This is a company who treats their trainees like prisoners and pays them like prisoners. They force you to do things you do not want to do in a very very unprofessional manor.
Let me give you some examples:
My friend at FDM who arrived at the same time as me applied to do web development. After he got accepted, he was told he can no longer do this and was put on the .NET C# stream. On our first day, we were all told they were no longer training C#, and so everyone was forced to the Java stream. When they found jobs for him, the jobs were not even remotely related to development, and instead got a role he didn't want to do. When he told them he wouldn't like this job? Tough, you are forced to do it. He was switched 4 times before he had enough and quit.
I shortly quit afterwards too after reading the contract. They take ridiculous amounts of your salary, and if you leave, you have to pay the £21,000 (inadequate) "training" they give.
Just for some prospective: My undergraduate degree was £9,000 for the three years. My masters degree was £10,000 for one year.
I'm sorry but 16 weeks of training isn't worth that price tag. Oh, did I mention the content is taught by fellow trainees? Stupid. So no, I have strong speculations the £21,000 is a form of black mail to tie you down to the company for two years.
I had an offer for a highly renowned bank in just three days of joining the company. The interviewer for the bank asked me questions which were not related to the FDM training. So in other words, I didn't need the training.. YET I had to pay up!!
It's a prison, they treat you like toddlers, no trust, no listening to music while working (some people require music to concentrate in that very loud computer room).
I asked current trainees who have trained with them for a while and asked for their opinion. They all wish they knew to escape from this prison before they were tied.
