Do I charge a candidate who missed her course?

Marcon

SiliconChip said:

Marcon said:

NornIronRose said:

Will definitely be looking at the T&C when I can find them. 
You are right that it isn't my fault that she can't make the alternative date that I offered. 
Hers expires on the 23rd so she needs done before that. And she says she's away on the 27th. Sounds believable enough if I take my cynic hat off for a second. 
I have given her a partial refund minus the online portion which she already completed. Seems only fair but I will be investigating further on Monday. 
As you advise, I need to nail this down going forward. 

If this is so vital, why is she cancelling the chance to attend the course, rather than cancelling her trip away? It's her issue to resolve, not yours.

Cancelling a trip on the 27th wouldn't be of any use to her as she needs to complete the course by the 22nd and the OP is unable to offer a date before that. Whether she will be able to find another one before then, and what the conseqences would be if she doesn't complete in time (lost job?) I can't say but the OP may be able to explain. 

She's not going to complete it by the 22nd, is she? So normal logic dictates that if it's so time critical, she'd do all she could to complete at the earliest possible date. 

Savvy_Sue

SiliconChip said:

Cancelling a trip on the 27th wouldn't be of any use to her as she needs to complete the course by the 22nd and the OP is unable to offer a date before that. Whether she will be able to find another one before then, and what the conseqences would be if she doesn't complete in time (lost job?) I can't say but the OP may be able to explain. 

I'd be astonished if someone lost their job for a brief lack of a Paediatric First Aid Certificate. For starters, if the candidate isn't at work on 27th, then EITHER someone else must hold such a certificate, OR the organisation can cope without one.

The employer might sack them if a new certificate wasn't obtained in a timely fashion, or I guess maybe suspend them, but sacking them doesn't magically produce a member of staff with the correct certification. 

I don't know about Paediatric certificates, but IIRC, we were advised to have a certain number of people holding FAW certificates (and Fire Marshalls etc) based on the number of employees and volunteers on site. The number advised was quite small, again IIRC, and we tried to ensure that we had at least one person in each team and building qualified. We never took into account when any of these people took leave. 

It's not the OP's problem in any event. If for some reason it is absolutely essential that the candidate's certification doesn't 'run out', waiting to renew it until less than a month beforehand seems short-sighted. Of course it is possible that up until 22nd December the candidate can 'renew' an existing certificate, whereas after that date they have to do a more comprehensive 'starting from scratch' course. But that is still not the OP's problem. 

SiliconChip

Marcon said:

SiliconChip said:

Marcon said:

NornIronRose said:

Will definitely be looking at the T&C when I can find them. 
You are right that it isn't my fault that she can't make the alternative date that I offered. 
Hers expires on the 23rd so she needs done before that. And she says she's away on the 27th. Sounds believable enough if I take my cynic hat off for a second. 
I have given her a partial refund minus the online portion which she already completed. Seems only fair but I will be investigating further on Monday. 
As you advise, I need to nail this down going forward. 

If this is so vital, why is she cancelling the chance to attend the course, rather than cancelling her trip away? It's her issue to resolve, not yours.

Cancelling a trip on the 27th wouldn't be of any use to her as she needs to complete the course by the 22nd and the OP is unable to offer a date before that. Whether she will be able to find another one before then, and what the conseqences would be if she doesn't complete in time (lost job?) I can't say but the OP may be able to explain. 

She's not going to complete it by the 22nd, is she? So normal logic dictates that if it's so time critical, she'd do all she could to complete at the earliest possible date. 

I don't know if she can complete it by the 22nd, and unless you have knowledge not available to the rest of us I don't see how you can know either. It seemed to me that it may be a one day course, in which case if there is another provider who has a space before the 22nd then it would be feasible to complete it. 

SiliconChip

Savvy_Sue said:

SiliconChip said:

Cancelling a trip on the 27th wouldn't be of any use to her as she needs to complete the course by the 22nd and the OP is unable to offer a date before that. Whether she will be able to find another one before then, and what the conseqences would be if she doesn't complete in time (lost job?) I can't say but the OP may be able to explain. 

I'd be astonished if someone lost their job for a brief lack of a Paediatric First Aid Certificate. For starters, if the candidate isn't at work on 27th, then EITHER someone else must hold such a certificate, OR the organisation can cope without one.

I'd be astonished too, as I don't know what the range of possible consequences might be I suggested the most drastic, but probably least likely. 

I do agree that none of this is the OP's problem, one potential solution is for the OP to offer to carry over the booking to whenever the training next needs to be done, assuming it's not a once only course, and that way no refund needs to be made.

lincroft1710

robatwork said:

Brie said:

I might refund if she provides proof of the accident.  I've known too many people who have cancelled thing due to granny dying or something and then discover it's the 5th time their granny has died.  

We had someone at work who had at least 7 grandparents judging by the number of funerals that were the excuse for compassionate leave

Mrs L's grandchildren did have 8 "grandparents" - Mrs L and myself, Mrs L's ex and partner, children's mother's mother and husband, children's mother's father and partner!

NornIronRose

Hi all. 
Thank you for your valuable insights as always. Was busy the last few days so will answer a couple of the points that have been put forward. 

In the end, I did give her a full refund. Turns out that her online part of the course didn't come out of my class credits so she needs to take that up with whomever she paid. As for when the course needs to be completed by: once someone does the online section, they need to complete the classroom section within 7 weeks, so she has plenty of time to do this. 
I can see that her previous qualification expired in September which made me a bit cynical as to why she 'needed' to be requalified by the 22nd or 23rd of December, plus the car accident on the day. Even after I gave her a full refund, I got an email from the parent company saying she had contacted them to ask them to help her get a refund. This was after her receiving the full amount, and the day after I had communicated that to her. So a few wee alarm bells were ringing, but at least I have done what I needed to do.

As to Savvy Sue's point, OFSTED changed their requirements in September of this year. Now all nursery staff must hold a level 3 paeds blended qualification. It used to be one person to so many children, but no longer. 

superbigal

Everything far to convenient. Stinks of someone skint at Christmas and has probably scammed you.

robatwork

superbigal said:

Everything far to convenient. Stinks of someone skint at Christmas and has probably scammed you.

Sorry if this doesn't take the discussion forward but I have a point of order. I tend to say people's names to myself as an aide memoire. Are you super bi gal or super big al?

LightFlare

superbigal said:

Everything far too convenient. Stinks of someone skint at Christmas and has probably scammed you.

Would be an odd scam where no one has gained anything 

superbigal

LightFlare said:

superbigal said:

Everything far too convenient. Stinks of someone skint at Christmas and has probably scammed you.

Would be an odd scam where no one has gained anything 

Receiving a refund would in my eyes be a gain.