Applicable Terms and Conditions for Booking and Attending an ISC Course

Please read the enclosed terms and conditions as it forms part of our agreement with you when booking and attending ISC courses.

Course fees/advanced booking rates
1. Course fees and advanced booking rates are indicated on the course information and website according to the duration, location and type of course.
2. Membership body: An additional 5% discount is applicable per analyst for certain members of professional bodies or organizations, promoted via instrument-independent third parties. Please contact us to see if we include discounts for the membership of the professional body/organization you are in.
3. For medium to large group sizes: it can more cost effective to have an onsite course versus sending delegates to attend our courses. Please contact Caroline Green at cgreen@amoebasciences.eu for further information.
4. Our training packages are substantially discounted compared to attending individual courses. Training packages can be taken at one or spread across multiple locations. The price is per analyst and all course modules need to be taken within a 12 month time period from date of commencement of the first course module or they will be lost. The training packages cannot be split into modules attended by different analysts.

Delegates & Courses
5. A minimum of 5 attendees will be required for a course to proceed; a maximum of 10 analysts will be accommodated on any European course, outside of Europe we run larger groups.
6. All course attendees are requested to complete an analysts preview form in order to ascertain key information for attending the course and level of knowledge.
7. All courses and material will be presented in English language, unless stated. We use high visual content in our courses. We do not provide alternative language or translation services. If you are concerned about language barriers, please contact us before booking a course with us.
8. The ISC is not responsible for flights, transportation to and from the training location and venue, or hotel bookings or their cancellation policies. Course attendees therefore book flights, transport and hotels at their own risk.
9. Course delegates attend courses at their own risk. The ISC is not responsible for personal injury, personal security or property of course delegates, to and from and during the courses. However, we will inform you at every venue of local health and safety procedures (evacuation routes, fire alarms, first aid, emergency numbers etc). In terms of personal safety, we advise a common sense approach: do not walk alone through isolated areas, or during hours of darkness e.g parks, alleyways etc, read up on the local safety of areas before booking hotels and making your transport arrangements. Keep your room door locked at night and close windows when out. Do not open your room door to strangers. Use a safe where possible. Keep valuables to a minimum and stored apart and away safely. Bring sufficient medicine and supplies with you for the duration of your trip. Know how to reach reception at your hotel in an emergency. Familiarize yourself with hotel evacuation routes from your room.

Cancellation Policy
10. Course cancellation will incur a penalty of a deductible amount per person: -50% up to 12 weeks before the course; -75% up to 6 weeks before the course; -100% up to 4 weeks before the course. Under exceptional circumstances, an alternative course may be offered without incurring any penalty.
11. The ISC reserves the right to cancel or amend a course schedule with a full refund of course fees, or provision of an acceptable alternative course, due to unforeseen circumstances which includes: illness, under subscription for a course, transportation problems, and force majure (e.g. weather, terrorism and protests after terrorism etc) without incurring any due penalty. We will notify delegates by email in advance (2 weeks minimum), when known, or alternatively, by telephone if appropriate (less than 2 weeks). We do our best not to cancel or amend courses at all. The ISC will not however be liable for any costs incurred by airlines or hotels as a result of any changes, or any implication of assignments at work for which training is required.

Travel permits & visas
12. Delegates and their companies are responsible for ensuring they have adequate travel permits and visas for course attendance. The ISC cannot take any responsibility either prior to, or upon arrival in the country of the course, for delegates who have not obtained adequate or correct paperwork, or who have been refused permission to stay, or wrongly informed by other persons.
You should especially check (but not limited to) the following:
• you have an adequate, valid passport which is in good quality (and visa if required) for travel from your country to the country of location of the course
• you should not book a course or transport until you have acquired the necessary passport and/or paperwork for travel (please contact us to hold you a place in the meantime)
• the expiry date of your passport as some countries require a certain length of time remaining on the passport for validity
• names in passports/permits must match names on air/transport tickets
• identity cards - which many countries do not accept for travel (even within Europe!)
• your passport type meets the requirements of the country you are visiting (e.g 10 year passport, and/or the introduction of chip passports and the use of biological data which is now a requirement for travel to some countries)
Please avoid taking advice based on other people’s opinions, and contact your local embassy and/or passport/travel office for accurate information and guidance. Please be aware that visas and passports can take much more time to apply for than first thought.
Do not book a course with us, accommodation or transport to and from the venue, until the processes have been completed – in the meantime you can notify us to reserve you a place (if available) and to complete the course booking form ready to submit by the time your travel permit has been granted.
13. We are not responsible for any illegal arrival, loss of course fees, airfares, incurred airfares, hotel reservations, and any applicable fines, or fees for access to lawyers, denial of visa, or transport costs back to country of origin if entry is refused to a country to attend a course – whether in advance, or at arrival in the country of course. You travel at your own risk at all times.

Insurances
14. Delegates and their companies are responsible for ensuring they have adequate insurance for their course attendance. This includes both travel insurance for any delays, lost luggage and adequate medical cover. Please note that despite European Health Insurance Cards (EHIC’s) supposedly being accepted in European countries, a lot of medical establishments in Europe require proof of insurance policy. In many cases, patients are still required to pay upfront costs, which they can then reclaim back later from their insurer. Please ensure you have sufficient access to funds if need be, as the ISC cannot cover any costs incurred or provide any temporary funds.

Samples not permitted
15. Delegates are strictly not permitted to bring samples onto the courses.

Course Delivery & Restrictions
16. The ISC agrees to send an instructor who is suitably qualified to teach all our offered courses. The instructor is not permitted to service any instruments, breech any warranty by taking apart any instruments, fix any instruments, nor give advice or any opinions about which instruments and models perform best in the market (unless you have requested a separate instrument purchase consultation service from us, please visit our website for further details).
17. The ISC is not responsible for any delays and costs incurred as a result of a course not being delivered, for which an instrument is unavailable on-site, incapacitated for the part or complete duration of the course reserved, failure to be attended by the designated persons for which the course was reserved, change in date of the reserved course which will be subject to the costs listed above or change in instrument as a result of a new purchase or removal of an existing one. The ISC does not hold any special licences for laboratories working with restricted compounds. The ISC reserves the right to refuse or to immediately terminate a course without refund or compensation, whereby the compounds of interest are deemed to be too dangerous, illegal, or require a licence where there isn’t one already in adequate operation.

Certification & Qualification
18. The ISC will provide a certificate upon successful completion of training to every course delegate. In 2012, we will introduce a qualification within the industry and details of the terms and conditions will be integrated herein later.

Delivering Training to Countries with Embargoes
19. The ISC will strictly not provide training to countries or to individuals from those countries whether residing within, or residing outside those countries, where there are EU embargoes in operation or about to be updated, or about to be enforced. This is due to EU law, which we operate under and is not necessarily the opinion of the ISC.

Conduct
20. Delegates are expected, alongside training staff, to conduct themselves in an appropriate ethical manner when attending courses. We are proud to train delegates from all over the world from many different backgrounds, cultures and nationalities. To date we have brought many people together from all corners of the globe for our courses and everyone has had a great experience. We would like to preserve this good track record, by reminding delegates to respect each other, as well as staff, and give each other support, encouragement and enjoyment in attending the courses and learning together. Verbal or physical abuse or discrimination likely to offend a person based on race, religious, sexuality, sexual motivations, political, personal ability, disability, or other grounds will not be tolerated. It may result in possible elimination from a course without refund or compensation. The ISC will not be responsible under these circumstances for loss of course fees, changes in transportation back to country of origin, or any other fees incurred as a result of a delegate being withdrawn from a course for inappropriate behaviour, either towards a another delegate or a member of staff, including local staff at venue facilities.

Changes to Terms & conditions
21. The ISC reserves the right to change, update, remove, alter and add new terms to our terms and conditions at all times. These will be uploaded on our website with immediate effect and you should reference this at all times during your course reservations and when attending courses with us.