I have decided to retrain as an Electrician after being made redundent from my IT role on the 31st March. I have entered a job based course, I do home learning for a couple of months then they help place me into a role as an Electrician's mate on approx. £14k a year. I then continue to do the course at home on my time off, the cost for this is £5400. My question is am I able to get any help i.e. grant/low cost loan etc to help me in any way?
I'm afraid that the funding options for those training to be an electrician after the age of 20 are limited. School leavers and those that choose to study at university can often access grants and student loans that will help them fund a course.
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However, unless you are studying at university or are setting up your own business, you are unlikely to find someone willing to partially fund some or all of your studies.
There are a number of loans and grants available to your employer which can subsidise your training, but these will normally be offered on a generic basis. So if your employer does receive a grant it will be so they can afford to take on more recruits or apprentices and you may not directly see the benefit of this.
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Try our Redundancy Action Plan free, here on this site →You do have the option to take out a loan, but again, unless you are studying at University you will not qualify for a higher education loan.
Once you have signed up to a firm or course it is quite hard to then apply for a grant or bursary. Sometimes if you speak to an electrical firm and they are confident they want to employ you as an electrician after your training they will sponsor you to do your training.
Depending on who you bank with you may be able to negotiate some form of studies loan. There are a number of loans available to people whose professions are regarded as professional and you will need to check whether your circumstances match their criteria.
Sometimes the agency or the firm that you are training with will offer low cost loans to help fund the electrician course. You should speak to the people who you have signed with as to whether they have this option. They would normally work in a similar way to if you buy a television and pay the store back in instalments.
There are a number of loans and grants that are available to those that wish to start up their own business, so this is one option to look at once you have finished your training.
You mentioned that you have been made redundant, unfortunately your best option may well be to use some of your redundancy money to fund your electrician training and if you get stuck maybe take on a part time job to make up the extra cost.
Your situation may be slightly different. ask a question below ↓ and our editorial team will reply with our advice.
So I am wondering if i can obtain a grant to be trained as a "Baker" it will take 6 months and approx £11k or finance to acheive my goal.
Can you please let me know my options, thank you in advance.
Living near Portsmouth, UK I not sure who I should approach to get more details.
All help greatly appreciated
Rgds
Cygnus
I have not made a claim for JSA at all believing I was not entitled for 6 months but I now understand from one of the outplacement advisors this is not the case and I was entitled to claim from the point of becoming redundant, is that correct? Someone has also advised me that due to my level of contributions paid I am am entitled to claim.
qu's
can I backdate a claim?
at what point was I able to start a claim?
am I able to pay NI contributions for the time I wasn't actively looking for work to ensure there is no gap in my NI payment?
first time I have had to consider this for many, many years and its all rather new and daunting.
Please can you tell me if there are any grants avaialable for me for either the training or the business start up.
many thanks
Then keep deferring your notice on a weekly basis in the hope of forcing your hand to leave with out your redundancy package ?
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