Fees and how to pay

What a qualification costs, when the money is actually due, and what your options are for paying it. If you are still deciding, the important line is the first one below: applying costs nothing and commits you to nothing.

Nothing is paid at application

There is no application fee, no deposit to hold a place and no card details taken on the application form. You apply, we review your application, and if we can offer you a place we make an offer. Payment only becomes relevant once you have accepted that offer, and we talk you through the options before you do. If we do not think the qualification you applied for is the right one for you, we say so and suggest the one that is, which is something our registration policy requires of us rather than a courtesy.

What it costs

The fee is published on the page of every qualification that is open for enrolment. There is one fee per qualification and it covers your registration with NCFE, the taught material and live sessions, assessment by a qualified assessor, internal and external quality assurance, tutor support, and the certificate claim when you finish. There is no separate assessment fee, no charge for feedback and no charge for a resubmission within your qualification.

Current range: fees for the 28 qualifications open for enrolment run from £295 to £3,495. The figure that matters is the one on the page of the qualification you want, and each of them shows it.

See the qualifications and their fees

Paying in full, or over 3 months

Once you accept an offer you choose one of two plans. Both are taken by card through Stripe, and the amounts are worked out from the fee for your qualification rather than quoted separately.

Pay in full. A single payment with 5% off the published fee. On a £295 fee that is £280.25, so you pay £14.75 less than the published price.

Pay monthly. 3 equal monthly payments at the published fee, with no interest and no credit agreement. On a £295 fee that is £98.33 a month for 3 months. The payments stop automatically after the third: there is no rolling subscription to remember to cancel.

The worked example above uses a £295 fee to show how the two plans differ. Your own figures are calculated from the fee for your qualification and shown to you in full, plan by plan, before you enter any card details.

If paying by card does not work for you, tell the admissions team. We can accept a bank transfer, which a member of staff confirms against the account before your enrolment is completed.

If your employer is paying

Employer-funded enrolment is common on the technical qualifications, and the obstacle is almost never the money. It is that the person who has to approve it needs something in writing that explains what the qualification is, what it covers and what it costs.

So every qualification page carries a business case you can download and send on. It is generated from the qualification's own data: the units, the level, the awarding organisation, the fee and how the assessment works. Nothing in it is a claim about salaries or promotions, because we do not make those claims and a document that did would not survive scrutiny by the person you are sending it to.

How employer payment works in practice: you apply in the normal way and tell us, at application or when you accept your offer, that your employer is funding you. We arrange payment with them directly by bank transfer, so you are not paying out of your own pocket and reclaiming it. A member of staff confirms the payment against the account, and your enrolment completes from that point exactly as it would if you had paid by card.

If you are the employer and you are looking at more than one member of staff, contact us before applying individually and we will work out the most sensible way to run it.

Talk to us about employer funding

Government funding

We do not offer a government-funded route. Our qualifications are paid for by you or by your employer, and we would rather say that plainly on this page than let you find out at the point of payment. If your circumstances mean funded provision is what you need, a local college or an adult education provider is the right place to ask, and we will say so if you call us.

What happens after you pay

Payment is the last step of enrolment rather than the first. Once it clears, your access to the virtual learning environment is set up, you are registered with NCFE on the correct qualification and units, and you complete the online induction before you begin any assessed work. You need a Unique Learner Number for the registration, and if you do not have one we help you obtain it through the Learning Records Service.

Withdrawal, credit transfer and what happens to your record if you stop partway through are set out in DAIS-POL-014. The terms that apply to cancelling and to any refund are given to you in writing with your offer, before you pay, and you should read them at that point rather than take a summary from a web page.

Ask before you apply

If anything about the cost is unclear, ask first. Call +44 207 0990 956 between 9am and 6pm Monday to Friday, or email info@dataaischool.com, and we aim to reply within two working days. You can also read how assessment works, which covers what the fee is actually buying.

Start an application