Course instructor agreement (teacher or trainer) template
A school or platform engages an instructor: lessons, fee, cancelled lessons, materials and student safeguarding. A sample contract you can read in full, edit in QuoteBill and sign online with a secure link.
Sample — review with a lawyer · Simple electronic signature with an audit trail
Who it is for
For a school, academy or learning platform that engages a teacher or trainer for a course, and the instructor, wanting lessons, fee, cancellation, materials and student safeguarding agreed in writing.
Whether an instructor is self-employed or an employee depends on local law and how the work is really done, not on the contract’s title; teaching some groups, such as children, can also need licences or checks.
What it covers
14 clauses, in this order. Each one is in the sample text below, and you can edit, remove or add clauses before you send.
1. Purpose
What the agreement is for: the School or Platform engages the Instructor to teach a course or lessons, and the Instructor provides the service as an independent provider.
2. Courses and lessons
Blanks for the course, the number and length of lessons, the schedule, the place or online platform and the students. Schedule changes are agreed by both sides in writing or in electronic form.
3. Teaching and qualifications
The Instructor teaches with the care of a qualified instructor along the stated syllabus and decides how. Blanks for qualifications and for any licence or background check the law or the School requires.
4. Independent status
The Instructor decides how to teach within the syllabus, uses its own tools, pays its own taxes and may teach for others. Rights the law gives the Instructor stay, and if the law sees employment, that law applies.
5. Fees and expenses
The fee comes from the price schedule or a blank, which may say there is none. A blank says whether preparation and marking are paid. Expenses approved beforehand are repaid, and tax is added where the law requires it.
6. Attendance and substitutes
The Instructor arrives on time, keeps attendance records if asked and gives early notice of a missed lesson. A qualified substitute needs the School’s prior agreement. A missed lesson is made up or not paid.
7. Cancelled lessons
Blanks for the share of the fee due when the School cancels at short notice and for the minimum number of students. A lesson students miss unannounced is paid in full. An Instructor’s unjustified cancellation is made up or unpaid.
8. Materials and ownership
The Instructor’s own materials stay its own, with a licence to the School for this course. A blank says who owns materials made for the course. Recording only if both agree, and the School’s materials stay the School’s.
9. Students and safeguarding
The Instructor respects students and follows the School’s conduct, safety and safeguarding rules and the law for the group taught, especially children. No lone meetings outside lessons unless allowed, and concerns are reported at once.
10. Confidentiality and personal data
Student information and the School’s non-public information are kept confidential, used only for the course and handled as the law requires. The School shares only what is needed and says why.
11. Insurance and liability
A blank states the cover each side holds. Each answers for harm it causes, and other loss is capped at an amount you set, with the usual exceptions such as intent, gross negligence and personal injury.
12. Term and termination
The agreement ends when the course is taught or on a stated date. Either side may end it early on notice, or at once after a serious unremedied breach or loss of a required licence. The School pays for lessons given.
13. Changes and notices
This contract, with its price schedule, is the whole agreement. Changes need both sides’ agreement in writing or in electronic form, and notices go to the stated addresses.
14. Governing law and disputes
The law you name applies. The sides first try to settle a dispute in good faith, and otherwise the courts you name decide.
A price schedule is optional: add one if you want the amounts in a table, or write the agreed amount into the payment clause.
The sample text
The whole sample, as QuoteBill starts it. Text in double square brackets, like [[10]], is a blank to fill in or check. A figure or time such as [[10]] that you leave as it is is used as shown when you send; a blank that needs your own words must be filled first. The clause text is written in English, Korean, Japanese and German; in other languages a contract starts in English for you to translate.
Read the sample text
Course Instructor Agreement
Parties: School or Platform · Instructor
1. Purpose
This agreement sets out the terms on which the School or Platform (the “School”) engages the Instructor to teach the course or lessons described below. The Instructor provides this service as an independent provider.
2. Courses and lessons
Course or subject: [[Name and level of the course or subject]]
Number and length of lessons: [[Number of lessons and minutes per lesson]]
Schedule: [[Days and times, or the dates agreed]]
Place or platform: [[Classroom address or online platform]]
Students: [[Expected number and age group]]
Changes to the schedule are agreed by both parties in writing or in electronic form.
3. Teaching and qualifications
The Instructor teaches with the skill and care that can be expected of a qualified instructor and in line with the learning goals and syllabus described here: [[Syllabus or learning goals, or attachment]] Within them, the Instructor decides how to teach. The Instructor confirms that they hold the qualifications and experience stated for the course: [[Qualifications]]
Where the law or the School requires a licence, certificate or background check for teaching the group concerned, the Instructor holds it before the first lesson and shows proof on request: [[none required / details]]
4. Independent status
The Instructor works as an independent provider of services. Within the agreed syllabus the Instructor decides how to prepare and deliver the lessons, uses their own tools and is responsible for their own taxes, social contributions and insurance, as the law requires. The Instructor may teach for others, provided this does not prevent the lessons agreed here. The School gives no orders on how the Instructor works beyond what the syllabus, the schedule and the safety rules require.
Nothing in this agreement takes away a right that the law gives the Instructor. If the law treats the relationship as employment, that law applies and the parties adjust this agreement to it.
5. Fees and expenses
The School pays the Instructor the fee shown in the price schedule of this contract or, if there is none, [[Fee, currency and basis, e.g. per lesson, per hour or per course]], on the payment terms stated in this contract. Preparation, marking and meetings are [[included in the fee / paid at a stated rate / not paid]]. Expenses that the School approved beforehand are repaid against receipts. Where the law requires tax on the fee, it is added.
6. Attendance and substitutes
The Instructor arrives on time, keeps an attendance record if the School asks, and tells the School as early as possible if a lesson cannot be taught. The Instructor may send a suitably qualified substitute if the School agrees in advance; the Instructor remains responsible for the substitute’s work and pays them. The parties agree a make-up lesson for a lesson the Instructor missed, or the fee for that lesson is not due.
7. Cancelled lessons
If the School cancels a lesson with less than [[24]] hours’ notice, it pays [[a stated share of the lesson fee]]. A lesson that students miss without notice is paid in full. If fewer than [[3]] students enrol, the School may cancel the course at least [[7]] days before the first lesson, and no fee is due for lessons not given. A lesson that the Instructor cancels without good reason is made up or is not paid.
8. Materials and ownership
Teaching materials, slides, exercises and recordings that the Instructor already owns or creates independently stay the Instructor’s. The Instructor gives the School a non-exclusive licence to use them for the students of this course for its duration. Materials created specially for this course belong to [[the Instructor, with a licence to the School / the School]]. Lessons are recorded only if both parties have agreed: [[no recording / recording for the students of this course]] The School’s own materials, logo and student lists stay the School’s and are used only for the course.
9. Students and safeguarding
The Instructor treats students with respect and follows the School’s code of conduct, its safety and safeguarding rules, [[the rules attached here / none]], and the law that applies to teaching the group concerned, in particular where the students are children or vulnerable adults. The Instructor does not meet a student alone outside the lessons unless the School’s rules allow it. The Instructor reports accidents, concerns about a student’s welfare and complaints to [[Name or role]] without delay.
10. Confidentiality and personal data
The Instructor keeps confidential the personal information of students and the School’s business information that is not public, uses it only for the course and handles it as the law that applies requires. The School tells the Instructor what student information it shares and why, and shares only what is needed. These duties continue after the agreement ends.
11. Insurance and liability
The parties insure their own risks as follows: [[Insurance cover each party holds, or none]]
Each party is liable for harm it causes, as the law provides. Except for intent, gross negligence, personal injury or where the law does not allow a limitation, each party’s liability for other loss is limited to [[Amount, e.g. the fees for the course]].
12. Term and termination
This agreement starts on the effective date and ends when the course has been taught, or on the end date if one is stated. Either party may end it earlier with [[14]] days’ notice in writing or in electronic form. Either party may end it at once if the other seriously breaches it and does not remedy the breach within [[7]] days of being asked to, or if a licence or clearance that the Instructor needs for teaching is lost. The School pays for the lessons given until the end.
13. Changes and notices
This contract, including its price schedule, is the entire agreement on the teaching. Changes are valid only if both parties agree to them in writing or in electronic form. Notices go to the addresses stated for the parties, or to another address a party has notified.
14. Governing law and disputes
This agreement is governed by the law stated under Governing law. The parties will first try to settle any dispute in good faith. Otherwise the courts stated under Jurisdiction decide, unless mandatory law provides otherwise.
Payment terms
The Instructor invoices [[monthly in arrears / after each course]], and the School pays within [[14]] days of receiving the invoice, by bank transfer to the account stated on the invoice. Where there is no fee, no payment is due.
Governing law
[[Country or state whose law applies]]
Jurisdiction
[[Courts that decide disputes, e.g. the courts of your city]]
How to use it
Choose the template
Press the button to use this template. If you are not signed in, you first sign in or sign up for free and then come straight back to it.
Start a draft
The new-contract page opens with this template marked. Press its card to create a draft. Your company details fill in Party A, and you fill in the blanks, the other party and, where the template has one, the price schedule.
Send it for signature
You sign first, then send each signer a secure link and, by another route, an access code. Signers need no account.
Next steps
Your client opens the link on any device and needs no account. See what the signing looks like on the E-Contracts page, and read which kind of electronic signature is enough for which document.
Already signed? Make the invoice from the signed contract: the parties and the price lines carry over, in full or for a deposit. The guide on turning a quotation into an invoice shows how to review the new draft, its dates and the PDF.
What it is, and what it is not
QuoteBill creates a simple electronic signature with an audit trail. In the EU, the UK, the US and Korea a signature is not denied legal effect only because it is electronic, and in Japan most contracts need no particular form at all. What a simple electronic signature proves in a dispute depends on the evidence behind it, and some documents need another form.
It is not a qualified or advanced electronic signature, and QuoteBill does not verify who the signers are. It records the use of the link and access code you delivered, so anyone who has both can sign. The signature certificate lists every link issued and, for each action by the sender or a signer, its IP address and browser where they could be read.
Some documents need another form. Wills, many real-estate transfers, guarantees and some employment documents must, in some countries, be handwritten, notarised or signed with a qualified signature. The templates are samples, not legal advice: review them with a lawyer.
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