Training Agreement.
1. Parties and Definitions
1.1 This Training Agreement ("Agreement") is between you ("you", "the Participant") and Human Tools (Pty) Ltd ("Human Tools", "we", "us", "our"). It governs your application for and participation in the Human Tools Experience ("the Programme"), and your use of the website humantools.co.za ("the Website").
1.2 "The Programme" means the full Human Tools Experience as described in clause 5, including the live training, the integration period, and the HT Forum. "Instruments" means the four validated measures described in clause 7. "Payment Schedule" means the written schedule of fees, currency, deposit, and instalments confirmed to you when your place is offered, which forms part of this Agreement.
2. Nature of the Programme
2.1 The Human Tools Experience is a five-day cognitive skills programme that helps you identify the thinking errors, cognitive biases, and habitual reactions controlling your decisions, relationships, and daily behaviour, and replace them with the most important skills you can learn: how to think, make decisions, and solve problems deliberately.
2.2 It is psychoeducation, not treatment. The Programme is education. It is not therapy, counselling, psychotherapy, psychiatric or psychological treatment, diagnosis, medical care, or clinical intervention of any kind.
2.3 No practitioner and patient relationship. Your participation does not create any therapist and client, doctor and patient, healthcare, counselling, or fiduciary relationship between you and Human Tools or any facilitator. Facilitators are educators. They are not, and do not act as, your treating practitioners.
2.4 Not a substitute for mental health care. The Programme is not a substitute for, and must not be used in place of, professional mental health care, medical advice, medication, diagnosis, or treatment. Nothing said or provided in the Programme is medical or psychological advice about your individual circumstances. If you require support for a mental health condition, or you are in distress, you should seek help from a suitably qualified professional or an appropriate support service.
3. Health, Medication and Fitness to Participate
3.1 You confirm that you are 18 years of age or older.
3.2 You must disclose to us, before attending, any diagnosed psychiatric or psychological condition (including but not limited to psychosis, bipolar disorder, or active suicidality). We may, at our sole discretion, defer or decline your participation on health grounds, or ask for confirmation from your treating professional.
3.3 Medication. If you are taking any prescribed psychiatric or psychological medication, you may attend only after you have obtained the agreement of your prescribing or treating practitioner. By attending, you confirm that you have obtained that agreement. You remain solely responsible for continuing your own treatment and medication. The Programme does not alter, pause, adjust, or replace any treatment or medication, and nothing in it should be understood as advice to do so.
3.4 You participate voluntarily and accept the risks of participation, including that discussing personal material in a group setting may be emotionally demanding.
4. Application, Acceptance and Our Right to Decline
4.1 Submitting an application does not guarantee a place. All places are offered at our sole discretion and are confirmed to you in writing.
4.2 We reserve the right to decline or revoke any application, at any time, without giving a reason.
4.3 Credit and affordability checks. As a condition of offering or maintaining a place, particularly where you select a payment plan, we may carry out identity, affordability, and credit checks, including obtaining a report from a registered credit bureau. By applying and selecting a payment plan, you consent to these checks and to the processing of your personal information for this purpose.
5. Programme Structure
5.1 The Programme is delivered in three phases, totalling approximately 190 hours over approximately twelve months:
- Phase one, the live training. Five consecutive days of in-person training, approximately 50 hours in total. Daily sessions run for approximately ten hours.
- Phase two, integration. A structured 115-day integration period following the live training.
- Phase three, the HT Forum. Continued peer support and guidance through the HT Forum for the remainder of the twelve-month period.
5.2 How we work, and what we ask in return. We deliver the entire body of training to you upfront, in the live course. We then help you integrate it. We then help you keep it. Most training providers charge you and leave. We do not. In return, you agree to commit, to try, to show up, and to engage with the integration process in good faith. Both parties agree to act in good faith and mutual trust, in the best interests of your outcome.
5.3 Integration channels. You agree to receive and take part in the integration process through the channels we use, which include email and WhatsApp group or groups, and you consent to being contacted through them for this purpose.
5.4 Meals. One meal per day is provided during the five live training days.
5.5 The venue, dates, and facilitators are confirmed in writing. We may change the venue, dates, or facilitators for operational reasons and will give you reasonable notice.
6. Fees and Payment Options
6.1 When your place is offered, you choose one of two payment options:
- Pay in 6 (six payments in total): a total of US$2,299, payable as a US$499 refundable deposit, a further US$499 on the final day of training, and four monthly instalments of US$325.25.
- Pay in 12 (twelve payments in total): a total of US$2,698, payable as a US$499 refundable deposit, a further US$499 on the final day of training, and ten monthly instalments of US$170.
6.2 Commitment. Whichever option you choose, you are committing to the full six-month or twelve-month payment schedule for that option. That commitment is subject only to the pay-on-results guarantee in clause 8, and to the statutory cooling-off in clause 9.
6.3 No interest. No interest, and no finance or credit charge, is added to either option. The payment plan simply spreads the same Programme fee over time.
6.4 Currency and local pricing. Fees may be offered in US Dollars, South African Rand, or UAE Dirham. The exact amount, currency, deposit, and full instalment schedule for your chosen option are set out in the Payment Schedule confirmed to you in writing when your place is offered. That Payment Schedule forms part of this Agreement and prevails over the indicative figures above where they differ.
6.5 Mandate and funds. You authorise the agreed instalments by signing a debit order or card mandate. You are responsible for ensuring that sufficient funds are available on each due date.
6.6 Deposit. The deposit is payable on acceptance and secures your seat on the cohort.
7. How Payment Works: Pay-on-Results
7.1 The Programme is offered on a pay-on-results basis. Your results are measured before the Programme begins and again on the final day, using four validated instruments: the SPSI-R:S Negative Problem Orientation (NPO) subscale, the PHQ-9, the GAD-7, and the Cognitive Distortions Questionnaire (CD-Quest). Your before and after results are presented to you on the final day.
7.2 An improvement on any one of the four Instruments constitutes a result. Where you achieve a result, the balance of the fee for your chosen option becomes payable: the Day 5 payment is taken and your mandate proceeds on the agreed schedule.
7.3 Where you meet the conditions in clause 8 and achieve no improvement on any of the four Instruments, no further payment is taken and your deposit is refunded in full.
8. The Pay-on-Results Guarantee, and the Only Route to Cancel
8.1 The guarantee. If you meet every condition in clause 8.3 and your score does not improve on any of the four Instruments, your deposit is refunded in full, no further payment is due, and no questions are asked. If you come, attend, and do the work, and it does not work for you, you are refunded.
8.2 Cancellation is limited to the guarantee. Other than the statutory cooling-off in clause 9, the pay-on-results guarantee is the only basis on which you may cancel and stop paying: that is, that it did not work for you, measured objectively by your before-and-after results. Once the Programme has begun, there is no other right of cancellation.
8.3 Conditions of the guarantee. The guarantee applies only if you:
- (a) attend every one of the five live days, in full;
- (b) are not absent for any day or session, and are not more than thirty (30) minutes late for any session;
- (c) complete the full workbook and all set exercises; and
- (d) participate in good faith.
8.4 Waiver of the guarantee. If you miss any day or session, or arrive more than thirty (30) minutes late to any session, you waive and forfeit the pay-on-results guarantee and any right to a refund of your deposit. In that event the full fee for your chosen option remains due and payable in accordance with your Payment Schedule.
8.5 Irrevocable obligation once a result is achieved. Once you have achieved a result (an improvement on any one of the four Instruments), your obligation to pay the full fee for your chosen option is irrevocable and unconditional. You agree to fulfil that obligation in full, regardless of any later change in your circumstances, your results, your engagement, or your views.
9. Statutory Cooling-Off
9.1 Where you apply through the Website (an electronic transaction), you may have a 7-day cooling-off right under section 44 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002, during which you may cancel for any reason and receive a refund of any amount already paid, subject to the terms of that Act. Nothing in this Agreement removes a statutory right that cannot lawfully be excluded.
9.2 Once the cooling-off period has lapsed, or once the live training has begun (whichever is earlier), clause 8 governs cancellation.
10. Missed Payments, Acceleration and Debt Collection
10.1 Each instalment is due on the date set out in your Payment Schedule.
10.2 Acceleration. If a payment is missed, declined, or reversed, and is not resolved and paid in full within ten (10) working days of its due date, the entire outstanding balance of the fee becomes immediately due and payable.
10.3 Debt collection. You agree that we may hand any outstanding amount to a debt collector or attorney for recovery, and that you will be liable for the amount owed together with any reasonable collection costs, legal costs, and interest permitted by law.
10.4 Credit reporting. You acknowledge that non-payment may be reported to a registered credit bureau and may affect your credit record.
11. Participant Responsibilities and Good Faith
11.1 You agree to attend in full, to participate in the exercises and group activities, and to engage with the integration process.
11.2 You agree to treat other participants, facilitators, and staff with respect, and to follow reasonable instructions given for the safe and effective running of the Programme.
11.3 We may remove any participant whose conduct is disruptive, abusive, unlawful, or a risk to others, without refund.
12. Confidentiality
12.1 The Programme involves participants sharing personal experiences in the room.
12.2 You agree to full confidentiality. You agree to keep strictly confidential everything shared by any other participant or facilitator, both during and after the Programme, and not to record, repeat, publish, or disclose it to anyone.
12.3 We keep your personal information confidential and process it in accordance with our Privacy Policy and the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA).
13. Intellectual Property
13.1 All Programme materials (workbooks, slides, exercises, frameworks, recordings, and methods) and all Website content are the intellectual property of Human Tools and are protected by copyright.
13.2 You are granted a personal, non-transferable licence to use the materials for your own development only. You may not reproduce, distribute, publish, resell, create derivative works from, or make any commercial use of any materials, and you may not record any session, without our written consent.
14. Assumption of Risk, Disclaimer and Limitation of Liability
14.1 You participate voluntarily and at your own risk. We do not guarantee any specific individual outcome beyond the measured guarantee mechanism in clauses 7 and 8.
14.2 The Programme, the integration process, the HT Forum, and the Website are provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. To the maximum extent permitted by law, we exclude all warranties, representations, and terms not expressly set out in this Agreement.
14.3 To the maximum extent permitted by law, we assume no liability for any loss, damage, injury, or harm of any kind (whether psychological, emotional, physical, financial, direct, indirect, incidental, special, or consequential) arising from or connected to the Programme, the integration process, the HT Forum, the Website, your interactions with other participants, or your reliance on anything provided.
14.4 Liability cap. To the maximum extent permitted by law, including the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008, our total aggregate liability to you for any and all claims arising from or related to the Programme or the Website shall not exceed the total amount you have actually paid to us.
14.5 We are not responsible for the conduct, statements, or acts of other participants, including within any WhatsApp group or the HT Forum.
14.6 Nothing in this Agreement excludes or limits any liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.
15. Indemnity
You indemnify and hold harmless Human Tools, its directors, facilitators, and staff against any claim, loss, cost, or expense arising from your breach of this Agreement, your conduct during the Programme, the disclosures you choose to make, or your reliance on anything provided, except to the extent that this cannot lawfully be excluded.
16. Data Protection
16.1 You consent to us collecting and processing your personal information for the purposes of delivering the Programme, administering payment, carrying out the credit and affordability checks described in clause 4.3, and measuring your results.
16.2 We process personal information in accordance with POPIA and our Privacy Policy.
17. Website Use
17.1 You may use the Website for personal, non-commercial purposes only.
17.2 You may not use automated tools (scrapers or bots) to access or extract content from the Website.
17.3 We reserve the right to modify, suspend, or discontinue any part of the Website at any time without notice.
18. Force Majeure
We are not liable for any failure or delay caused by events beyond our reasonable control, including illness, natural events, disruption to venues or travel, or acts of authority. In such cases we may reschedule affected dates and will give you reasonable notice.
19. General
19.1 Variation. We may update this Agreement from time to time. The updated version is posted on this page with a revised "Last updated" date. The version in force when your place is confirmed, together with your Payment Schedule, governs your participation.
19.2 Cession. We may cede or assign our rights under this Agreement, including the right to collect amounts owed, to a third party such as a debt collector.
19.3 Severability. If any clause is found to be unenforceable, the remaining clauses continue in full force.
19.4 No waiver. Any indulgence we grant does not waive our rights.
19.5 Whole agreement. This Agreement, together with your Payment Schedule, the Disclaimer, the Refund Policy, and the Privacy Policy, is the whole agreement between us regarding the Programme.
20. Governing Law and Jurisdiction
This Agreement is governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa. Any dispute is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of KwaZulu-Natal.
21. Contact
For any questions about this Agreement, contact us at info@humantools.co.za.