Certainly, Arrowhead.
having no A320's in our fleet, we contract out the Base Training element of the course.
Students pay for their course in advance for the various elements.
Before the base training, for which the students had NOT paid, and had NOT been asked to pay, we pointed out that there would be a saving to them if they paid the supplier directly. This represented a significant saving to the students because of the VAT.
They sensibly took that option. I repeat..they had NOT paid Astraeus for that part of their training.
If your
Admittedly second hand
source would care to contact me, I would be more than happy to clarify the REAL situation for them.