Cancellations and refunds

1. Your statutory right to cancel

You buy from us at a distance, so under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 you have 14 days from the day you buy to cancel and get your money back. You do not have to give a reason. This right sits above everything else on this page.

Two exceptions apply when you ask us to start early:

• Online course content you asked us to open. When you first open the course lessons, we ask you to confirm that you want them now. Once we open them, the cancellation right for that content ends. Section 2 explains exactly what you agree to and when.
• Services and registrations you asked us to begin early. You keep the right to cancel, but we can charge for the part we have already carried out. Sections 3 and 5 explain how that is worked out for course days and for registrations.

2. Self-paced online course content

Most of what we sell starts on your phone: the Level 1 course, the practice material and the tests that go with it. Before we open the course lessons, we ask you for two things: your express consent to us opening them now, and your acknowledgement that once they open you lose your right to cancel the course content under the 14-day cooling-off rule.

We ask when you first open the lessons, not when you pay. Level 1 lessons stay locked until our staff accept your English check, so we supply no course content before then. Before your first lesson you will see a box to tick. If you do not tick it, the lessons stay closed. When you tick it, we email you a copy of what you agreed to. The same applies to a Green CSCS Q-Card renewal, which opens the same lessons.

Until the lessons open, and within 14 days of buying, you can cancel and get a full refund of the course content part. The test, card request and any other service parts of your order keep their own cancellation and refund rights, explained in sections 3 to 5.

The English check

Level 1 candidates take a short recorded English check before the course lessons open. You talk with an AI interviewer on video, or you record one video answer. Our staff watch the recording and decide. The AI only suggests a result to them. Section 5 of our privacy policy explains how we use the recording.

If our staff refer you, we offer you a free in-person interview. If you paid for the Level 1 course yourself and you do not take the interview, or you take it and do not pass, we give you a full refund without you having to ask. Where an employer paid for you, they receive a substitution or a credit instead of a cash refund.

A Green CSCS Q-Card renewal works differently. If our staff refer you and you do not take the free in-person interview, or you take it and do not pass, a member of our team looks at your case and tells you what happens next, including whether any refund is due. There is no automatic refund for a renewal.

3. Booked course days and live services

This scale only applies when you have a booked in-person test sitting. After the statutory period, cancelling that date works on the notice you give before the booked date:

• 14 days or more: 100% refund.
• 7 to 13 days: 50% refund.
• Less than 7 days, or you do not attend: no refund.

You can move to another date instead of cancelling. The first transfer is free if you tell us at least 7 days before the booked date.

If you ask us to start a service inside the 14-day cancellation period, say by booking a course day that falls inside it, or by asking us to get an assessment moving, that counts as an express request to begin early. You can still cancel during the period. We may then charge only for the part of the service we had actually supplied by the time you told us, in proportion to the whole, and we refund the rest.

If we cancel, or move a date and the new one does not work for you, you choose: a full refund, or a transfer at no cost. That applies however close to the date it happens.

If you miss a date because of illness, bereavement or something else outside your control, tell us and send what evidence you reasonably can. We will not apply the scale rigidly to genuine emergencies.

Missed test sittings

These are the rules for moving a booked test sitting, cancelling it and missing it.

• Notice. Tell us at least 7 days before your booked sitting if you cannot come. With that notice, you can move your sitting once for free. If you cancel instead of moving, the refund scale above applies. To move or cancel, send us a message in the app or email hello@demo.skillcertify.co.uk.
• Fee. If you give us less than 7 days’ notice, or you do not come, a missed-sitting fee applies before you rebook. You can see the fee in the extra fees on our pricing page. It is our genuine estimate of the costs we cannot get back: the GQA registration fee for the sitting, the invigilator’s time and the work of rebooking.
• Arriving late. If you arrive up to 15 minutes late, we will try to let you sit. After 15 minutes the sitting counts as missed.
• Rebooking. After you pay the fee, you can rebook at no further cost, if there is space. The fee is not an extra test fee. It only covers the sitting that was wasted.
• Emergencies. We may waive or reduce the fee for a genuine emergency, for example a stay in hospital or a death in your family. Contact us with evidence and we will look at your situation.
• If we fill your place. If we give your place to another candidate, we refund the fee.

4. Tests and assessments

A test fee pays for the sitting, not for a pass. If you do not pass the GQA health and safety test, you can book a resit with us. There is no charge for a resit.

Not passing and believing the result itself is wrong are different things. If you think a result is wrong, use the appeals policy, which costs nothing. If an appeal finds a result was wrong, you will not be charged for putting it right.

5. Awarding-body registration and card request

Part of what you pay can be a fee we pass straight to someone else: an awarding organisation registering you for a qualification, or a card scheme issuing your card. We tell you before you pay which parts of the price those are.

If you ask us to make a registration or a card request during the cancellation period, that is an express request to begin the service early. Once that application has actually been made on your behalf, that part of the service has been completed and the fee for it is not refunded. If we have not yet made it when you cancel, it is refunded in full. An invoice or budget entry alone does not mean the registration or application has been made.

6. How to cancel and when your refund arrives

Email hello@demo.skillcertify.co.uk with your name, booking reference and what you want to cancel. A clear statement is enough, and there is no form to fill in.

We refund without undue delay, and in any event no later than 14 days after the day you tell us you are cancelling. Refunds go back to the card or account you paid from. We do not refund to a different person or account.

7. If something is wrong

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 gives you different rights depending on whether the problem is with digital content or with a service, so we set both out.

Digital content, meaning the online course, the videos and the practice material, must be of satisfactory quality, fit for the purpose you told us about, and as described. If it is not, you are entitled to have it repaired or replaced, and if that is not possible or we do not do it within a reasonable time, to a reduction in what you paid.

Services, meaning the course days, assessment, marking, registration and card work, must be performed with reasonable care and skill. If they are not, you are entitled to have the service performed again, and if that is not possible or we do not do it within a reasonable time, to a reduction in what you paid.

Raise either through our complaints procedure, which we answer within 10 working days. Nothing on this page limits those rights.

8. Who you are contracting with

Your contract for training, assessment and card services is with Northgate Skills Centre Ltd, trading as Northgate Skills Centre, of Unit 4, Millbrook Business Park, Canal Road, Leeds LS99 4NG. It is the seller and it handles refunds. SkillCertify Ltd (Company No. 17408823) collects its platform fee as part of the same payment, not as a separate line at checkout, and that fee is refunded with the payment. You do not have to claim it back separately or deal with anyone else.