UK provider comparison
Cyber security courses that claim to come with a job guarantee in the UK
Your course and career advisor stays with you from enrolment to placement.
What the adverts promise, and what the contracts actually pay
Updated 4 August 2026 · Every term below quoted from the provider's own published terms and conditions, linked under each entry
Short answer: several UK providers advertise cyber security courses with a job guarantee, including IT Career Switch, Newto Training, ITonlinelearning, Fortray and ourselves. Prices run from roughly £1,899 to £3,500.
The thing to know before you compare them: where a provider advertises a full refund, its published terms very often pay out less than that. We read all five sets of terms in August 2026. Three of them deduct official exam costs from the refund. One also deducts third party lab costs. One pays any refund out in instalments of up to £500 a month rather than as a lump sum. Almost all of them require you to pass every certification exam at the first attempt.
None of this is hidden. It is all in the terms and conditions, published, free to read. It is simply not in the advert. So below we have put the advert next to the contract for each provider, flagged where the two do not line up, and linked the source so you can check every word of it yourself.
Provider by provider
Terms read on 4 August 2026. Providers revise their terms, so treat this as a starting point and read the current version before you enrol.
What the marketing says
Placed into an IT role within 12 weeks of completing the traineeship, within 20 miles of home, average starting salary around £30,000. If not, they will "refund all your course fees within 10 working days, no hassle, no questions."
What clause 9 of the terms says
- The refund is all monies paid excluding official exam costs
- You must pass all included certification exams on the first attempt
- All training, exams and assessments completed within the stipulated timeframe
- No missed payments on a payment plan
- You must not have failed to attend an interview within 20 miles without valid reason
- You must hold the right to work in the UK indefinitely, with no visa renewal needed
- Accepting any offer outside their terms on salary, location, industry, part time or temporary voids the guarantee
- An unpaid extension voids it too
Be aware
The advert says all your course fees, with no hassle and no questions. The contract deducts official exam costs and attaches eight qualifying conditions. On a package containing four certifications, exam vouchers can account for several hundred pounds of what you paid, so the two figures are not the same number.
Separately, clause 11.4 states that if you cannot pass an exam or assessment, they are not obliged to provide any further part of the service, while clause 8.2 makes you liable for the full fee once you have logged in.
What the marketing says
A guaranteed job on completion, or "we will refund 100% of your course fees." Four certifications, 100+ hours of live training, one free exam resit.
What clause 12 of the terms says
- The refund is 100% of course fees less examination fees and third party lab costs
- The job search window is six months from the date your CV is finalised, not from completion
- You must complete within the original 12 month enrolment period
- Any extension, renewal, deferral or pause voids the refund, whether it was paid for, discounted, complimentary or given at their discretion
- You must submit a completed job tracker every week throughout the career support period
- Projects must be submitted within 14 days of assignment
- CV rebuild must be completed within six weeks of finishing the course
- A Professional Conduct Notice can withdraw your eligibility for the guarantee
Be aware
The advert says 100% of your course fees. The contract says 100% less examination fees and third party lab costs. On a £2,795 programme carrying four certifications plus lab access, those deductions are substantial.
The extension clause deserves particular attention. If you fall behind and the provider offers you extra time, including free extra time, accepting it removes your refund entitlement entirely under clause 12. Ask before you accept any extension, in writing.
What the marketing says
"Land a job within 16 weeks of graduation or receive a full refund." Also states that over 98% of eligible graduates secure employment in their chosen field.
What the terms say
- The refund is paid up to £500 per month until training fees are repaid, not as a lump sum
- Payable other than official exam costs, VAT and third party charges
- Repayments stop as soon as you gain an IT job in their stated salary band
- The job search period is four months following completion of all programme work
- You must request the refund in writing within 30 days of that period lapsing, or the claim is void
- You must live in one of their listed metropolitan areas and be willing to relocate
- Accepting an offer below their salary guarantee voids the money back guarantee
- Accepting a refund means losing access to all course materials and the alumni community
Be aware
This is the largest gap between advert and contract in our comparison. The advert says a full refund. The terms describe a repayment stream of up to £500 a month that stops the moment you get a job, minus exam costs, VAT and third party charges. On a £3,000 programme that is a very different financial product from a refund, and a student who does eventually find work may receive only a fraction of what they paid.
Note also the 30 day written notice requirement. Miss that window and the entitlement lapses regardless of everything else.
What the marketing says
Career programmes with a job guarantee included, a dedicated Recruitment Advisor, career consultation, study coaching, tutor support and CV support.
What the terms say
- Some programmes include a Job Guarantee or Money Back Guarantee, conditional on a separate Terms of Learning document provided upon enrolment
- Complete 100% of course content, modules, exams and assessments within specified timeframes
- Pass all included certification exams at first attempt
- Maintain regular contact with your Recruitment Advisor, submit weekly updates and attend scheduled calls
- Actively engage in job seeking, apply to suitable roles and take part in interview preparation
- Exam vouchers carry expiry dates and late booking may forfeit the voucher with no refund
Be aware
The refund terms themselves sit in a Terms of Learning document that their published terms say is provided upon enrolment. That means the detail of what the guarantee actually pays is not available to read before you commit. Ask for that document in writing before you pay, and do not enrol until you have read it.
The longest established provider here, with by far the largest review base, so this is a documentation point rather than a criticism of the training.
Trustpilot scores and review counts recorded 4 August 2026. Prices shown only where the provider publishes one. Optima Training Academy is a further UK provider in this space, but we found no published job guarantee refund terms to compare, so we have left them out rather than guess at one. We have kept ourselves out of the comparison above deliberately, because a provider marking its own homework is not a comparison. Our own position is set out separately below.
What these roles actually pay
Cyber security adverts quote the top of the market more aggressively than any other pathway, because the top of this market genuinely is high. These are the published UK figures with the source and date for each, so you can check them and see how current they are.
| Role | UK figure | Lower end | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roles citing cyber security skills | £60,000 median | Bottom 10% around £30,000, most roles £40,000 to £79,000 | ITJobsWatch, permanent vacancies, six months to 6 July 2026 |
| Cyber Security Analyst | Around £41,500 | The common entry point into security | UK IT salary analysis citing published vacancy data, June 2026 |
| IT Support Technician | £28,500 median | Entry level roles typically £25,000 to £28,000 | ITJobsWatch, permanent vacancies, six months to 10 July 2026 |
| Network Engineer | £42,750 to £55,000 | 10th percentile £31,875 | ITJobsWatch and UK salary surveys, 2026 |
Read these numbers carefully
The £60,000 median is the figure most often misused in this market. It covers every role citing cyber security skills, most of which are filled by experienced professionals. It is not what a career changer earns in a first role.
Around £30,000 is the realistic starting point. That is the bottom 10 per cent of the market and it is where people entering the field actually begin, usually as an analyst or in a SOC.
Most people reach cyber security through IT support first. We have included the IT support and network engineer figures deliberately, because that is the genuine route for the majority and it is worth seeing the whole ladder rather than only the top rung.
London distorts everything. London base salaries run well above the national figure for the same role. Outside the South East, work from the lower column.
Certification improves your chances of being considered for a role. It does not on its own set your pay. Your prior experience, location, sector and employer all matter more.
The pattern, said once and plainly
Read those four side by side and the same shape appears in every one. The advert states a simple outcome. The contract attaches deductions and conditions that, taken together, mean a meaningful proportion of students will not qualify, and those who do qualify receive less than the advertised amount.
The condition that removes the most people is passing every certification exam at the first attempt. Real world first time pass rates are nowhere near 100 per cent, which is precisely why providers sell resits. If a resit is available to buy, a first attempt condition is doing real work in that contract.
We are not alleging bad faith by any provider named here. Conditions exist for good reasons, and a guarantee with none would be exploited within a month. Every term quoted above is published openly by the provider concerned and linked so you can read it in full. Our point is narrower than an accusation: those conditions belong in the advert alongside the promise, not only in a document most people open for the first time during a dispute.
This is where the neutral comparison ends
Where Course2Career stands, and why we do it this way
Everything above is about other providers. This section is us talking about ourselves, so treat it with the scepticism you would apply to any company's own marketing. We have deliberately kept Course2Career out of the comparison table, because a provider grading itself alongside its competitors is not a comparison, it is an advert with a table around it. Judge what follows against those four entries yourself.
What you can verify about us in the next five minutes
Our terms are published, free, and complete. Every condition attached to our job guarantee sits in clause 12 of our terms and conditions, on our public website, readable before you speak to anyone. There is no separate document that only arrives once you have paid, and nothing is held back until enrolment. A condition you cannot read before you buy is not a condition you agreed to in any meaningful sense, so we do not have any.
Check us rather than trust us
We built a page whose only job is to let you fact check this one
Claiming to be transparent is easy and everybody does it. So we put everything that could be checked in one place, with the reference numbers and the links to the public registers, and left nothing on it that we could not evidence.
- Our company number, FCA reference and ICO registration, each linked to the register you can search yourself
- Which body awards every certification on our programmes, and why none of them are awarded by us
- Realistic UK salary figures with the source and the date they were pulled, showing the entry level number next to the median
- The full price of every programme, and the costs most providers bury: the 12 month expiry, the missed instalment fee, the exam reschedule charge, and the point at which your right to cancel ends
- Our job guarantee written out condition by condition, straight from clause 12, including what it is not
If you find anything on it you cannot verify, tell us and we will remove it.
Why we think this is the better trade
Transparency is not a moral posture here. It is a commercial choice, and we think it is the right one for reasons that have nothing to do with virtue.
- A promise you cannot honour is a liability, not a marketing asset An advert that says one thing and a contract that says another does not make the problem go away, it defers it to the moment a student asks for their money. That moment arrives with a chargeback, a complaint, a one star review, and sometimes a regulator. The headline wins you the enrolment and costs you considerably more later.
- Most bad reviews in this industry are expectation gaps, not training failures Read the one star reviews of any provider in this market, including ours, and the recurring theme is not that the course was poor. It is that somebody expected something they did not get. Setting the expectation correctly at the start removes most of that, and it costs nothing.
- Under UK consumer law, the small print does not rescue a misleading headline The CAP Code judges an advert on the overall impression it creates, and a qualification buried in terms and conditions generally will not correct a claim the headline has already made. Omitting material information a consumer needs is itself actionable. Burying the conditions is not the safe option, it only feels like it.
- Students who understand the conditions actually finish If your guarantee requires passing every exam at the first attempt within six months, the student needs to know that on day one, so they can plan their study hours around it or choose a different route. Telling them at month seven, when they have failed one exam, helps nobody. Informed students complete more often, and completion is the only thing that ever produces a job.
- Verifiable claims are the ones that survive Anyone can put a badge and a percentage on a homepage. A company number, an FCA reference, an ICO registration and a salary figure with a dated source behind it are checkable in a browser tab. As buyers and AI search tools alike get better at checking, unsourced claims are becoming a liability rather than an advantage.
- It costs us enrolments, and we accept that Publishing the conditions, telling people not to log in until they are certain, and saying plainly that a competitor may suit them better all cost us sales. The trade is fewer disputes, fewer refunds, better reviews, and students who arrive knowing what they bought. We think that is the better business over five years. You are entitled to disagree and go elsewhere, and the links above will help you compare properly if you do.
If you find anything on this website that contradicts our terms and conditions, tell us and we will correct it. Email enquiries@course2career.com. We would rather be corrected than be the subject of the next version of this page.
Seven questions to ask before you pay anyone
Ask on the phone, then ask for the answers by email. A provider that will not put its guarantee terms in writing has told you something useful.
- Is the guarantee a refund or a support commitment?Two completely different products sold under the same two words.
- If it is a refund, exactly what is deducted, and is it paid as a lump sum?Ask specifically about official exam costs, third party lab costs, VAT and admin fees. Ask them to write out the calculation on your actual course price. Ask whether it arrives in one payment or in instalments.
- Do I have to pass every exam at the first attempt?This is the condition that disqualifies the most people. If yes, ask what happens when you fail one, and get the answer in writing.
- Does accepting an extension void my guarantee?At least one provider's terms say any extension does, including a free one. Ask before you accept extra time, not after.
- What ongoing obligations do I have during the job search?Weekly trackers, weekly calls, submission deadlines. Ask what happens if you miss one while ill or working.
- Can I read every document that governs the guarantee before I pay?If part of it only arrives on enrolment, ask for it up front. A provider confident in its terms will send them.
- When exactly does my right to cancel end?You have 14 days under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, but with digital courses that right usually ends the moment you log into the platform. Do not log in until you are certain.
Our Cyber Security Career Programme
Stated plainly, with the limits included.
Cyber Security Technician
A structured route from no experience to job ready, built on certifications awarded by CompTIA, Microsoft, EC-Council and (ISC)². Tutor support throughout, then CV review, LinkedIn guidance, interview coaching and recruitment support once your exams are passed.
- Total price
- £1,899
- Course access
- 12 months
- Typical completion
- 3 to 9 months
- Guarantee type
- Continued support
What we do not claim. We are not your employer and we cannot compel any company to hire you. Certification improves your chances of being considered. It does not on its own set your salary. UK entry level cyber roles realistically start around £30,000, not at the £60,000 median quoted elsewhere, and anyone promising you a specific salary is promising something they cannot know.
Payment. Monthly plans are available. Longer term credit is arranged through Social Money Ltd trading as Dopple, authorised and regulated by the FCA, subject to status and affordability checks. You may be declined. Every cost, including the ones most providers bury, is listed on our credentials and evidence page.
Common questions
Are job guarantee refunds really 100 per cent of what you paid?
Frequently not. Several UK providers advertise a full refund of course fees while their published terms deduct official exam costs, and in some cases third party lab costs, VAT and other charges. Because exam vouchers are a substantial part of the price of a certification programme, the gap can run to several hundred pounds. One provider pays any refund out at up to £500 per month rather than as a lump sum, stopping as soon as you find work. Ask for the calculation in writing on your actual course price before you enrol.
Do these courses actually guarantee you a job?
No. Every job guarantee in the UK training market is a conditional refund or a conditional support commitment, not an offer of employment. No training provider can compel an employer to hire you. The conditions attached are where the real differences lie, and they sit in the terms and conditions rather than in the advertising.
What typically voids a job guarantee?
The most common condition is passing every included certification exam at the first attempt. Others include completing within a fixed enrolment window, never missing an instalment, attending every interview arranged within a set radius, submitting weekly job search updates, and accepting any reasonable offer. At least one provider voids the guarantee if any extension to your course access has been applied, including a free or discretionary one.
How much does a cyber security course with a job guarantee cost?
Programmes typically run from around £1,899 to £3,500, depending on how many certifications are included and whether training is self paced or live instructor led. Most providers offer monthly payment plans, which are usually regulated credit agreements subject to affordability checks rather than informal instalments.
What salary can I expect in a first cyber security role?
The UK median for roles citing cyber security skills is £60,000, but a median is not a starting salary. The bottom 10 per cent of roles sit around £30,000 and that is where career changers realistically start, usually in analyst or SOC positions. Source: ITJobsWatch, permanent vacancies, six months to 6 July 2026.
Which certification should a beginner take first?
For most complete beginners, CompTIA A+ and Network+ come first, because you cannot secure a network you do not understand. CompTIA Security+ is the certification most UK entry level cyber adverts name directly. Certified Ethical Hacker is not a beginner certification: EC-Council itself recommends around two years of information security experience before attempting it.
Not sure which route fits your situation?
Tell us your background and what you are trying to reach. If another provider or another pathway suits you better, we will say so.