Morning
I did my own TCC course last year a few months into my ban.
The courses are three days - mine was held on three consecutive Saturdays in a local church hall near to where I live and easy to get to on a bus. I do believe TCC do weekday courses where the three days are done together - these are okay but not ideal if you are working so I opted to do my course at the weekend.
The course is 18 hours in length, spilt over the three days. The first day is only 4 hours - started at 12.30pm and finished about 5pm. The second day was a 9.30am start and finished about 5pm. The third and final day was 9.30am and finished just after 4pm. You do get a lunch break in days 2 & 3 and also regular comfort breaks. Tea & coffee is provided.
The course layout is quite relaxed and chilled out - you are given text books to work through during the course and it is quite a good atmosphere - there are originally 16 people on my course, however one chap never came back after his 1st day (I've never understood why someone would pay to do this course & then forfeit the opportunity to get the licence ban reduced!). Another lady on the course was clearly alcohol dependant and the course trainer had to remove her because she tried to self withdraw from her drinking only to make herself unwell during the 2nd day. Very sad but I'm hoping she got the help she needed. On that note, the trainer did explain that he has authority to breathalise candidates for alcohol but he never did - the lady in question had clearly panicked and tried to go cold turkey during the 2nd day.
The atmosphere on the course was good - everyone is in the same boat so there is no one there to judge you. The course trainer I had was a really nice humble bloke and very chilled out in how he ran the course. The course trainers differ from venue to venue, so you do get different people taking each course. I am lead to believe ex-police officers run some of these courses as well and can be very regimental towards the candidates so please be mindful of this - they can be very strict about punctuality.
The course content is good in parts as you do a knowledge test on calculating units of alcohol & how long it stays in the system. It is NOT an exam - more a light hearted guessing game which was good and interesting. Other parts of the course are a little dull and I didn't really learn anything I didn't know already - I watched a couple of videos of Drink Driving that were informative and the practical stuff was fun.
Overall this was a good course to do - the interesting aspect of the course is when you speak to the other candidates and compare your circumstances. The eldest person on my course was a 68-old-old retired grandmother, while the youngest was a 22-year-old girl who worked as PA. You do strike up some good friendships during the course but sadly, once everyone completes the course you don't see anyone again.
All the best with your own course.
CJ