Terms and Conditions
EITCA Academy Terms and Conditions
I. General provisions
§1
The following terms and conditions (hereinafter referred to as the T&C) define the formal regulations regarding organization of the EITCA Academy – an implementation of the European Information Technologies Certification EITC and the European Information Technologies Certification Academy EITCA programmes, hereinafter referred to as the EITC / EITCA Programmes, respectively – including detailed terms and conditions of participation, payment, and the rights and obligations of the participant of the EITC / EITCA Academy Certification programme (hereinafter referred to as the Participant).
II. Organisation of the EITCA Academy
§2
EITCA Academy is organized and implemented by the European Information Technologies Certification Institute (EITCI Institute), operating under legal form of a non-profit ASBL (Association Sans But Lucratif, ie. Association Without Profit Purpose) association registered in Belgium. EITCI Institute has been established in 2008 in accordance with provisions of the Title III of Belgian Law, granting legal personality to non-profit associations and establishments of public utility. The Institute has its registered headquarters office in Belgium, at Avenue des Saisons 100-102, 1050 Brussels. EITCA Academy is implemented in accordance with the methodological, technical and programme guidelines of the EITCI Institute, which also acts as the Certifying Body / Certification Authority for the EITC / EITCA Programmes.
§3
The organizational supervision over the implementation of the EITCA Academy is exercised by the EITCI Institute.
§4
The primary service of the European IT Certification Academy and the European IT Certification programmes is the certification service based on examinations with other supportive services provided at no additional charge. EITCI Institute defines European IT Certification programme curricula and references adequately selected high quality educational multimedia didactic materials to facilitate preparation of Certification programmes’ Participants, which are organized in a step-by-step manner to properly cover relevant Certification curricula. EITCI Institute as a non-profit EU organization aiming at international dissemination of high quality digital competencies and skills charges for access to its certification procedures, attesting that its Certification programmes’ Participants have attained corresponding knowledge and skills. The charged certification fees hence cover the costs of the certification procedures, including access to examinations (implemented in English with reference AI assisted automatic translations) and of all related infrastructures. EITCI Institute additionally implements a supportive consultancies to examination procedures in accordance with the certification frameworks, administratively running the EITCA Academy Secretary Office and administering the certification and remote examinations platforms and systems. The EITCA Academy Secretary Office is supervised directly by the EITCI Institute. All regional and national editions of the EITCA Academy and the European IT Certification programmes are also supervised by the EITCI Institute.
§5
1. The substantive supervision over the implementation of the EITCA Academy is exercised by the relevant EITCI Institute’s teams and committees (including members of the EITCI Institute, members of EITCI Institute’s committees, as well as expert personnel of partnering companies and universities) having custody over individual programmes’ areas.
2. External supervision over implementation quality of the EITCA Academy and its compliance with the EITC / EITCA Programmes is exercised by the EITCI Institute’s Programme Committee, which defines and approves curricula of the EITC / EITCA Certification programmes, as well as guidelines on corresponding examinations and development of curricula.
III. Certification process
§6
EITCA Academy as part of the European IT Certification programme is a skills certification service. It provides a detailed curriculum for each certification programme (including single EITC programmes and EITCA Academies grouping topically relevant EITC programmes) along with referencing didactic materials which are sufficient for the preparation to undertaking an examination in a corresponding curriculum. The curriculum relevant referenced didactic materials are supplied in a non-stationary methodology integrated with a remote didactic and examination process within a dedicated certification platform, in accordance with the guidelines of the EITC / EITCA Programme. All components of the certification process, including didactics and examinations are conducted fully online via the Internet.
§7
EITCA Academy allows for participation in both individual EITC Certification programmes (hereinafter referred to as EITC Programmes) as well as in EITCA Academies composed of topically grouped EITC Certification programmes. Each EITCA Academy certification programme consists of predefined topically relevant groups of EITC Programmes covering the scope of a particular EITCA Academy curriculum. Upon enrolment in the EITCA Academy, its constituent EITC Programmes need to be completed in an indicated order. Arbitrary access to any selected EITC Programmes to be completed in any order is also possible, however only with an individual enrolment for the relevant EITC Programmes.
§8
Detailed information and curricula, content scopes of EITC and EITCA Academy Programmes are published on the websites of the EITCI Institute and EITCA Academy and may be subject to alterations in order to reflect ongoing updates and improvements in the educational quality of certification and provide up-to-date adjustments, as well as changes of the EITC / EITCA Programmes’ guidelines introduced by the EITCI Institute as a result of development of Information Technologies and corresponding certification curricula scopes and contents.
§9
The supportive didactic process is complementing the main certification service and is carried out online on the basis of referenced didactic materials (including open-access) and the certification and e-learning platforms, as a remote asynchronous procedure personalized for each Participant, enabling enrollment at any time of the calendar year and a time-flexible scheduling of self-learning adapted to Participant’s requirements. The didactic process for corresponding EITC certification programmes’ curricula based on referenced materials is only an addition to the certification service which is provided by the EITCI Institute (supplemented with unlimited access to online consultancies with relevant experts) and as such can be omitted by the Participant, who attained qualifications to be certified accordingly with the relevant EITC curriculum from other educational resources.
§10
The complementary didactic process based on referenced materials (of textual and multimedia form) within each of the EITC certification programmes is carried out online in the scope defined by the corresponding programme’s curriculum.
§11
As part of the EITCA Academy didactic process, the Participant has access to online didactic consultations in the scope of the programme’s curriculum. The consultations are implemented remotely by relevant experts and educators.
§12
1. Completion of each of the EITC Programmes is conditioned by succesfully passing the final examination at the minimum level specified at 60% in accordance with the EITC Programme and the guidelines of the EITCI Institute. The final examination for each of the EITC Programmes has a form of a remotely taken multiple-choice test, carried out fully online in the certification platform.
2. Completion of the EITCA Academy Programme is conditioned by succesfully completing all of the EITC Programmes that constitute the relevant EITCA Academy.
§13
The scope of knowledge and competencies required to pass the final examination for each of the EITC Programmes corresponds to the substantive content of the corresponding curriculum and is defined by a relevant committee having a custody over a particular EITC Programme, in accordance with the EITCI Institute’s programme guidelines and in consultation with the Board of Directors of the EITCI Institute.
§14
1. In the event of failure in achieving a minimum passing threshold of a particular EITC Programme final examination, the Participant is allowed to retake the failed examination free of charge.
2. If the second attempt to pass a final examination also results in a failure, the Participant may undertake the subsequent attempts at the discretion of EITCI Institute. EITCI Institute reserves the right to charge the Participant for each additional approach to the examination (beyond the second attempt) in accordance with its current regulations, however it also may release the Participant from additional charges for excess examination approaches.
3. The Participants are also entitled to a corrective approach to the EITC Programme final examination if they are not satisfied with the obtained score, provided that the examination has already been passed in the first attempt. In such case, the higher of both results is taken into account.
§15
After successfully completing the EITC Programme or EITCA Academy (depending on the participation variant) and meeting the formal requirements of the EITC / EITCA Programme completion, the Participant obtains the following documents:
– EITC Certificate in case the Participant was enrolled in corresponding EITC Programme only, digitally issued by the EITCI Institute in Brussels (along with supplementary documentation).
– EITCA Certificate along with all included EITC Certificates in case the Participant was enrolled in EITCA Academy Programme, digitally issued by the EITCI Institute in Brussels (along with supplementary documentation).
Online validation and verification of the issued EITC / EITCA Certificates is referred to in §27.
IV. Enrolment and payment rules
§16
Registration for the EITCA Academy participation is carried out continuously. Due to the asynchronous and personalized nature of utilized certification platforms, enrolment for the Programmes can be done at any time of the calendar year.
§17
1. Enrolment for EITC / EITCA Academy Certification Programmes is carried out by performing an electronic check-out and registration in the EITCA Academy website and settling payment of the participation fee for the selected EITC or EITCA Academy Programmes.
2. The remaining Participant’s personal data including identification, address and billing data, required for the certification process need to be provided either at check-out or at a later stage of finalizing the enrolment (during regulation of fee payments).
3. During both the registration referred to in point 1, as well as enrolment finalization by Certification Programme ordering referred to in point 2, the Participant shall provide their true personal and billing data.
4. The Participant’s identity has to be verified for the remote online certification procedure to be implemented. The identity verification is based on Participant’s input personal data and securely uploaded scan of an identity document (either a national ID document or a passport) processed only to complete the identity verification accordingly with the Privacy Policy (available at https://eitca.org/privacy-policy/), in line with the provisions of the European General Data Protection Regulation, i.e. Regulation (EU) 2016/679 on the protection of individuals in view of processing of their personal private data, in order to enable online implementation of the European IT Certification process.
§18
The fees for participation in the EITC / EITCA Programmes are published within the EITCA Academy websites.
§19
1. The following fee payment methods are accepted:
a) On-line payment, through cooperating providers of on-line payment services (including credit / debit cards, e-wallets and other selected global and local electronic payment methods subject to current availability by provider and region).
b) Wire transfer to the bank account of EITCI Institute, as published on the EITCA Academy websites.
2. In the case referred to in point 1a), the payment can be settled directly after or with the registration through one of the available methods. Payments in this case are usually finalised within a few seconds from their commencement.
3. In the case referred to in point 1b), the payment is considered settled after the funds are received on the EITCI Institute’s bank account. For correct identification of the payment it is essential to provide both full name of the Participant and the code of the chosen EITC/EITCA Programmes in the transfer title, according to the sent instructions.
4. EITCI Institute reserves the right to make other payment methods available additionally to those referred to in point 1.
5. Information about all currently available payment methods are published on the EITCA Academy websites.
6. The detailed terms of use for payment methods provided by external suppliers are specified in respective terms and conditions provided by these suppliers. Links to those terms and conditions are to be found on the EITCA Academy website. Using these forms of payment constitutes acceptance of the terms and conditions mentioned above. EITCI Institute is not responsible for execution of the payment process by external suppliers.
§20
1. Settling the payment is equivalent to conclusion of an agreement in electronic form between the Participant and EITCI Institute for the provision of selected certification service/services (hereinafter referred to as the Participation Agreement) in accordance with the description of the services provided on the EITCA Academy websites and the provisions of this T&C, and implies obtaining of EITCA Academy Participant status.
2. In case that the payment is not settled by the Participant themselves, or the Participant is exempt from the participation fees, the Participation Agreement is concluded in electronic form at the moment when the Participant orders relevant Certification Programmes with fees waived.
3. Conclusion of the Participation Agreement may also occur in other way (including writing form), if such possibility is provided by EITCI Institute, or by agreement of the parties.
4. EITCI Institute according with its policy provides subsidies which are granted in full fees exemption within the EITC / EITCA Certification Programmes to disabled persons, pre-tertiary school youth and people of low socio-economic status in number of low developed countries (including, but not limited to South Sudan, Syria, Palestinian Territory, Haiti, Yemen, Gambia, Malawi, Burundi, Congo, Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Chad, Liberia, Niger, Mozambique). Additionally EITCI Institute may provide subsidies for either EITC or EITCA Academy Certifications granted in partial fees reductions. In the former case qualification for the subsidized fees exemptions is performed upon a declaration of the Participant status that may be followed by a verification of proving documentation by EITCI Institute. In the latter case the subsidized partial fees reductions are accessible by dissemination of EITCI subsidy codes entitling to relevant fees reduction at the EITC / EITCA Certification order checkout valid to qualified Participants worldwide. The qualification for the EITCI subsidized partial fees reductions is determined based on the billed entity. For an individual person (either a consumer or a person engaged in the economic activity), a private company or a non-governmental organization the qualification for the EITCI subsidy is met, which is not the case for governmental bodies and agencies, including the European Commission and other publicly funded entities. As the number of subsidized places is limited, they are granted in tranches with 24-48 hours validity reservation deadlines and are assigned to the web browsers’ sessions of the potential Participants automatically. The Participant is able to use the subsidy automatically upon checking out (relevant subsidy will be accounted for in the corresponding programme’s fee reduction). After session-reserved subsidized places are not used by the Participant, they return to the pool of available subsidized places and can be granted to other Participants, while the used subsidized places are not available anymore. Monthly limits imposed on the subsidized places depend on the EITCI Institute’s funding capacity. In case of the EITCA Academy programmes subsidized via the complementarity criteria in the digital skills gap bridging goal, the EITCI support concerns only full EITCA Academy programmes participation, hence with no subsidies available for individually chosen single EITC programmes. This introduces EITCA Academy participation requirement in undertaking individual EITCA Academy constituent EITC programmes in an indicated order, so that the participation ensures the complementarity criteria of skills attested in a relevant digital specialization. Provision of the subsidies by EITCI Institute granted in the corresponding certification programmes fees reduction is solely at the discretion of EITCI Institute and is limited by its operational and funding capacity. EITCI Institute reserves the right to limit or suspend its subsidized certification programmes implementation at any time.
§21
1. Full access to the EITCA Academies / EITC Programmes on the certification platform is activated after the payment is settled (after the electronically signing the Participation Agreement).
2. First event of logging in by the Participant to the ordered EITCA Academy / EITC Programme on the certification platform is considered a commencement of the actual provision of the service.
§22
If the orderer and the Participant are different parties, or the orderer is a company or an institution, adequate orderer data for the invoice should be provided in the invoicing information section of the order finalization form.
V. Rights and obligations of the Participant and the rules of participation
§23
The Participant is entitled to:
1. Access the EITC/EITCA Certification Programmes he/she enrols in on the certification platforms of EITCA Academy.
2. Access the relevant certification curriculum described in the programme and participate in the final examinations.
3. Use the third-parties provided computer software designated for the optional exercises (laboratories) and hands-ons, in the scopes defined by relevant curriculums. All EITC Certification Programmes are so defined in their curriculums as to assure that there is an access to the external software enabling optional practice related to the certification programme. This access involves either paid by the Participant or free, but time-limited trial-versions of commercial software or time-unlimited free open-source software. The usage of the external software is not necessary to complete any of the relevant EITC Certification Programmes. All of the EITCA Academy substituent EITC Certification Programmes are meant to be completed entirely based on the scope of the knowledge defined in the relevant curriculum and referenced in the didactic materials. The role of the external software is just in optional development of the Participant’s practice that can be attained upon usage of the paid commercial versions or the time-limited trial versions of the corresponding software or in relevant cases also by using the free open-source software. The Participant may choose to additionally develop own practice using the relevant external software with the corresponding EITC Certification Programme’s exercises (laboratories) referencing programme hours possible to accommodate during usage of either paid commercial or time-limited trial versions of the software or in relevant cases of the free open-source software, however this extends beyond the implemented certification procedure.
4. Use online consultations regarding the curriculum of the enrolled courses provided by the expert and didactic teams having custody over the relevant Programmes.
5. Receive the documents referred to in §15 after successful completion of the enrolled EITC / EITCA Certification Programmes and fulfilment of formal conditions stated in this T&C.
6. Participate in special initiatives of cofunding and subsidies, promotions and contests intended for the Participants of EITC Certifications and EITCA Academy Programmes Participants.
§24
The Participant is obliged to:
1. Solve the remote examinations for all enrolled Certification Programmes by themselves, subject to penalties referred to in §31.
2. Comply with other provisions of this T&C.
§25
1. The Participant consents to processing of their personal data by EITCI Institute, i.e. the Certification Authority / Certyfying Body (the European Information Technologies Certification Institute EITCI ASBL registered in Brussels, Belgium) for the purposes of service provision, as well as sharing these data with partners involved in implementation of the EITCA Academy, within the scope necessary for implementation of the EITCA Academy organization, education and certification processes.
2. The personal data referred to in point 1 is protected and processed in compliance with high safety standards and in accordance with applicable laws and regulations, in particular with the General Data Protection Regulation, i.e. Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and corresponding legal acts of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of individuals with regard to processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data. All Participants and all other individuals whose personal data is processed by EITCI Institute have rights to demand modification of their data according to the factual their form as well as deleting of their data and ceasing in processing it. In the latter case for the EITCI issued Certification holders a demand of deleting of personal data will have a consequence of cancelling of the issued Certifications.
3. The detailed information regarding processing of personal data and privacy issues within the EITCI Institute’s websites is to be found in the privacy policies published within the respective websites. In particular the EITCA Academy Privacy Policy is available at https://eitca.org/privacy-policy/.
§26
1. The Participant acknowledges that all didactic materials made available to them as part of participation in the EITCA Academy, including referenced open-access didactic materials are exclusively an intellectual property of EITCI Institute or other relevant entities, and are subject to legal protection in accordance with applicable regulations (including the Intellectual Property legal acts and the Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society). The Participant is entitled to using the materials made available to him and their content (including in particular didactic materials, computer software and examinations content) exclusively solely for the purpose of self-study, and in case of not open-access materials shall not make them available to third parties without the explicit consent of the EITCI Institute or the respective copyrights holders.
2. In an event of violation of the provisions referred to in point 1, EITCI Institute or the respective copyright holders may claim compensation from the Participant for any material or non-material damages caused by this violation. This in particular addresses contents of the European IT Certification examinations.
§27
1. Initiation of the Certification procedure and obtaining the Certificate(s) referred to in §15, point 2, is conditioned by filing a consent to the Certification Terms and Conditions of the EITCI Institute (hereinafter referred to as the Certification Agreement). The Certification Agreement terms and conditions are available at https://eitci.org/eitci-certification-agreement and issuing any of EITC / EITCA programme(s) certificates requires acceptance of the Certification Agreement terms and conditions.
2. The Certification Agreement is to be signed by the Participant electronically or in writing in which case a scan copy is to be sent via email to the EITCA Academy Secretary Office. In the case EITCI Institute is unable to verify the Participant’s identity on the basis of provided fee payment, EITCI Institute may require a copy of the Participant’s identity document (national ID, passport or other identity document as specified in the Certification Agreement) to allow verification of the Participant’s identity and authenticity of the data provided in the Certification Agreement.
3. Sending of the documents referred to in point 2 should take place immediately after receiving request from EITCI Institute for the Participant’s identity verification. EITCI Institute reserves the right to not issue its Certifications or cancel any its Certifications already issued referred to in §15 in the cases of not being able to verify the identity of the Participant or finding that the Participant’s presented identity is counterfactual. In such case, the Participant is not entitled for any refund of all or part of the participation fees.
4. In an event when all required examinations have been passed by the Participant, however they failed to deliver the documents referred to in point 2 before 30 days from the end of the regulated maximum period of participation completion referred to in §28, and if no settlement can be made with the Participant concerning the date of delivery of these documents, EITCI Institute reserves the right to consider its obligations under the Participation Agreement as completed, while waiving an obligation to issue the Certificate referred to in §15, point 2. In such case, the Participant is not entitled for any refund of all or part of the participation fees.
§28
1. Regulated maximum completion period (maximum duration of the participation) is 12 months for full EITCA Academy and 3 months for each individual EITC Programme (for non-Academy participation), counted from the moment of conclusion of the Participation Agreement and until the successful passing of all required examinations.
2. At a reasoned request of the Participant, the duration indicated in point 1 may be extended in consultation with the EITCI Institute. EITCI Institute in its sole discretion can prelong the specified above terms indefinitely by its independent decision.
3. If the duration specified in point 1 is exceeded by the Participant and no consensus on the extension of this duration can be agreed, EITCI Institute reserves the right to terminate the Participation Agreement. In such case, the Participant is not entitled for any refund of all or part of the participation fees.
§29
1. By extending the provisions of consumer protection regulations (implementing the Directive 2011/83/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on Consumer Rights), the Participant who is a consumer (not applicable to companies/institutions as well as individuals engaged in economic activities that have made the order under these activities) is entitled to cancel a remotely concluded Participation Agreement without providing any reason within 30 days from conclusion of the Participation Agreement, receiving a full refund. Cancellation should have a form of a written statement (with reference to the respective legal basis), emailed as a copy to the EITCA Academy Secretary Office or to the EITCI Institute.
2. The cancellation right is waived if the Participant undertakes any examination as specified in §4, §5, §6, §12, §13, §14 and §23 (independently from the examination result, including either its failing or passing) before the end of 30 days period referred to in point 1.
3. Detailed information regarding EITCA Academy Refund Policy specifying consumer cancellation rights extending the European Consumer Rights Directive (Directive 2011/83/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on Consumer Rights) is available at https://eitca.org/refund-policy/.
VI. Final Provisions
§30
EITCI Institute cannot be held responsible for any difficulties in the implementation of the EITC Certification and EITCA Academy Programmes due to any reasons beyond the control of EITCI Institute (including factors resulting from the Participant and third parties actions or the force majeure).
§31
1. In exceptional cases, in the event of serious breach of the provisions of this T&C by the Participant, in particular when it is found that the Participant was not solving final examination by herself / himself, or in the event of neglecting the provisions of these T&C by the Participant resulting in inability to fulfil the EITCI Institute’s obligations under Participation Agreement, EITCI Institute reserves the right to cancel the Participation Agreement with immediate termination of the service. In such case, the Participant is not entitled for any refund of all or part of the participation fees.
2. In addition, when it is found that the Participant was not solving final examination(s) by herself / himself, this fact is considered by the Certification Authority / Certifying Body, which may decide to permanently exclude the Participant from the possibility to participate in any of its accredited Certification Programmes in the future as well as to cancel any Certificates previously issued to the Participant. In such case, the Participant is also not entitled for any refund of all or part of the participation fees.
§32
The Participation Agreement is considered to be accomplished after issuing the documents referred to in §15 to the Participant, or after termination of the Participation Agreement subject to provisions of this T&C or by mutual consent of the parties. The Participant is however required to adhere to all the obligations of these T&C and the Certification Agreement while holding his EITCI Institute issued Certification as valid.
§33
1. These T&C as well as any issues not covered by these T&C regarding provision of services by EITCI Institute are governed by Belgium law and shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Belgian courts.
2. The parties shall endeavour to amicably settle any disputes regarding the participation in the EITCA Academy and the compliance with the provisions of this T&C, through mutual agreement. In the absence of an amicable settlement the territorial jurisdiction of the judicial authorities appropriate for the headquarters of the EITCI Institute shall be assumed.
§34
These T&C are effective starting from the 1st July 2014 and may be subject to updates and amendments, particularly in order to improve the quality of provided services.