Business Office

Classroom Training       TDPS_CLA

We try to provide standard classroom training in public training facilities to make it easier for the students to benefit from a dialog with their instructor. The challenge is accessibility and timing, which is no different for any other training provider. We developed some models where we try to bring courses to your area, rather than to expect you to come to a central training location, so we can help you to keep training costs to a minimum. Public facilities include local libraries and other venues, as well as conference facilities, depending on the number of students attending a specific course at a specific location. We schedule classes on demand: unlike diploma schools we do not set a fixed time period with set course schedules that you must follow in an all-or-nothing approach to get your diploma upon graduating. Instead, we offer courses and give credits for all individual courses – you can follow a recommended program, or you can decide to create your own program based on your course preferences.

The classroom is an ideal setting for when you need the interaction with an instructor to learn by discussing the subject matter. Not all courses are offered with classroom training as an option: for example, computer training is only offered in a self-study mode, simply because experience has shown that some students master the subject in days, while other students struggle to get through that same material in a couple of weeks. Certain dexterity skills, like keyboarding, will be mastered only through repetition over time, and rather than to fail someone who takes more time to build that dexterity we simply teach the basics and allow you the time to master typing until you achieve the speed and accuracy demanded in the workplace.

More advanced courses may be a bit difficult to learn through self-study. We publish tentative classroom schedules up to 3 months in advance, so you can budget your registration fees and the time you have available around those courses you want to take in class. While in class, if you are able to do part of the work at home, you are not penalized for lack of attendance – all we care about is that you complete the course as evidenced by the final exam. If your circumstances put you at risk of dropping out, we can easily switch over to another mode of training, to keep you going on the road to your future success.

Courses are priced by contact hours at a rate set by the service provider, usually $15/hour for a class of at least 6 students. This fee includes all your study materials, which are the same regardless of the format you take. In some areas where facilities are more expensive course fees may be up to $20/hour or the minimum number of students may be increased, or both. For self-study, using our guided process, the rate is $8/hour based on the standard contact hours. The fee base will be identified on your registration page if not at the standard rate, so you can easily assess the costs of the course:

  • $08/hour = 15 Hours @ $120, 30 Hours @ $240, 60 Hours @ $480
  • $15/hour = 15 Hours @ $225, 30 Hours @ $450, 60 Hours @ $900
  • $20/hour = 15 Hours @ $300, 30 Hours @ $600, 60 Hours @ $1200

These are only contact hours – you can take longer to complete the course without paying extra for the privilege. Study notes will be provided in an electronic PDF format. The study guide is an Excel™ workbook with a test engine that lets you take the final test when you are ready to do so. When you complete the test you can enter the information supplied by the test engine into our on-line enquiry form page to indicate you completed the course, and you will receive a certificate of completion. You decide when you may be ready to take the next course.

Each day is structured into 3 periods of 3 hours each: morning, afternoon, and evening sessions. A one-week course will typically take 15 class hours (or contact hours to be more generic). Similarly a two-week course takes 30 hours, while a four-week course takes 60 hours to complete. When a class starts in the morning it will stay in the morning timeslot for the rest of the course. However, for your next course you might find it opportune to take an afternoon or evening course (if offered). This way you control the rate at which you study and hopefully this adds flexibility to balance your working hours with when you can afford to take specific training courses:

  • Morning Session: 09:00 – 12:00 (+ Saturday)
  • Afternoon Session: 13:00 – 16:00 (+ Saturday / Sunday)
  • Evening session: 18:00 – 21:00 (Weekdays only)

Note that courses will not be held on holiday weekends.

Registration for each course is done on-line, using the enquiry form on the linkage page you reached when you expressed an interest to access these course descriptions. There are normally 6 steps to follow:

  • You browse the catalog and look at courses that interest you. If a course looks interesting, you can re-open the enquiry/registration page to ask for more information about the course in question, or register for the course. Don’t forget to select either self-study or the in-class option.
  • Select the course of interest to start the enquiry, and then provide your personal information so we can get back to you. Select if you want to just enquire, or to actually register in the course as well. It is important to select if you want morning, afternoon, or evening.
  • Course information is sent to you usually within a day. We also put this information into a PayPal invoice that identifies the course, as well as the dates of classroom availability (if you want to register for a class).
  • To register, simply make a PayPal payment – we selected this way to make sure the transaction is completely secure. If you do not want to register, ignore the invoice. After some time the invoice is canceled.
  • When your payment is confirmed, a complete study package will be sent to you within 7 days. This gives you the option to preview the course, or even to complete it through independent study so you can use a class session to review and discuss the materials with an instructor.
  • If you want to complete the course in a classroom setting then it is a simple matter of showing up for the class when documented as available. If the class is not available, and you still want to attend that class later, it is perfectly acceptable to pay the invoice, do the self-study, and attend the class when it is held.

Note that for any courses that require computer access we expect you to bring your own laptop computer. It is not strictly a requirement to bring a computer to class – you can do all assignments at home. We recommend you bring at least a USB memory key to receive additional materials from the instructor.

Your certificate of completion will be in a PDF format so that you can send it to a prospective employer. It will list the course outline as well as show a conventional acknowledgement of your achievement. You can print the certificates and put them in a presentation binder that then represents a complete inventory of everything you have learned.

If you have any additional questions about our training program you can use the registration form to contact us, or use the E-mail address to send us a more detailed question if necessary.