Terms & Conditions

ESC Courses Terms and Conditions:

  1. This document sets out the terms and conditions (“Terms”) that govern your registration with Executive Short Courses (ESC), and your use of ESC’s Products and services.
  2. Before registering and becoming a learner with ESC, you are required to become familiar with these Terms and all documents referred to in them.
  3. Once registered as a learner with ESC, you agree to be bound to and abide by these Terms, including our Privacy Policy, Terms of Use of the Website, Course Material, and any other policies referred to on our website.
  4. If you do not agree with these terms, you must immediately refrain from accessing ESC’s website and from using ESC products and/or services.
  5. If there is anything in these Terms that you do not understand, please contact ESC at learn@myesc.co.za.
  6. ESC reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to amend and/or replace any of, or the whole of, the Terms. Such amendments shall supersede and replace any previous terms and shall be made available on the Website. Each time a user accesses the website and/or uses the services, the user shall be deemed to have consented to the Terms, as amended and/or replaced by ESC from time to time. If you are not satisfied with the amended terms, you must refrain from using the Website.

1. DEFINITIONS

  • Academic Misconduct has the same meaning ascribed to it in the Learner Code of Conduct.
  • Business day refers to weekdays excluding Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays as well as the period between 15 December to 5 January.
  • Cancellation refers to when a learner withdraws from a course prior to course start date and a refund is issued.
  • Intellectual property rights means all and any of the rights in and to intellectual property of any nature whatsoever owned and/or controlled directly or under license by ESC, now or in the future, including without limitation, ESC’s rights, title and interest in and to all technology, source code/s, trade secrets, logos, systems, methods, trademarks, trade names, styles, insignia, designs, patents and copyright, and all similar proprietary rights which may subsist in any part of the world, whether registered or not.
  • Course
  • Course Material
  • Deferral refers to the process of a learner postponing the start of their course after being registered and accepted on a course.
  • ESC refers to Executive Short Courses (Pty) Ltd with registration number 2005/020855/07, duly registered in the Republic of South Africa with its registered address at 25 Quantum street, Technopark, Stellenbosch.
  • Flexible Study Options
  • Learner means the person registered for a Course and “user” and “you” have a corresponding meaning.
  • Learner Code of Conduct refers to this Code.
  • Online Campus
  • Parties refer to the Learner and ESC.
  • Privacy Policy refers to this Policy.
  • Products
  • Services
  • Terms refer to this document.
  • Terms of use of Website refers to the following terms.
  • User refers to the learner who is provided access to our platform after registration has taken place and payment has been received.
  • Website refers to https://www.executiveshortcourses.co.za/ and “ESC” website has a corresponding meaning.

2. REGISTRATION

  • To register with ESC, you are required to create an account and provide all information in relation thereto. It is your sole responsibility to ensure that the information you provide ESC with is accurate and up to date. All your personal information will be processed in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
  • To complete your registration with ESC, you will be required to “tick the box” marked “I agree to the Learner Terms and Conditions”. By ticking the “I agree to the Learner Terms and Conditions” box, you agree to be bound to and abide by, these Terms, including our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use of the Website, and any other policies referred to on our website.
  • By registering with ESC, you agree and consent to receive marketing communication from ESC. Should you wish to ‘opt-out’ of any generic marketing communication, this may be done by clicking on the link “unsubscribe” at the bottom of the email.
  • What do you need to register with ESC?
    • A current working email account;
    • Access to a computer;
    • Access to the Internet;
    • A certified copy of identification documentation (not older than 6 months); and
    • Additional documentation, if required as per the course requirements.

3. ACCESSING ESC’s ONLINE CAMPUS

  • After successfully registering with ESC, and paying the applicable fees, you will be granted a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable and revocable license to use ESC’s services and products, including services associated therewith.
  • At all times, ESC reserves the right to suspend your access to the Online Campus until such time as all outstanding payments due to ESC have been paid by you.

4. UNAUTHORISED USE OF ONLINE CAMPUS

  • You hereby agree to take full responsibility for your access and usage on the Online Campus.
  • You further agree to contact ESC immediately if you experience any unauthorised use of your profile details on the Online Campus.
  • While ESC takes all reasonable security precautions, you agree to indemnify ESC for loss and/or damage caused by the malicious use of this Online Campus or by destructive data or code that is passed on to you through the use of the website and Online Campus.
  • To ensure the security and reliable operation of the services to all ESC’s learners, ESC hereby reserves the right to take whatever action it may deem necessary to preserve the security, integrity and reliability of its network and back-office applications.
  • You may not utilise the Online Campus in any manner which may compromise the security of ESC’s networks or tamper with the Online Campus in any manner whatsoever, which shall include, gaining or attempting to gain unauthorised access to the Online Campus, or delivering or attempting to deliver any unauthorised, damaging or malicious code to the Online Campus, all of which is expressly prohibited. Any person or entity which does so, or attempts to do so, shall be held criminally liable. Furthermore, should ESC suffer any damage or loss due to unauthorised use, ESC shall be entitled to claim civil damages against you.
  • Any learner (user) who commits any of the offences detailed in Chapter 13 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002 (“ETCA”) (specifically sections 85 to 88 (inclusive)) shall, notwithstanding criminal prosecution, be liable for all resulting liability, loss or damages suffered and/or incurred by ESC and its affiliates, agents and/or partners.
  • You, the user of the Online Campus, are responsible for any misuse of ESC’s online services that occurs through your account. It is the user’s responsibility to ensure that unauthorised persons do not gain access to or misuse ESC’s service.

5. ONLINE COURSE: CONTENT AND RELEVANCE

It is your duty as the learner to make sure the course you register for meets your requirements. You are required to go through the course pack thoroughly before registering.

Course Material

  • All course materials, administration and instructions are in English.
  • All coursework that is required for assessment purposes must be written in English.

What will you need to access and view course material

  • To get the best experience when utilising your systems and consuming content, we recommend that you take note of the following system requirements and guidelines:
    • Any current browser – ESC recommends Google Chrome (the latest version).
    • Javascript – Your browser must support JavaScript and be enabled to do course work (enabled by default for most browsers).
    • Font Downloads – Your browser should allow fonts to be used automatically (enabled by default for most browsers). When this is disabled, course content may display sub-optimally.
    • Adobe PDF – Though not necessary, it is recommended that you use a browser that is capable of reading a PDF document; alternatively, you can download Adobe PDF Reader from their website.
    • VPN – For best use, ESC recommends that you turn the VPN off and/or add the Online Campus to the list of “safe websites” on your current Internet browser. Should you encounter issues accessing our platform, try adding the Online Campus to your list of accessible websites if you have Anti-Virus software installed.
    • Language and Regional – ESC uses a default language of English (South African Standard). Where date, time, and regional settings apply, the time zone utilised should be noted as Central African Time (CAT) or GMT +2.
  • Should certain courses require additional software and resources; you will be informed of this upon registration for that course.
  • Please note that all software and resources required for Course completion are at your own cost. ESC will not be liable for the costs of any software or resources required by you to complete the course.

 Course delivery

  • Only learners who are registered for a Course may participate in that Course.
  • You may not disclose your username or password to any other person, nor may you permit any other person to participate in the Course on your behalf. Failure to comply with this provision will result in your deregistration with no refund by ESC.
  • You may not impersonate any other person in dealing with ESC or access the Online Campus using another user’s username and password. Should you be found in contravention of this provision, ESC will deregister you with no refund.

Tax forms, tax rebates, subsidy claim forms and employer compensation

Please note that the Courses offered by ESC in non-credit bearing. Furthermore, the administration of these Courses is handled by ESC, which may not be an “educational institution” for tax purposes in your jurisdiction. If your employer offers remuneration for educational courses, it is your responsibility to check with them if this course meets their requirements for remuneration. Similarly, it is your responsibility to establish if these Courses will qualify for a tax rebate. ESC will not issue or complete any tax or related forms.

6. PRICING AND PAYMENTS

Course fees:

  •  When you register for a Course, you agree to pay the applicable Course fee/s and such other amounts as may be due by you arising from your participation in the Course. Course fees may vary based on your location and other factors. We reserve the right to change any Course fees at any time at our sole discretion. Any change, update, or modification will be effective immediately upon posting to the ESC’s Website.
  • All course fees are stated on our website and are subject to change at our discretion. The fees include access to course materials and resources.

Payment methods:

  • You can pay using the online URL link via our secure payment gateway or make payment via electronic fund transfer (EFT) or direct deposit. For EFTs, our banking details can be found on your invoice once you’ve completed your registration.
  • Upon successful payment, you will receive a confirmation email with details about the course and your enrolment. No enrolment will proceed without payment reflected in ESC’s designated bank account.
  • The advertised Course fee includes VAT; your invoice will indicate the prevailing VAT rate applicable.
  • Should you receive any notification of a change in banking details or outstanding fees, it is your responsibility to verify the banking details or outstanding fees with our head office prior to making payment. You agree to indemnify ESC from any payment made into the incorrect bank account or a fraudster’s bank account.

Dispute:

If there is a dispute about payment of any Course fee (or any portion thereof), or how you use your Online Campus or the Website, we may at our sole discretion suspend your participation in the Course for the period of the dispute.

7. CANCELLATIONS, DEFERRALS AND SUSPENSIONS

  • The service provider reserves the right to cancel a Course Run, in the event of but not limited to the minimum enrolment numbers being fulfilled. ESC will notify such cancellations in writing via email prior to the scheduled course date.
  • Initiation of Deferral:

Learners intending to defer their studies must initiate the deferral process through their designated company representative. The company representative is responsible for submitting a written deferral application to ESC.

  • All deferral applications must be submitted within seven (7) Business days prior to the scheduled start date of the course.
  • Upon receiving a deferral application, ESC will review and consider flexible study options at its sole discretion.
  • Learners are permitted to postpone their enrolment in a course only once and must be communicated to ESC via their company representative.
  • The new course start date selected must be within the range of the next three scheduled course commencements from their original enrolment date.
  • Deferrals requested after the course start date will be considered only in cases of extenuating circumstances. Learners are urged to communicate their situation to their company representative and the ESC representative at their earliest opportunity for approval.
  • Deferral to an alternative course is permitted solely under exceptional circumstances, contingent upon ESC’s approval. Any such deferrals will adhere to the cancellation procedure.
  • Learners who have commenced a course but are unable to continue may opt to withdraw from the course and all communications from ESC relating to that specific course run.
  • No credit notes or refunds will be issued for withdrawals since all withdrawn learners will still be liable for the invoiced amount.
  • Learners (or their paying employers) are entitled to a cooling-off period of 7 (seven) calendar days from the course registration closing date to the course start date. During this period, learner registrations may be cancelled and are eligible for a full refund of any fees paid and must be communicated via the client representative.
  • To initiate a cancellation and refund request, the client must submit a written notice to ESC within the cooling-off period. ESC will process and approve valid refund requests within 30 (thirty) calendar days of receipt.
  • Refunds are only eligible for requests made officially and within the specified cooling-off period. Any requests made after the cooling-off period will not be eligible for a refund.
  • All learners deferring or withdrawing post the course start date will need to be escalated to ESC for approval.
  • If a learner is found to have violated the Learner Code of Conduct by engaging in Academic Misconduct, they will temporarily be suspended from the course pending a final decision.

8. RISK, LIMITATION OF LIABILITY AND INDEMNITY

  • You agree to indemnify ESC for any cost, claims, or damages (including, without limitation, indirect, extrinsic, special, penal, punitive, exemplary or consequential loss (such as loss of profits, business, goodwill, revenue or anticipated savings)) or other damages of any kind, penalties, actions, judgments, suits, expenses, disbursements, fines or other amounts that you or any third party might suffer that relates to or arises from these Terms, or termination of a Course for any reason, whether or not anyone anticipated or should have anticipated that damages would occur. In no event shall ESC aggregate liability to you for any and all claims exceeding the total amount of fees received from you in the six months preceding any cause of action.
  • ESC does not, under any circumstances, guarantee the relevance of the course material to you, nor your ability to get employment or a promotion as a result of completing any course.
  • To the extent permissible by law, you agree to indemnify ESC, its affiliates, shareholders, agents, consultants or employees and hold them harmless in respect of any claim that a third party might bring against ESC that relates to or arises from these Terms.
  • The aforementioned indemnity also includes all liability or loss that ESC may suffer as a result of a claim, including legal costs on attorney and own client scale and any additional legal and collection costs.

9. INTERRUPTION OF ESC WEBSITE OR ONLINE CAMPUS

  • You acknowledge and agree that from time to time, the ESC Website and/or Online Campus may be inaccessible or inoperable, by reason of one or more of the following:
    • Equipment malfunctions or faults.
    • Periodic maintenance procedures, downtime, or repairs that we may undertake from time to time.
    • Causes beyond our control, including, without limitation, interruption or failure of telecommunication or digital transmission links, attacks on the network and network congestion or other failures.
  • Such interruption to the accessibility of the ESC Website or Online Campus will not be deemed a breach of this Agreement under any circumstances whatsoever and we will not, under any circumstances, be liable to you for any costs, claims or damages that you may sustain or suffer as a result of any interruption, inoperability or inaccessibility of the ESC Website and/or Online Campus.

10. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

For the purpose of this clause, the following words shall have the following meanings ascribed to them:

  • All copyright and other intellectual property rights in all content, trademarks, software, data, and material, including logos, databases, text, graphics, icons, hyperlinks, confidential information, designs, agreements, and multimedia works, published on or via the Website and/or‌ Online Campus (“proprietary material”), are the property of, or are licensed to, and as such are protected from infringement by local and international legislation and treaties.
  • The contents of this Website and Online Campus may not be transmitted, transcribed, reproduced, stored or translated into any other form without our prior written permission. You are permitted to display the content of this Website and Online Campus on your computer as part of your viewing of the Website and Online Campus only.
  • You agree to report all copyright infringements to ESC at learn@myesc.co.za.
  • All rights not expressly granted by ESC are reserved, and no right, title or interest in any proprietary material or information contained in this Website and Online Campus is granted to any learner or client.
  • Except with ESC’s express written permission, no proprietary material from the Website or Online Campus may be copied or retransmitted to a third party.
  • Irrespective of the existence of copyright, the learner acknowledges that ESC is the proprietor of all material on the Website and Online Campus (except where a third party is indicated as the proprietor), whether it constitutes confidential information or not, and that the learner has no right, title or interest in any such material.
  • ESC authorises you only to view, copy, temporarily download to a local drive, and to print the content of this Website and Online Campus, or any part thereof, provided that such content is used for personal purposes and information purposes only, and such content is used for non-commercial purposes.

11. WARRANTS AND DISCLAIMERS

  • ESC makes no warranty or representation as to the availability, accuracy or completeness of the content of the Website and Online Campus. You expressly waive and renounce all your rights of whatever nature that you may have against ESC for any loss suffered by you, as a result of information supplied by ESC being incorrect, incomplete or inaccurate.
  • ESC may use the service of third parties to provide information on the Website and Online Campus. ESC has no control over this information and makes no representations or warranties of any nature as to its accuracy, appropriateness or correctness. The learner agrees that such information is provided ‘as is’ and that ESC and its online partners shall not be liable for any losses that may arise from the user’s reliance on it, however, these may arise.
  • ESC makes no representations or warranties, whether implied or expressly, as to the accuracy, completeness or reliability of any information, data and/or content on the Website and Online Campus, except to the extent otherwise stated in relation to your enrolment for a Course or as specifically imposed by law. All information on this Website and Online Campus is for personal use only. All use and reliance on content and information provided through this Website and Online Campus will be at your own risk.
  • ESC does not warrant that the Website and Online Campus or information or downloads shall be error-free or that they shall meet any criteria of performance or quality expressly disclaims all implied warranties, including but not limited to warranties of commercial value, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, compatibility, security or accuracy.
  • Whilst ESC has taken all reasonable measures to ensure the integrity of the Website and Online Campus, and the contents thereof, no warranty, whether express or implied, is given that any files, downloads or applications available via the website and Online Campus are free of viruses, or any other data or code which can corrupt, damage or affect the operation of the user’s system. You will be exclusively responsible for any damage caused to your software or computer systems and/or any resulting loss of data caused as a result of any use of this Website and/or Online Campus.
  • Information published on this Website and the Online Campus may be done so in the format in which ESC receives it and statements from external parties are accepted as fact.

12. LINKED THIRD-PARTY WEBSITES AND THIRD-PARTY CONTENT

  • ESC may provide links to third-party websites on the Website and/or Online Campus. These links are provided to the user for convenience purpose only and ESC does not endorse, nor does the inclusion of any link imply ESC’s endorsement of, such websites, their owners, licensees or administrators or such websites’ content or security practices or operations.
  • While ESC tries to provide links only to reputable websites or online providers, ESC cannot accept responsibility or liability for the information provided on other websites. Linked websites or pages are not under, nor subject to, the control of ESC is not responsible for and gives no warranties or makes any representations in respect of the privacy policies or practices of linked or any third party or advertised websites on the Website.
  • You agree that ESC shall not be held liable, directly or indirectly, in any way for the content, the use or inability to use or access any linked website or any link(s) contained in a linked website, nor for any loss or damage of any sort incurred as a result of any dealings with, or as the result of the presence of such third party linked websites on the Website. Any dealings that you may have with linked websites, including advertisers, found on the Website, are solely between you and the third-party website.

13. COMPLAINTS AND DISPUTES

  • Any dispute between a learner and ESC shall be submitted to the academic department at learn@myesc.co.za, which department shall endeavour to review and investigate the complaint, within five (5) Business Days after it has been referred to them.
  • You may be required to provide supporting documentation or other evidence that may be relevant, in order for ESC to fully investigate the complaint. Once the matter has been investigated, and due process followed, you will receive a written response informing you of the feedback, outcomes or suggested course of action related to the complaint.
  • Should the dispute not be resolved in the aforesaid manner, then it shall be resolved by way of arbitration, whereby the dispute will be referred to the decision of a single arbitrator to be agreed upon between the parties, or, in default of agreement for 14 (fourteen) days, to be appointed at the request of either party by the President of the Western Cape Bar to be decided on as informal a basis as the Arbitrator deems necessary.

14. BREACH

In the event you commit any material breach of these Terms and fail to remedy the breach within 7 (seven) days after receiving a written notice to do so, ESC may terminate your participation in the Course for which you are registered, and you will not be entitled to a refund of any portion of the Course fee.

15. GENERAL CLAUSES

Governing law and Jurisdiction:

  • This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Republic of South Africa. The Parties agree that any dispute, controversy or claim arising out of or relating to this Agreement which cannot be resolved by negotiations between the Parties shall be submitted to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the Cape Town courts for the purpose of enforcing any claim arising hereunder.
  • Your continued use of the Online Campus will constitute your consent and submission to the jurisdiction of the South African courts regarding all proceedings, transactions, applications or the like instituted by either party against the other, arising from any of these Terms.
  • Nothing in this above-mentioned paragraph or the Learner’s Terms and Conditions limits your right to approach any court, tribunal or forum of competent jurisdiction in terms of the CPA.

Whole agreement:

  • These Terms, together with the policies, constitute the whole of the agreement between you and ESC in relation to your registration for a course. Only a written variation agreed to by both parties will be of any effect.

Severability:

  • In the event that any part of these Terms is found to be partially or fully unenforceable for any reason, such provision shall be struck out from these Terms and the remaining provisions shall be enforced to the full extent of the law.

Assignment:

  • These Terms, and any rights and licenses granted in these Terms, may not be transferred or assigned by you without the prior written consent of ESC, but any rights and licenses granted in these Terms may be assigned by ESC without restriction.

No Waiver of rights:

  • ESC’s failure to act with respect to a breach by you or others does not constitute a waiver of our right to act with respect to subsequent or similar breaches.

16. CONTRACTING

By registering for a Course with ESC and accepting these Terms on the ESC website, these Terms constitute the terms and condition of the agreement between you (the learner/user) and ESC.