Career Development Loans

Give your career a kick-start without sacrificing your savings

Getting training can give your career a serious boost, but it can be expensive – especially if there's a qualification attached. Career development loans could be the answer: provided the training is relevant to your career, you could borrow up to £8,000 for course fees.

If you think you're destined for greater things than your current job, career development loans can help you boost your brainpower. Provided the training is vocational (work-related), you can get up to £8,000 to cover course fees – although a CDL will only pay up to 80% of fees.
Career development loans are organised by the government, and anybody over 18 can apply. The training can be full-time, part-time or by distance learning, but it must last for less than two years and the funding only applies to the work-related parts of the course. In practice that means any non-vocational element (such as job-hunting training) isn't eligible for government cash, and there's a huge section of small print in the rules and regulations. However, related expenses and even living expenses could be covered so it's definitely worth a look.
What about the repayments? They start when you've finished your education. The government pays the interest on your loan until one month after the course is completed, and then you're on your own. The period of repayment depends on the bank you've organised the loan with.
To find out more about career development loans, check out the Lifelong Learning site at www.lifelonglearning.co.uk/cdl.

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