Government Grants for Retraining

The government now preaches constantly about the need for us to engage in “lifelong learning” to keep up with the changing demands of the modern world and participate in the “knowledge economy”. To help make the ideal a reality, a variety of financial assistance programmes are available to help you acquire new skills.

Redundancy-Related Retraining Help

If the redundancy is a large-scale one, the Jobcentre is sometimes able to deploy special help through its Rapid Response Service. The help is uniquely tailored to the requirements of each case and can sometimes include financial help to pay for new training.

Adult Learning Grant

The government offers an Adult Learning Grant (ALG) to contribute to the costs of courses (or expenses related to them) which will help you achieve new levels of qualification. This is a significant restriction which you should note. It means that you cannot get funding for ELQ or Equivalent Level Qualifications. For example, if you already have two good A-Levels in English and French and want to retrain for a career in IT by doing A-Levels in Maths and Computing, you would not be eligible for the ALG. The new qualification must constitute progress of some sort.

The Adult Learning Grant can pay out up to £30 per week depending on the overall financial circumstances of your household. It is only available for full-time training courses, and you may be ineligible for it if you are also receiving benefits such as Income Support.

Higher Education Grants

If you’re planning on going into higher education, government support comes in the form of maintenance grants, which are intended to help with your living expenses, and Student Loans, which can defray both your living expenses and your tuition costs at the institution of learning you attend. Grants do not have to be paid back; loans do. The interest charged on the loans is equivalent to the rate of inflation, however, so in real terms, the amount you pay back is exactly the amount you borrowed.

Professional and Career Development Loan

If grants aren’t available to fund the training you have in mind, consider a loan. The government supports something called Career Development Loans which can be used to help pay for job-related learning. The loan can pay either for the course fees itself, or related expenses, including living expenses, as long as they are not being supported by any other sources of public funds at the same time. Eligible training courses can last for up to two years, or three if they include a year of practical experience, and they must be offered by an organisation which appears on the official CDL register of learning providers.

You can borrow anything from £300 to £10,000. This should cover no more than 80% of your course fees, unless you have been unemployed for more than 3 months, in which case the loan can cover 100% of your course fees. Repayment must begin within one month of your course ending. The Young People's Learning Agency covers the interest payments on your behalf until then. It’s important to note that you must still repay the loan even if you don’t complete the training course for whatever reason, for example if you decide you don’t like it or your learning provider goes out of business.

Although Career Development Loans are supported by the government, they are actually administered by banks, so pop into your local bank if you want to learn more.

Government Retraining Grants – Conclusion

Few of us now have the luxury of going through life following only one career path. Periodic retraining in order to acquire new skills has become almost inevitable. Government financial assistance is available to help with some of the costs, but you will also often have to make a substantial commitment of your own.

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