FEES

From the moment a student enrols, Fortress Learning must put in place the resources needed to support that student through the program of study in which they have enrolled. As such, our costs and your fees are incurred regardless of the extent of student engagement. Should a student wish to withdraw after our 30-day cooling-off period the balance of course fees is required to be paid in full no matter how far they advanced in their program. Students wishing to extend their enrolment duration beyond that in which they enrolled will be required to pay for that extension of time.

Fortress Learning has a range of flexible payment options as described below and per the individual course page.

We invite you to contact us directly to discuss any financial hardship or request for delayed/alternate payment options.

For further information, call Fortress Learning on 1300 141 994.

UPFRONT PAYMENTS

• For all courses with fees exceeding $1500 – a payment of $1500 upfront will be taken with a balance payable at a later period as defined by the program in which you are enrolling.
• For all courses paid for by a third party/employer, the entire fee may be collected on enrolment.
• Full payment of fees is required before issuing any qualifications or statement of attainment.

FLEXIBLE PAYMENT OPTIONS

We offer flexible payment options for most of our courses. Details of those options are outlined on the relevant course detail page. Payment options are available for weekly and fortnightly direct debits from credit cards or bank accounts (on request). The cancellation of direct debit arrangements will trigger the remaining balance to become due.

ENROLMENT INTERVIEW FEE

All course fees include a $150 enrolment interview fee which is part of the deposit paid upon application. This is a non-refundable fee unless Fortress Learning’s suitability assessment reveals that the course is not suitable in regards to the IT and course requirements or that the student cannot meet the practical assessment requirements. In these cases, the enrolment Interview fee and any other monies paid will be refunded in full.

If a student does not attend, reschedule or cancel their enrolment interview, the $150 application fee is non-refundable and the student will need to complete another application to continue with their enrolment.

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT SERVICES

The fees payable are for services as stated. Where service is requested that is not a standard component of a program in which a student has enrolled, it will be subject to additional fees. For example, if a student enrols into a self-directed program with no additional trainer support and then requires support from a trainer, they will be able to purchase one on one time with the trainer as outlined in the course detail pages.

COOLING- OFF PERIOD

A cooling-off period of 30 days applies for students enrolling in online programs (not applicable for face-to-face or Zoom programs). If within 30 days of enrolling, a student decides to withdraw from their program of study prior to submitting any items for review (with the exception of the Personal Learning Plan Survey), then no fee (except the enrolment interview fee) will be charged, and the participant is entitled to a full refund of any monies paid less enrolment interview fee. People availing themselves of the Cooling Off period will not receive any credentials for any units completed prior to withdrawal. The cooling-off period will be calculated from the date that your learner portal is activated.

Should a student wish to withdraw after our 30-day cooling-off period, the balance of course fees is required to be paid in full no matter how far they advanced in their program.

WITHDRAWAL & REFUND POLICY

Fortress Learning is committed to working within a fair and transparent framework for the charging of fees, the provision of protection for fees paid in advance and the refund of payments where appropriate.

Students may request Withdrawal at any time during their period of enrolment. Should a student wish to withdraw after our 30-day cooling-off period, the balance of course fees is required to be paid in full no matter how far they advanced in their program.

Participants in Fortress Learning training programs can ask for a refund in the event of the following:

• Services are not provided e.g. cancellation, of course, the financial failure of the company.
• The fair and reasonable non-attendance of a student e.g. sickness, family emergency. Such matters will be decided on a case-by-case basis by the RTO Manager, with early notice of inability to engage in the program recommended (requests must be made with all relevant documentation prior to the last day of enrolment, although this does not guarantee such a request will be granted). Where a variation of the Refund Policy is being sought on medical grounds, the date of the medical certificate is likely to be instrumental in determining the outcome along with any prior correspondence that pointed to the presence of a medical condition (eg, deferment due to illness, response to support calls, etc).
• Fortress Learning will negotiate a fair and reasonable level of refund in the event of other circumstances e.g. where disciplinary issues have led to a student being asked to withdraw from a program.

Withdrawal/Refund Process:

To withdraw, a student must fill out a Fortress Learning Withdrawal Form which is available from the Learner Portal, or from the RTO on request. Once signed, submit to Fortress Learning. Because eligibility for a refund during our 30-day cooling-off period is determined based on the date of the business day on which the completed Withdrawal Form is received we encourage prompt completion and submission of the Form.

Fortress Learning will contact the student upon receipt of the withdrawal form to advise of any outstanding issues, such as completed units, or outstanding fees, and also any refunds payable within the 30-day cooling-off period.

Where a refund is payable, it will be paid within 21 days of receiving the completed Withdrawal Form.

For Online Programs:

• If you withdraw within 30 days of your Learner Portal activation date, you will receive a full refund of any money paid, less enrolment interview fee of $150, as per the conditions of the Cooling Off period.
• Beyond day 30, no refund will be issued, and the full fee is payable no matter how far the student advanced in their program.

For Face-to-Face and Zoom Programs:

Due to the additional expenses and required number of participants associated with running face-to-face and Zoom programs, the following fees apply to withdrawal:

• If you withdraw 10-20 business days before the scheduled course start date, there is a Cancellation Fee equal to 20% of the Course Fee. This fee will be waived provided that the candidate re-books for a new scheduled course date (ie, it is not possible to “hold” the enrolment open until a future course that is yet to be advertised becomes available). This or any other waiver applies on only one occasion and only where their account is up to date and remains up to date.
• If you withdraw within 10 business days of the scheduled course start date, there is a Cancellation Fee equal to 50% of the Course Fee. This fee will be waived provided that the candidate re-books for a new scheduled course date (ie, it is not possible to “hold” the enrolment open until a future course that is yet to be advertised becomes available). This or any other waiver applies on only one occasion and only where their account is up to date and remains up to date.
• If you fail to attend or withdraw following commencement of the face-to-face or Zoom block component, no refund will be issued, and the full course fee is payable.
• If you withdraw following completion of the face-to-face or Zoom block component, no refund will be issued, and the full course fee is payable.

Issuing Statements of Attainment following Withdrawal

Upon request of the Withdrawal Form and upon receipt of a Statutory Declaration, a Statement of Attainment listing all units successfully completed will be issued provided any outstanding full course fees are paid.

Course Cancellations / Postponement

Classroom training is reliant on minimum numbers being met for the course to proceed. Whilst every endeavour will be made to conduct all advertised courses, Fortress reserves the right to change or cancel timetables, class locations, course offerings, trainers and other such details or circumstances beyond our control that affect enrolments. Every effort will be made to advise course participants of any changes promptly. Participants automatically receive a refund in this instance if they don’t wish to transfer to another date.

EXTENSIONS

Paid extensions are available. These fees are subject to change without notice.

There is no guarantee that an extension request will be approved.

It is not possible to extend enrolment in a program:

1. that has been closed to new enrolments in the time since you commenced.
2. where more than 12 months have passed since the initial period ended. In this situation, students must re-enrol.

It may not possible to extend enrolment in a program:

1. for courses that are in a Transition/Teach-Out period may be limited or non-existent.  If the program you are enrolling in is in a Transition/Teach-Out period, then you are encouraged to speak with Fortress Learning prior to enrolling to fully understand the implications of that.
2. if it is more than 18 months since your date of enrolment and you wish to extend your course.  In this situation, you are required to first have a conversation with a Trainer. Student assessment documents are only retained for 6 months following exit from the course. If you expire and then extend beyond the 6 month period, any tasks that were submitted and led to partial completion of a Unit of Competency may need to be done again.
3. If you have enrolled for any of our Zoom Programs and have not completed ALL of the Virtual Classroom blocks.

For any students extending after a period of expiry, the full balance of course fees will be payable plus the extension fee for the extension timeframe requested.

Please contact us if you have any questions or need to speak with a Trainer.

Extension fees are available from the individual Courses/Fees page and are subject to change from time to time.

TRANSFERS

Transferring from a face-to-face/Zoom program to a standard online program is not possible for students.

For online programs, where a student wishes to transfer from one program (Program A) to another (Program B), the fees are calculated as follows:

Program B Fee – Program A Fee + Transfer Admin Fee ($150) + $150 per unit completed (or for which any assessment has been reviewed) which cannot directly contribute to Program B. When transferring from a program where the fee is more than the new program refunds will not be applied.

Where a student (Student A) wishes to transfer their enrolment to another student (Student B), Student A must first Withdraw and then any Refund payable may be allocated upon their request to Student B, less a $150 administration fee. Transfers of this kind are not permissible during a period of Extension.

In all situations, the duration of Program B is reduced by the time that has passed since enrolling in Program A.

DEFERMENT POLICY

Deferment is not available for any programs that involve a face-to-face component.

Deferment may only be available for the Zoom Programs if ALL Zoom Blocks have been completed. Where deferment will lead to the enrolment period going past an intended end date of the program, students will be required to discuss this with their zoom trainers.

There is no guarantee that a deferment request will be approved.

It is not possible to defer enrolment in a program that has been closed to new enrolments in the time since you commenced. It is not possible to defer enrolment where the deferment will push the end date more than 6 months past the initial enrolment end date. In this situation, students must either extend or re-enrol, provided either is still possible.

In the event that the program in which you enrolled is still accepting new enrolments, you may seek to defer your program as follows.

1. Students seeking to pause their studies must make an explicit request for deferment using the Form available from their Learner Portal.
2. Students who are seeking deferment must have demonstrated progress proportionate to their duration up until the date of requesting the deferment or demonstrate compelling reasons for the absence of progress.
3. Students may suspend their studies for up to a 3 month period, and on not more than 2 occasions. In all cases, the period of deferment must not be more than 2 times the balance of time remaining in the student’s course at the time of application (e.g. if a student has one month left in their period of enrolment, they may request not more than a 2-month deferment).
4. There is no fee for the initial deferment.
5. A second deferment incurs a $45 administration fee.
6. Deferments will not be processed if the student has unmarked submissions showing in their Learner Portal. In this situation, the deferment will be delayed until all submissions have been marked or reviewed by an Assessor.
7. Course fees are still payable during the deferment period, and deferment is not available for students whose accounts are overdue.
8. The period of deferment has no bearing on refunds payable in the event of Withdrawal.
9. Deferment start and end dates cannot fall within Fortress’s scheduled non-contact periods.

DEFAULT OF PAYMENT

The following process will apply if payments are not received by the due date of the invoice of the payment plan schedule.

Note that all administrative fees for dishonoured payments will be payable by the student.

REPLACEMENT AND ISSUE OF ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTS

Credentials will not be awarded until a student’s complete fees are paid for the entire program in which they enrolled.

A fee of $60 applies to the issuance of a hard copy of Credentials and/or Statements of Attainment. Proof of identity may be required.

Course fees include the issue of a single electronic credential for each Training Product in which they are enrolled. A fee of $60 applies to issuing additional credentials, other than for the full product in which they are enrolled. Examples:

1. A student enrolled in the Cert IV TAE is halfway through their program. They request a Statement of Attainment for units completed thus far. They pay $60 for that. Upon completing the whole Cert IV TAE, they are issued a Graduation Certificate and Record of Results. They do not pay for that.
2. A student enrols in the Dual Dip VET/TDD. They fulfil requirements for the Dip VET and request a Graduation Certificate and Record of Results. They do not pay for that. They then continue to complete the second Dip TDD, and on completion, they are issued a second Graduation Certificate and Record of Results. They do not pay for that.
3. A student withdraws prior to completing their qualification in full. They request a Statement of Attainment for the units that they did complete. They will receive that Statement of Attainment provided full course fees are paid.

COURSE DURATION

Course duration is calculated as the number of calendar months commencing from the date of course commencement. For calculation purposes, one month equals 30 days.

In event of extension following the expiry of the enrolment period, the extension period is calculated from the date of the recommencement date.