The whole price, on the page, before you ring us.
If you have shopped around for caregiver training you already know the game: a low number on the advert, then the book, the scrubs, the background check and the exam fee arrive one at a time. We are not doing that.
What the money is actually buying.
| Item | Nurse Aide | Home Health Aide | Foundations |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tuition and skills lab | $1,020 | $620 | $360 |
| Textbook and workbook | $65 | $55 | $40 |
| Two sets of scrubs and a gait belt | $45 | $45 | $25 |
| Background check and TB screen | $25 | $25 | $25 |
| State competency examination | $135 | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| CPR, AED and first aid card | Included | $50 | Included |
| Total | $1,290 | $795 | $450 |
| Founding cohort price | $1,090 | $595 | $350 |
The founding cohort discount applies to the 24 seats starting 12 January 2027. It is not a rolling offer and we will take it off this page the day those seats are gone.
What is genuinely not included
Transport to your clinical placement, childcare, and a second sitting of the state examination if you do not pass the first time. That resit costs $135 and goes to the testing body, not to us. Roughly one student in ten needs it.
What we will never charge you for
Open lab, extra skills practice, a retake of any individual competency, help with a job application, a reference, or a phone call to an instructor after you graduate. None of that has a price and none of it ever will.
Most of our preliminary enrolments will not pay full price out of pocket.
Caregiver training is one of the most heavily funded short courses in the country, because the shortage is real and public bodies would rather pay for training than for the consequences of not having it. Here is what is worth chasing, in the order we would chase it.
- 01 Workforce funding Often full cost Federal workforce legislation funds training for in demand occupations, and nurse aide sits on that list almost everywhere. It is administered locally, in our case through Workforce Solutions. Eligibility depends on your income, your work history and sometimes on being laid off from something else. The application is not short, which is exactly why we sit down and do it with you. Start this one first, because it takes the longest.
- 02 Employer sponsorship Often full cost Agencies and facilities that are short staffed will frequently pay your tuition in exchange for a commitment to work for them for a set period, usually six to twelve months. Read that agreement carefully, and bring it to us before you sign it. We will tell you honestly whether the terms are normal or whether somebody is taking advantage of you.
- 03 Pay across the course No interest $300 holds your seat. The balance splits into three payments spread across the weeks you are studying. No interest, no credit check, no third party finance company, no effect on your credit file. If a payment is going to be late, tell us and we will move it. We have never removed a student from a class over money.
- 04 The Ruth Fund Four full seats Four full scholarships in every cohort, covering tuition, books, scrubs and the exam fee. Named after Ruth, the aide who taught our founder how to make a bed with somebody still in it. Priority goes to people already caring unpaid for a family member, and to anyone leaving a shelter or a refuge. One page to apply and no requirement to describe your situation in any more detail than you want to.
We will do the paperwork with you
The single biggest reason people do not get funding they qualify for is that the form is long and confusing and there is nobody to ask. So once a month we run a funding clinic. Bring your identification, your last two payslips if you have them, and any letter you have been sent that you did not understand.
You do not have to be enrolled with us to come. If it turns out another school suits you better, we will still help you fill the form in. That has already happened twice and we would do it again.
If it is not for you, we would rather find out in week one.
The first Saturday of every cohort is a full day in the skills lab doing the least glamorous parts of the job. Personal care, toileting, transfers. If you decide after that day that this work is not for you, tell us before the next session and you get everything back, including the deposit.
After that, refunds are pro rata against the hours you have attended, less the cost of any materials you have taken home. If you have to withdraw for a reason outside your control, a family emergency or your own health, we will hold your fees against a later cohort for up to twelve months instead of refunding them, whichever helps you more.
The full policy is one page of plain English and you get a copy before you pay anything. If any part of it needs a lawyer to understand, that is our failure and we will rewrite it.
The honest arithmetic.
A Home Health Aide certificate costs $595 in the founding cohort and takes three weeks. Certified nurse aides in the Houston area typically earn somewhere in the middle to upper teens an hour, with hospitals and specialist memory care paying at the higher end, and home health aide rates sitting a little below that.
On those numbers, the training pays for itself somewhere inside the first month of full time work. That is the case for doing it. What we will not tell you is that the money is life changing on its own, because it is not. The change is in having a credential nobody can take off you, in a field that is short of people, in a city that is getting older every year.
Wage figures here are indicative ranges for the Houston area and will vary by employer, shift and experience. We update them when we see them move, and we will not quote you a number we cannot stand behind.
Find out what you qualify for before you spend anything.
Tell us roughly what your situation is on the enrolment form and we will come back with the funding routes that actually apply to you, not a generic list.