Please read ALL information before booking
For the purposes of our training, short courses are either half days, full days, two or three days. Accredited courses are those which have been awarded OCN (external website) accreditation.
Why do you need my manager's agreement to book on to a course?
We need your manager's / budget holder's authority for the following reasons:
- If we are charging you, it ensures the budget holder has agreed to be charged;
- If you do not attend the course and do not advise us within the advertised cancellation period it allows us to apply our cancellation charges;
- As we are committed to the development of advice workers, it ensures that you and your manager or superviser or other appropriate person within your organisation discuss your training needs and subsequently book onto courses which are appropriate for you;
- If you are unable to attend the training e.g. due to sickness, someone else within your organisation will be aware you are planning to attend a course and will be able to notify us of your absence. This allows us to offer spare places to other people who are waiting.
How do I apply for a course?
All course places are limited, so to attend a course run by Manchester Advice you will need to send in a booking form.
For administrative reasons bookings can only be accepted on the booking forms (either by filling in the paper booking form or by filling in the online booking form). We cannot accept telephone bookings or bookings by email that are not on the official, online form.
Is there a closing date?
Each course has a specified closing date, usually about three weeks before the course takes place (this is longer for Tax Credit courses). Course places are not allocated until after this date. It is still possible to apply for courses after the closing date and if there are places left they will then be allocated on a first come, first served basis rather than the usual priority system (please see below "How do you decide who receives a place?").
How will I know whether I have a place?
Unfortunately we cannot routinely acknowledge receipt of booking forms. We will only contact applicants with places after the closing date.
You have only been allocated a place if you are sent a confirmation letter.
Please feel free to ring after the closing date to check whether you have a place.
Please do not attend courses if you have not received a confirmation letter as we will be obliged to refuse your attendance on the course.
How do you decide who receives a place?
If courses are oversubscribed, we usually give priority to people from agencies in the Manchester Advice and Information Network and then to agencies within the city of Manchester before those elsewhere. This may be different for certain courses.
How do I cancel my place?
If someone books onto a course and then needs to cancel the place they should give as much notice as possible of that cancellation. Notice can only be accepted in writing (by fax, post or email). The time limit for cancellation is 3 working days before the course. This allows us to offer the place to someone else on occasions where courses are oversubscribed.
If you do not cancel a place within the time limit, you will still have to pay the appropriate fee. Those people who are entitled to free places on courses (MAIN Network members etc.) will have to pay an administration charge of £15 if they do not cancel in time.
Substitutions will be accepted. In other words, if someone with a place on a course finds they are unable to attend, they can arrange for someone else from their agency to take their place. Please inform us so that we can alert the trainer and avoid any confusion over who is attending.
Why do you charge a fee for not cancelling unwanted places?
We want to create a more efficient uptake of training opportunities within the MAIN training programme. By charging a fee for non-cancellation, we hope to encourage people to attend the courses they have booked, and where they cannot attend, take action so that someone else can take that place. Agencies, organisations or teams who persistently book places and then fail to attend courses without cancelling places that are not needed may lose their priority status for future courses.
Cost of courses
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Information Provider:
Jane Bevan
Date Written:
16th December 2006
Date Reviewed:
20 December 2006