Course Delivery

Additional Course Information

The course is delivered in a set order, as often the units complement each other and it will aid your learning. 

The order we deliver the units in is:
Enrolling in: December, January, February, March, June, July, August, September
  • Medical Principles
  • Medical Terminology
  • Managing Communications
  • Medical Administration
Enrolling in: April, May, October, November
  • Medical Terminology
  • Managing Communications
  • Medical Administration
  • Medical Principles (This will
  • be delivered at a point
  • optimal to the bi-annual
  • access date access)
If for whatever reason you do not wish to study your course in this order please discuss your reasons for this with your mentor.

What to expect from your mentor

Your mentor is there to help, support and mark your work throughout your course. They work at slightly different time frames throughout the week as they are all qualified trainers and train / work during office hours alongside mentoring so are not always in front of their computer to give you instant feedback.

As a guide
Response to query - Your mentor will respond to any query relating to the course, questions or material within 48 hours
Marking of unit work - During non-exam season your assignments will be marked and returned with full feedback within 5 working days
During 4 weeks prior to exam seasons which are:
  • February
  • June
  • November

All work will be marked and returned within 10 working days. Please be aware these are the longest time frames you can expect work back, quite often you will get responses to your queries and marked work returned a lot quicker.

Please note that if your mentor is on annual leave there will be an additional delay but you will always be informed of this prior to your Mentor going away. If a mentor is away for longer than a two-week period you will be assigned a temporary mentor for the interim period.

Contacting Your Mentor

You have enrolled on a distance learning course which means your mentor is virtual. All contact is via email with your mentor. This is for two main reasons:
  • You can check back on answers to questions to aid with exams, revision and assignments.
  • Students study at variable times, from early morning to late into the night dependent on where their spare study time falls. 
To give students continuity it is better to have the same mentor throughout a unit and as you will appreciate this mentor cannot work 24/7. Having
all communications via email means that queries can be sent through when a student is studying and can be responded to when their assigned mentor is completing their mentor work.

Exams and Timed Assignments
We will only enter you in for an exam when you have reached mock stage of the unit, unless alternative arrangements have been previously agreed with your mentor and the office.
In order to be booked in for an exam you will;
  • Firstly, be placed forward, to the exam coordinator by your mentor.
  • Secondly, you will be contacted by the office to confirm the date, time and location of the upcoming exam and you will be asked to confirm by email that you wish to be booked in for the exam. If we do not receive response you will not be entered. You will only be contacted twice and then we will remove you from the exam list onto the next exam date.
  • Thirdly, when we have received confirmation from you we will book you in. If we do not get a response we will inform your mentor and you will be moved onto the next list.
  • Finally, for exams only, we will send you, your exam confirmation letter the week prior to the exam.
Resit Fees
If you change your mind or cannot attend the exam (once you have been booked in) there is a re-sit fee payable
Resit fee charges:
£30 if you have failed the exam
£30 if cancelled no later than 14 working prior days to the exam / timed assignment date
£45 if cancelled within 13 days of the exam / timed assignment date.
If you cannot attend due to medical reasons we will require a medical letter to send to City and Guilds to remove the re-sit fee. Without this letter, the re-sit fee remains.
Resit fees are payable 7-days from the day of cancellation. If the fee is not received your course will be placed on hold. All fees as standard are payable via electronic invoice. If you wish to pay via cheque or bank payment please inform the office.
Exams only -
Due to the cut off period from City and Guilds being 6 weeks prior to the exam, at times we will require confirmation of your attendance within a tight time scale, so we do ask that you respond to emails regarding your exams promptly to avoid missing the deadline for entry for the exam.

If you are expecting to be entered for an exam and have not received an email within 7 weeks of the exam date please contact training@bsmsa.org.uk to ensure you are due to be booked in.

If you are not going to have email access during exam booking season please ensure you have informed the office early of whether, you wish to be entered in for the exam.

We do not accept responsibility of non-entry for exams if we have not received a response to our emails.

Course Duration
This is a 12-month course; however, we do give students 18 months to complete the course within.
If you have not completed the course within 18 months of enrolment there is a fee of £75 payable to extend this for one year. After this an additional £75 is required for each year extension.

Your registration with City and Guilds lasts for three years. If you are required to extend the learning past the three years there will be a re-registration fee payable of £170 for this. This will re-register you with City and Guilds for three further years. This is separate to the £75 extension fee.

Cancellation of Course
We appreciate that life throws challenges in the way and on occasion a student may not be able to continue with their studies. Unfortunately, we cannot ever cancel the course and give a full refund.
However, we will partially refund any student not wishing to complete the full course within 12 months of the enrolling. Following 12 months of enrolment regardless of what units you have completed, no refund will be given.
Unit refunds are done on a set fee basis. These are:
  • Medical Terminology  - £170.00
  • Medical Principles  - £110.00
  • Medical Administration - £75.00
  • Managing Communications  - £75.00
Registration with City and Guilds lasts for 3 years in total. If the student cancels their course they can at any point restart it again if there is sufficient time remaining in their registration period to complete the course. Any monies refunded will be due for repayment if the student wishes to restart the course, with an additional administration fee of £75.00.
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