Terms & Conditions

INFORMATION – PLEASE READ

To book a course, you will need to complete a Booking Form which you will find on our web site. To complete the booking you will also need to pay the course fees or the first instalment, if you are paying in instalments.

You can pay for your course fees by using one of the following methods:-

• Credit card or debit card (using PayPal on line payment service at www.paypal.co.uk/uk - select Make Payment).
• Bank transfer (either on line banking (Third Party payment) or direct transfer at your bank).
• Cheque – made payable to Lewis College and posted to 5 Ilsham Road, Wellswood, Torquay, Devon, TQ1 2JG.
• Instalments can be paid by standing order and the number of instalments is to be agreed when booking. The first instalment is payable by cheque, credit card or bank transfer.  The option to pay in instalments is only open to private individuals and not to employers who are paying for a course on behalf of a member of staff.
  

We are regulated by the Distance Selling legislation which entitles you to a 7 working day cancellation period.

CONFIRMATION AND CANCELLATION

Upon receipt of your completed Booking Form we will confirm via email to you that your place has been reserved on the required booking start date for the course you have applied for, within 2 working days of receiving your Booking Form (except holiday periods, when we shall confirm as soon as possible upon our return), together with details of the course booked and the course fees payable by you.

We reserve the right to refuse an application should we consider the course is not suitable for a particular individual.

You have the right to cancel your booking within 7 working days from the date we confirm your booking to you. If you have paid any monies to us then you will be entitled to have this refunded to you if you cancel within this time. This will be refunded to you either by bank transfer or by cheque within 10 days of the date of cancellation. You can cancel your booking within 7 working days as detailed above either by email or by post, but not by telephone.

After the cancellation period has expired you are required to pay the full course fees either in full or by instalments as agreed.

COURSE TIME LIMITS

If we do not hear from you with some completed course work for 2 months or more then your course will be terminated as we will deem you no longer wish to continue with the course.

You will need to study between 5-10 hours per week on average.

There is an overall time limit to complete your course as follows..

• PA Diploma - 18 months

• Executive PA - 12 months

• Advanced Secretarial and Computer - 9 months

• Intermediate Secretarial and Computer - 6 months

• General Secretarial - 5 months

• Audio Secretarial and Advanced Audio Secretarial - 3 months

• CLAIT Plus - 4 months

• CLAIT Advanced - 6 months

• Shorthand - 9 months

• Administration (either Level 2 or Level 3) - 6 months

• Intermediate Medical Secretarial - 12 months

• Advanced Medical Secretarial - 18 months

• Legal Administration (either Level 2 or Level 3 ) - 9 months
  

• Legal Administration (combined Level 2 and Level 3) - 12 months

The course time limits will be extended to take into consideration holiday periods as required.

In exceptional circumstances these course time limits can be extended by agreement.

COURSE/TUTOR PROVISION – DISTANCE LEARNING

On your booked start date, we will send to you your first lessons via email.  You will also be able to access course material from our password protected site via the Internet.

You will be guided by your personal tutor, via email, lesson by lesson, on which exercises to do next as you progress through your course. You will also receive feedback on submitted work and any additional tuition you may require to complete the exercises satisfactorily.

You may also raise questions or request additional help to complete tasks either via email or by phone as you progress through the course. You may also be provided with additional teaching material if your course tutor feels you require additional help to assist you on your course.

As you progress through your course, you will be prepared for the relevant examinations you have booked to sit.

You will continue to receive this support until you have completed and achieved all the exams (where relevant) you have booked to study subject to the 2 month contact requirement above and the course time limit period as detailed above.

If you have not finished your course within the time limit and you wish to continue, then at our discretion we may be able to extend the time limit further, depending on the circumstances.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED TO COMPLETE YOUR COURSE

A computer, Internet connection and an email account as well as the relevant software.

Relevant software (note - we do not use Office 2007)

Word (used for the Audio Secretarial and General Secretarial Course and single secretarial subjects).

Word, Access, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint (used for all courses involving computer studies).

Text books for those studying Shorthand and Administration. Details of the required text books will be provided where relevant.

AVAILABILITY

We have a limit as to the number of students who can register at any one time. There are set booking dates – details available from the College. Places are available on a first come first serve basis.

This ensures we provide a quality service to our students and can provide adequate supervision of their course and progress.

Feedback and marking of submitted work is carried out as quickly as possible, and usually within 2 days excluding weekends and holiday periods. However, we cannot guarantee to reply within a certain time limit due to unexpected demand, holidays, illness or any other unforeseen circumstances. We will do our best to inform you if there is to be a delay in replying to your work, of more than 3 working days.

HOLIDAYS

The College is closed over the Christmas and Easter holiday periods, as well as in the summer for the month of August.

OUR RIGHT TO TERMINATE YOUR COURSE

We reserve the right to terminate a student’s course if their behaviour is aggressive, abusive or threatening.  A written warning will be provided initially and should we experience repeated agressive, abusive or threatening behaviour then we shall terminate that student’s course and no course fees will be refunded.

EXAMINATION BOOKINGS AND FEES

Sitting Exams at this College

Examination fees can be paid for as and when you book your exam entry when sitting exams at this College.

Examinations need to be ordered from the examination board at least 4 WEEKS in advance of the required date. Exam fees are usually required to be paid in full prior to exams being ordered.

Exam sessions are held at regular intervals throughout the term for most examinations. Some examinations are held on certain dates during the year which are set by the OCR Examining Board.

Sitting exams at other OCR Centres

We have over 60 OCR exam test centres we have used in various parts of the country for both past and current students.

We will provide details to the best of our knowledge of the nearest exam centre who is able to provide exam testing facilities to you, for the exams required.

We cannot guarantee to provide a test centre within a certain travel distance but in most cases test centres are within 1 hour’s travelling time from either a student's home or place of work.

For specialised exams eg Legal Administration, students may need to travel further as these exams are not provided by as many test centres as other exams.

You will need to make the final arrangements with the OCR test centre including..

Dates and times you wish to sit exams

Arrangements to make payment for the exam entries

Some centres are open on a Saturday or in the evening, and you may also find it useful to sit more than one exam on one day to reduce travel times.

These exam test centres are independent of ourselves and are approved OCR exam centres.  We cannot be held responsible for their conduct of exams and any arrangements made with the test centre and any failure on their part to provide test facilities at the times and dates agreed or any related matter.  Any grievances concerning a test centre needs to be addressed directly to that test centre.

You will need to confirm to us the details in order that we can prepare your revision schedule to ensure you are fully prepared for your exams.

Secretarial Exams - Series dates

OCR Secretarial exams are available upon demand, and there are 3 exam series available.

• Spring (available from January to the end of April)
• Summer (available from May to the end of September)
• Autumn (available from October to the end of December)

When booking your exams, please note the time of year and ensure you sit your exams within the series you have booked, otherwise you will lose your exam entry fees.

Set exam dates

Other examinations - namely

• Administration (2 modules only)
• Legal Administration
• Shorthand
• AMSPAR

are held on set dates only.  These vary from year to year and you will be notified once this information is available from the examining board.

DATA PROTECTION ACT

We are registered under the Data Protection Act Registration No Z6080980 as we retain information about students for administrative purposes.

This information includes, names and addresses, date of birth, course details, payments, examination results and teaching.

None of this information is passed onto any other person or organisation and remains confidential to this College.

If you do not wish any of your details to be stored on a computer, please let us know in writing and we will retain manual records.