is disconnected.

Not impressed!

Approximate cost: $50 - $70