Best Value in Australian Graphic Design Education

Online since 2008. Accredited. Under $9 an hour of teaching. That last bit is the one that matters. A bootcamp costs double. A university degree costs five times more. An RTO Cert IV this affordable is rare.

We are The Graphic Design School, Australia’s first fully online graphic design school, an ASQA-registered RTO (#91706) delivering the CUA40720 Certificate IV in Design. 750 hours of course content. 12 modules. Self-paced over 15 months so you don’t have to quit your job. 850 graduates, zero formal complaints on record since 2008, and a 4.9-star rating across 101 reviews.

Best value doesn’t mean cheapest. It means the price matches what the course actually costs us to run, and what you get back matches the price. Accreditation. Practising-designer tutors. A portfolio you can walk into an interview with. Not a stream of videos. Not a textbook.

Two founders, not a venture-backed chain. The money goes into teaching, not sales teams or CBD floorspace. If the math works for you, keep reading. If it doesn’t, we will save you the time below.

Our CUA40720 Certificate IV in Design costs $6,290. The course contains 750 hours of structured content. $6,290 divided by 750 is about $8.40 per hour of teaching. Our Intensive Foundation Course is $5,500 for 700 hours — about $7.90 an hour. Either way, under $9.

Here is roughly how that compares across the market:

Provider	Course	Total cost	What you get
TGDS	Certificate IV in Design (CUA40720)	$6,290	750 hrs · AQF Level 4 · RTO credential
TGDS	Intensive Foundation Course	$5,500	700 hrs · foundation units from CUA40720
Shillington	Graphic design course (online / campus)	~$12,000–$15,000	~3 months full-time · certificate of completion
General Assembly	Visual design circuit	~$13,000–$17,000	~10–12 weeks · certificate of completion
Australian university	Bachelor of Design (3 yr)	~$30,000–$42,000 (CSP)	AQF Level 7 · broader theory · different credential

We don’t force per-hour math onto the bootcamps because the courses are wildly different shapes — theirs is full-time for three months, ours is part-time for fifteen. What matters is what you pay, what skill you walk out with, and whether there is an accredited credential at the end. Ours comes with one. Theirs doesn’t.

The reason we can price it this way is that we have run the same course online since 2008. We own the platform. We employ the tutors directly. No campus lease, no sales team, no venture backer asking for a return. Two founders, both designers, and the money goes into teaching.

A government-accredited qualification. The CUA40720 Certificate IV in Design is a nationally recognised AQF Level 4 qualification, delivered through the national Vocational Education and Training system. It is the same qualification a TAFE would issue. We are ASQA-registered as RTO #91706, and our record with the regulator shows zero formal complaints since 2008.

750 hours of structured course content. Twelve modules that build on each other. Foundations first (design theory, type, colour, Adobe Creative Cloud), then progressively more complex briefs (layout, identity, campaign work, portfolio). The work is marked. You don’t just watch; you submit, get feedback, and revise.

Practising-designer tutors on the forum Monday to Friday. Not teachers who learned design from a textbook. Working designers who look at your submissions and tell you what a design director would say. Paloma Hodgins. Danny Johnson. Lee-Anne O’Brien. Real people, not a chatbot.

The Schoolyard. Our own learning platform, custom-built for design education since 2008 by TGDS founder Jean-Marc Giorgi. Not Moodle. Not Teachable. Purpose-built tools for uploading work, getting marked, tracking progress, and talking to tutors.

A portfolio. Not a certificate-of-completion PDF. Actual finished design work you can put in front of a client or a hiring manager. This is what the 15 months is for.

It is the right course if you fit most of the following:

• You have a full-time job and can’t take three months off to do a bootcamp.
• You want a nationally recognised credential, not a participation certificate.
• You can commit around 15 hours a week over roughly 12 to 15 months.
• You are in it to work as a designer, freelance as a designer, or add real design skills to the work you already do.
• You learn better with a practising designer giving feedback than with a video on auto-play.

It is not the right course if:

• You need a university degree. We issue a Certificate IV, not a bachelor’s.
• You want a job guarantee. We can prepare you; we can’t promise an employer will hire you.
• You want to finish in three months. The minimum realistic completion is around 12 months.
• You are a hobbyist dipping a toe in. You can learn to use Photoshop on YouTube for free. Come back when you’re serious.
• You want synchronous live classes in your timezone. The course is asynchronous by design.

If either list describes you clearly, that is useful information. We would rather you know now than find out at month four.

These are verbatim Google reviews from recent graduates. We have not edited them. The full set is public on our Google Business listing; the four below are representative of the kinds of students the course works for.

“I recently completed my Cert IV in Design with TGDS. This course is structured in a way that guides you through the graphic design fundamentals and gradually builds you up to creating an industry standard portfolio. You DO need to have self discipline and initiative for online study, however the school is flexible with deadlines and extensions if life gets in the way of your studies. Living remote I really appreciated having this as an affordable and flexible option to complete a Cert IV!”

— Tara James, 5 stars, 2026

“I’ve just graduated from The Graphic Design School with my Cert IV in Graphic Design and what an adventure it’s been. The tutors were amazing — always active on the forum, super helpful, and great at breaking things down in a way that made sense. I learned real, practical skills. I’ve been designing non-stop lately, and I can’t wait to start working with new clients as a freelancer. Huge thanks to TGDS for helping me turn a dream into a real, exciting career path.”

— Weronika Tillmar, 5 stars, 2025

“I have just recently completed the Cert IV in graphic design at the Graphic Design School and what an amazing experience it was. For someone who struggles with motivation I did not have this issue when studying. The course is engaging, fun, and informative. The level of support from tutors and even other students is amazing. I had zero experience going into this and now I am producing work that I could only dream of doing before. I completed this course being a mother of three young kids and I was able to complete this in time with no issues.”

— Katherine Wybrow, 5 stars, 2025

“I loved my time studying a Certificate IV in Design online with The Graphic Design School. The course itself was well structured and gave me a well-rounded understanding of graphic design. The best part of studying here was having access to tutors via the forum, who always gave helpful advice and feedback on my work. The support team was also great and always gave timely responses to any queries I had.”

— Sophie Russell, 5 stars, 2025

Across Google and our internal feedback system we hold a 4.9-star average over 101 reviews.

We have put 850 students through the course since 2010. Outcomes cluster into four groups:

• Employed as designers. Graduates placed into junior and mid-level design roles at agencies and in-house teams. Entry-level graphic design in Australia starts around $50K–$60K; a year of freelance and study later you can reasonably be at $70K+.
• Self-employed freelancers. Graduates working directly with clients, often from regional towns, parental leave, or second careers where the commute-free flexibility matters more than the agency stamp.
• Designers inside non-design jobs. Marketers, business owners, NFP staff, and tradespeople who needed to run their own visual work without paying agency rates. For this group the ROI shows up immediately in saved outsourcing costs.
• Career changers mid-course. Some students realise partway through that design is not for them. That is also a legitimate outcome. The course is designed to make the fit visible early, and our withdrawal policy is documented in the student handbook.

We don’t publish a single “job placement rate” because the number would be meaningless across these four groups. The honest answer is that graduates who finish the course and build a portfolio can work as designers. Graduates who don’t, can’t. The course does the teaching; you do the building.

Is the qualification real? Yes. The CUA40720 Certificate IV in Design is a nationally recognised AQF Level 4 qualification issued under the Vocational Education and Training system. We are a Registered Training Organisation (RTO #91706), regulated by ASQA. You can verify our registration on training.gov.au.

How long does it actually take? Twelve to fifteen months for most students, at about 15 hours a week. Faster if you can commit more time; slower is allowed, within the 15-month maximum.

Can I do it while working full-time? Yes, that is who the course is designed for. Most of our students work full-time or have caregiving responsibilities.

What software do I need? Adobe Creative Cloud (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign). There is a student discount of around 60% off retail. Any reasonably modern Windows or Mac computer from the last five years works. Detailed specs are in the technical requirements handbook page.

Is this better than Shillington or General Assembly? Different. They are faster and more intense; we are cheaper, longer, and self-paced. If you can afford to stop working for three months, a bootcamp is a valid choice. If you can’t, we are. Roughly half the cost of a comparable bootcamp, and with an AQF-accredited credential at the end rather than a certificate of completion.

Is this better than Udemy or Skillshare? Those platforms are great for learning a single skill cheaply. We are a structured qualification with marked submissions, tutor feedback, and a government credential. Different thing; different price.

What is the refund policy? We offer a 7-day cooling-off refund from enrolment. Withdrawal after that is covered in the fees handbook page.

What if I am under 18? Have a parent or guardian contact us at info@thegraphicdesignschool.com or (02) 9918 3285. We discuss under-18 enrolments case by case.

If this sounds like the right course for where you are, the cleanest next move is a conversation. We do free pre-enrolment chats so you can ask about the things this page didn’t cover.

• Email: info@thegraphicdesignschool.com
• Phone: (02) 9918 3285 (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm AEST)
• Enrol directly: prices and enrolment page

No sales pitch, no pressure. If the course isn’t the right fit we will tell you that on the call.