Terms & Conditions

BCS College Terms & Conditions

Contents

Interpretation
Course fees
Cancellations
Cancellations (additional conditions for NVQ/Diploma courses)

Stage Payments
Data Protection
Health and Safety
Certification

Publications (free to download)
Publications (available to purchase)
Student Appeal Procedure
Equality and Diversity Policy

Quality Control
Identity requirements

Interpretation

Any reference to a ‘Contact Session’ or ‘Contact Sessions’ involving an NVQ or Diploma or Certificate or Award course or similar course means the period when the student meets or makes contact with an Assessor for a specified planned period.

Any reference to the term ‘NVQ’ will hereinafter mean to include any Diploma, Certificate or Award. The term ‘NVQ’ means a National Vocational Qualification.

Any reference to ‘you’ in these terms and conditions includes the person or company or organisation who has booked the course and is a party to the contract. In the case of you also being the student then both will be a party to the contract.

Any reference to ‘student’ in these terms and conditions includes the person or persons planning to attend the course and you will be responsible to ensure the student is aware of these Terms and Conditions and is in agreement with these Terms and Conditions before attending the course(s).

Any reference to the ‘College’ or ‘we’ shall mean BCS College which is the trading name of BCS (Nottingham) Limited.

Any reference to ‘the course’ shall mean one or more courses that have been booked at the College by you.

Any examination or test marking or assessment or assignment marking or other assessment will hereinafter be referred to as the ‘assessment’.

Any reference to the ‘web’ site shall mean the web site of BCS College at www.bcscollege.com

Any reference to ‘Stage Payments’ shall mean agreed interim payments over an agreed period of time to pay all or part of the cost of a service provided by the College.

Course fees

The course fees will be subject to VAT at the current rate or any other applicable tax that the government legislates to be applicable. Tax will be shown on the final charge indicated.
Course fees do not include any accommodation or meals other than lunch where this is indicated.
Hot drinks and chilled water are normally available all day without charge but as we must allow for repairs and breakdowns of our vending facilities we cannot guarantee this provision, but in such circumstances other options would be made available.
All course fees include course notes and / or a reference book or booklet depending on the course type. Supporting literature that is relevant to the course is also provided to the student as well as a pen and paper.
There is no reimbursement if you or the student cancel the intended attendance on the course or if the student fails to arrive for any reason. Please see ‘Cancellations’ and ‘Cancellations (additional conditions for NVQ/Diploma courses)’ below.
The course fee does not include transport to and from the College and you and / or the student need to make arrangements for transport. Advice is available at the College.
The course fee and the contract between you and the College is based on the quoted date for the delivery of the course. See ‘Cancellations’ and ‘Cancellations (additional conditions for NVQ/Diploma courses)’ below.
There are no refunds or credits available for leaving a course early or arriving late whether or not that affects certification.

Cancellations

You and / or the student are entitled to cancel the intended attendance on a course at any time (please see ‘Course fees’ above)
If you and / or the student cancels the intended attendance the College may agree to allow that student to attend the same course, or another course of the same value, at the College on another date, subject to availability.
If you and / or the student cancel the intended attendance on the course the College may agree to give you a limited credit value towards another course of a higher value at the College. No financial reimbursement will be made.
The College is entitled to cancel the course as a result of Force Majeure, illness or any other reason and in such circumstances you will have the option of a refund or to transfer the booking to the next available course date at the College or to another course of the same value at the College or towards another course fee of a higher value at the College.
If the College cancels the course for any reason it will not be liable for any other costs you may have incurred whatsoever including transport, accommodation, meals or any other costs as a result of any arrangements you may have agreed or contracted and it is up to you to ensure you have made suitable insurance arrangements to cover any such likely event as a result of cancellation by the College.
A person, company or organisation or a student who is not a party to this contract will not have any rights under the Contract (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 and it is hereby agreed by both parties to the contract that the Contract (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 will not apply.

14A. There will be no obligation on the part of the College to provide any course
notes to anyone who has not attended on the course where those notes refer.

Cancellations (additional conditions for NVQ/Diploma courses)

‘Due Notice’ means that NOT LESS than 48 hours notice is given to the College in the period Monday to Friday when the office is open. The 48 hours notice must be provided during any one week period and expire in the same period Monday to Friday during office opening hours. (eg: notice cannot be accepted at weekends or including weekend periods or bank holidays)
‘Short Notice Cancellation’ means that Due Notice has not been provided to the College and / or the student has not arrived for the planned contact session.
You and / or the student can change up to TWO contact sessions of the planned contact sessions FREE OF CHARGE provided that Due Notice has been provided by you or the student or a person acting on your behalf in writing (in all cases).
If you and / or the student change more than TWO contact sessions as in clause 17) above and with Due notice as described in clause 15) above then there will be an administration charge for that change.
If you and / or the student change a date of a contact session with Short Notice Cancellation to the College then the contact session cannot be transferred to another date and it is lost. Any lost contact sessions can then be replaced with a new date and will incur a charge on a pro-rata basis to cover the cost of the Assessor and the administration charge.

Stage Payments

Where stage payments have been agreed by standing order or otherwise you are liable for all these payments and if you leave the course then the total remaining amount will become due forthwith.
Where the course involves an externally accredited assessment such as City & Guilds or NEBOSH or other accreditation body, the registration for you and / or the student may not be completed until at least 50% of the total course fee and other related costs have been paid.
A credit control charge of 3.5% will be applied to the total charge of the course fee, unit fees and registration fee for the administration of the stage payments and this will be charged separately.
If you settle all the stage payments in accordance with the agreed plan and the total agreed sums have been paid as agreed, and you have not paid by credit card (except for the first payment) then you can request a credit for the full amount of the credit control charge in clause 22) above. The College may at its discretion not charge, without the said request, provided all these conditions have been met.
If payments have not been completed in accordance with the agreed plan then any assessment or examination or verification may be suspended until payment has been made together with any other incurred costs.
A deduction will be made from any planned credit in clause 23) above where repeated statements or other correspondence has been sent requesting payment and this may result in no credit being made and hence the full 3.5% administration charge will become due.
25A. There will be an administration charge for each stage payment except the
first payment and that charge must be paid at the time of the stage payment.

Data Protection

The College are required to comply with the provisions of the Data Protection Act (the ‘Act’) in relation to how we handle any personal data which we obtain from you and / or the student. Any personal information will only be used in the context of the course and / or training and / or assessment. We may process all the information we obtain from you and / or the student to enable us to fulfil our contractual obligations to you and / or the student and we may request further information from third parties or disclose your details and / or the student details to other selected parties such as your employer, City and Guilds or their regulatory industry bodies or others and the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health and the National Examinations Board for Occupational Safety and Health as well as BCS College. We may contact you and / or the student to inform you of new courses or the expiry of your certificate

Health and Safety

If you and / or the student have a disability then you and / or the student may need a PEEP (Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan). Please report any disability to the Course Administrator and advise them if you have any difficulty with the normal means of escape on the premises.
Please make sure you and / or the student have read the notices in the premises for the course and you and / or the student are familiar with the means of escape in an emergency of any type. You will be expected to evacuate the building promptly if an emergency siren sounds (there is also a flashing red light) and Fire Wardens will take charge.
It is expected that the student will act responsibly and not cause stress to any other person and/or not bully another person and/or not swear and/or not use abusive language and/or not behave in a way that could cause danger to any other person and/or cause injury to any other person.
Any hazards associated with a course will be explained and the control systems and safe working methods will be explained and it is expected that the student will follow these requirements for the health, safety and welfare of themselves and others.
If the student has any specific health problems or concerns then these must be reported to the Course administrator and each Tutor and Assessor involved. The College will make every effort to meet your needs as a student.
Various provisions have already been installed at BCS House to facilitate certain disabilities. Please report disabilities and / or health conditions etc that are relevant in advance of your course to a Course Administrator at the College to enable any arrangements to be made in good time before the start of your course
If the student fails to comply with the Health and/or Safety requirements in part or in full this may delay your course or you may not be able to attend your planned course.

Certification

A certificate will be made available for every course attended. If a course is for an external certificate and for whatever reason as the student the standard required is not achieved as set by the external Accreditation body for a certificate then you can apply for an attendance certificate from the College.

Meals

Where the College has agreed in the course details that a meal will be provided, this will be from a menu arranged with suitable caterers. If you have any food allergies or food preferences you must make this clear at least 14 days before the due course date by e mail or telephone to the College. On arrival you must make it known to the Course Administrator that you are expecting a special meal so that the College can ensure that the planned meal is made available to you.
It is expected that you will adopt good hygiene practice and wash you hands before participating in a buffet type meal or where you could cause cross contamination of food consumed by others.

Language

All courses are delivered in English and hence you should ensure that you have a clear verbal understanding of English and that you can read and write sufficiently in English. If you have any concerns then please telephone the Course Administrator at the College for guidance associated with a particular course.

Law

This contract is based on UK law and in the event of any dispute it is agreed by all parties to this contract that English law will take precedence in dealing with any dispute. If at any time it is identified that any clause in this contract is partly or wholly in conflict with English law affecting the validity of this contract, then the English law requirements will take precedence for the contract and that affected clause or clauses will be deemed to have been amended accordingly.
The listing of courses and anything else on the web site is an Invitation to Treat and your selection and payment is an Offer to purchase. The acceptance is only when you have the confirmed booking information from the College. Please note that the automated e mail confirmation of payment and receipt of your booking offer on the web site is not an acceptance for the contract. If for any reason an offer from you cannot be accepted you will receive a full refund.

Copyright

All title and copyright in any course presentation are owned by the College. The copyright owner, the College, may licence the content of any presentation for the sole use of an authorised purchaser, but any such licence will be in writing and subject to an agreed fee for any such licence.
Booking a course and / or attending a course does not provide you with any right, or licence, to copy the presentation or deliver the presentation at any other premises and all the material, intellectual property and/or procedures and/or cases remain the sole copyright of the College
Any unauthorised copying, editing, exhibition, renting, exchanging, hiring or lending of the content of any presentation or any part thereof is strictly prohibited and any such action establishes liability for civil action and may give rise to criminal prosecution

Publications (free to download) on the web

Publications in the ‘Reference Library’ section or other section on the web which are free to download normally as a Pdf are subject to copyright conditions.
Certain products are Crown Copyright material and are reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen’s Printer for Scotland. This applies to all Acts of Parliament, Statutes and other Regulations etc produced by the HMSO or the OPSI and HSE or other Government department etc and you are bound by those conditions.
All products on the web are subject to copyright and by downloading any product from this site you agree to the copyright conditions contained herein.
The products for free download on the web are for your own personal use as part of your training to develop your skills. They must not be transferred to any other person or company or organisation. They must not be copied to any other web site or onto a computer system providing shared access to the products.
The downloaded products from the web must not be sold or used for any commercial purposes.
The products you download from the web are as produced by the originator and BCS College will not accept any responsibility for the accuracy or suitability of the content and make no guarantees about the content of the products.
You will normally need to ensure you have Adobe Reader to download the products from the web and no guarantee can be provided on the suitability of the Adobe Reader or the compatibility of the current Adobe Reader to the products available for download. This is something you need to check and ensure you are satisfied you have the correct and suitable software and hardware prior to downloading.
The downloadable material from the web is carefully checked for viruses before being uploaded onto the site, however we recommend that, as an extra precaution you run your own virus check on each document you download before saving it to your disk or hard drive.

Publications (available to purchase)on the web

Descriptions, prices and product information - Items either in or on our web site are shown as accurately as possible. Despite this, slight variations in colour and appearance may occur to booklet covers etc due to technical limitations. We take great care to reproduce product descriptions and specifications provided by manufacturers accurately, but errors may occur. We will not be responsible for any errors or omissions. If there is anything which is unclear, or if you wish to obtain further information, please contact us on 0115 927 4921 and ask for the Course Administrator.
The goods for sale on the web are subject to availability. They are provided for sale with good intentions and having made reasonable checks on availability. However, this cannot be guaranteed and hence they are displayed as an Invitation to Treat and your purchase is an Offer in the contract of purchase. Hence if the products are no longer available or we cannot supply for any other reason then you will be notified and you will be provided with a full refund of any money paid.
We will make every effort to send the product(s) to you as soon as possible but this is not a part of the contract of purchase and we make no guarantees on delivery times, but you will normally be notified if any significant delay is known. If you have not received the goods and we have not dispatched them, then you will have the option to cancel the order and request a refund.
If the products are found to be out of print, obsolete or otherwise not available, then we will not be able to supply and you will then be entitled to a full refund.
Products will not be dispatched until any credit card transaction has been cleared for payment which is a normal operation.
Free postage and packing is based on the current agreement we have with our suppliers and is only for products being dispatched to England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. If you reside overseas then we will check and if we can still supply free postage and packing then it will be applied. If we are unable to provide free postage and packing then you will be contacted and advised of the additional cost and have the option to proceed or request a full refund.
Normally we anticipate Ireland will also have free postage and packing but as it is offshore to the mainland this may not be available and hence we would contact you if there is a cost involved for postage and packing then you will have the option to proceed or request a full refund.
Free postage and packing is based on the current agreement we have with our suppliers and if that agreement or terms should change then that will affect the availability of free postage and packing. In such circumstances we would contact you and advise you of the cost and you would have the option to proceed or request a full refund.
The price shown on the web site is provided in good faith but BCS College are controlled by the suppliers and should a price change then we would contact you and you would have the option of accepting the revised price and paying any increase or requesting a full refund. Hence we reserve the right to change the price at any time without notice to you.
Hence whilst the prices shown on the web site are provided in good faith with every intention of this being the sale price, they must be regarded as a guide price until the final sale is complete by our acceptance.
If the product arrives and is damaged then you must notify us within 3 days of receipt of the goods in the first instance. Where we accept responsibility for the damage, we will arrange for the product to be replaced. If the product cannot be replaced then we will arrange a full refund.
All prices exclude VAT but should a tax of any kind or VAT be required to be applied to books etc then you will be notified and you will be liable for the increased cost, but you will have the option to cancel the order and request a refund.
We will reserve the right to cancel your order at any time if we are trying to contact you and you are not available, we are unable to deliver to the address provided, the address is incomplete or unavailable, the price has changed and you have not made a decision, the price has changed and you refuse to pay the increase, or for any other appropriate reason. In such circumstances we would arrange a refund.
The picture of the product is provided in good faith but as we rely on our suppliers and manufacturers and we cannot guarantee that the picture and / or design appearance will be the same as shown. Hence you will have the option of returning the product in good condition and requesting a refund.
If a product is returned then it must be in good condition if a refund is being requested (unless it was supplied damaged) and we reserve the right to refuse a refund if products are returned damaged.
Cancelling an order owing to change of mind – if the product has not been dispatched we will cancel the order. In such cases you can then request a refund. However, this will also be subject to checking with our suppliers that we can cancel the supply.

Student Appeal Procedure

The following is the appeal procedure which applies to any examination or test marking or assessment or assignment marking or other assessment (hereinafter referred to as the ‘assessment’) where you disagree with the final mark or assessment outcome or have any other grievance.

Then you may appeal subject to the following guidelines :-

Under normal circumstances the matter should have been discussed in the first instance with the Assessor /Tutor concerned but this shall not be a pre-requisite to the requirement of making an appeal.
The appeal should be made within 21 days of the assessment or outcome having been brought to your notice or within 14 days in the case of any other issue.
The appeal must be in writing and should be addressed to the Managing Director, BCS College, BCS House, Main Street, Bulwell, Nottingham, NG6 8QL and should be in a sealed envelope and either sent by post or handed in at the reception desk or by e mail and sent to safety@bcscollege.com and made for the attention of the Managing Director. In the case of e mail, please telephone [0115 927 4921] the Examinations Director to check that the e mail has been received.
Once the appeal has been received, arrangements will be made for your work and / or assessment or other issue to be reviewed. It is most important that you are clear and precise on exactly which assessment you are appealing about. Wherever possible give the unit number, element number, title, your results and the date when the assessment was taken together with the name of the Assessor / Tutor (if this is known). If your are appealing about some other issue then please provide full details.
Following receipt of the appeal, the original Assessor / Tutor will be consulted and in appropriate circumstances, you will also be contacted but you may also request a personal interview with a Director, in your communication of appeal. If a personal interview is not requested then this may not take place in the appeal procedure, depending on the circumstances. You may bring another appropriate person with you to a personal meeting.
Once the initial consultations are complete, the assessment or other issue will then be reviewed by another Assessor / Tutor and the Managing Director and if the marks or other conclusion are to be changed then you will be notified accordingly and the records suitably endorsed.
Please note that if the appeal enquiry results in different marks to those originally awarded but the outcome is still that you will not achieve the minimum requirements to pass the examination, element or unit then the original marks will remain unchanged on the records unless you specifically request otherwise.
The outcome of the appeal will be notified to you personally in writing by the Managing Director.

Equality and Diversity Policy

The full policy of BCS College can be viewed on the web site at www.bcscollege.com or a copy can be requested by sending an e mail request to the Director of Training at safety@bcscollege.com or sending a request by letter to Director of Traiing, BCS College, BCS House, Main Street, Bulwell, Nottingham NG6 8QL.

Quality Control

BCS College have stringent quality control systems in place and many of these systems are provided in more detail on the web site at www.bcscollege.com and any listed policy can be provided on e mail request to the Director of Training at safety@bcscollege.com or sending a request by letter to the Director of Training, BCS College, BCS House, Main Street, Bulwell, Nottingham NG6 8QL.
BCS College are accredited (or licenced) by various education organsations which include for example: City & Guilds, Chartered Institute of Environmetal Health (CIEH), The Chartered Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), the National Examination Board for Occupational Safety and Health (NEBOSH). These organisations also carry out audits of BCS College and specific requirements for quality control.
The CIEH include the candidate Charter and this can be viewed on display at BCS College or details can be requested by e mail request to the Director of Training at safety@bcscollege.com or sending a request by letter to Director of Training, BCS College, BCS House, Main Street, Bulwell, Nottingham NG6 8QL.

Identity requirements

You will normally be required to provide proof of your identity on most courses as a condition of certification and typically this is satisfied with a UK passport or some other identity that includes your picture. If you have special circumstances or are not a UK citizen then please ask and alternatives will be discussed to prove your identity.