How we are paid on the learning pages

Short version: everything in the free section is free and we are paid nothing for it. If we ever list a paid course, it will be labelled "Ad, paid link" on the card, before you click, and we may receive a commission if you buy. It never changes the price you pay.

1. Where we currently stand

We have no commercial course listings at all today, and no affiliate agreements in place. The paid section is empty and says so. We would rather have an empty section than fill it with links we do not believe in.

2. How commission works in this industry, plainly

Course platforms typically pay a website between 8 and 20 per cent of what a learner spends, with a few paying more on subscriptions. On a £30 course that is roughly £2 to £6. It is a modest thing at our size, and we are telling you the numbers because a site that hides them is usually hiding the reason for its recommendations.

What that money can never buy: a better position on the page, a recommendation we do not mean, or a paid course placed above a free one that does the same job.

3. The rules we are working to

• CAP Code rule 2.1. A marketing communication must be obviously identifiable as one. A commission link is advertising, so it is labelled as advertising.
• Labelled before the click, on the card. The Advertising Standards Authority has ruled that a disclosure only visible after somebody clicks through is not enough, so ours is next to the link itself and not in a footnote.
• No hidden ranking. Free options come first on the page because they are better for the reader, not because of what they pay, which is nothing.
• Nothing invented. We do not publish a course we have not looked at, and we do not write fake reviews. The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 made fake reviews unlawful, and they were always dishonest.

4. What we count

A click on a course link increases a counter on that course, so we know whether the page is useful. Nothing about you is recorded: no profile, no advertising cookie, no sharing your visit with the course provider beyond the click itself, which they see as ordinary web traffic. The cookie policy and privacy notice cover this like everything else.

5. If you think we have got it wrong

Tell us at hello@hiringuk.co.uk and we will take a listing down while we look at it. If you want to complain over our head, the Advertising Standards Authority takes complaints about advertising disclosure at asa.org.uk, free.