Returning to education may not be as difficult as you think. You may be eligible to receive financial support to provide help with tuition fees, childcare and travel costs. As a starting point, check out Directgov's financial help for adult learners. This has lots of information about student fees and finance and can answer most of your initial questions.
The Chichester College Learning Support Grant
The Chichester College Learning Support Grant is the name we have given to Discretionary Learner Support. This grant, administered by the College, is the replacement for ALG.
This grant can provide you with:
- access to free or subsidised travel (up to £510 per year)
- free or subsidised equipment, books or resources
- free or subsidised childcare
- free UCAS admin fees
- contribution towards enrichment activities linked to your course
Contact us now to register your interest by calling the Student Funds team on 01243 786321 ext 2119. We will send you an application pack and details of who is eligible. Once we receive your application, we will contact you as soon as we can to let you know what support we can give you.
We have made applying as simple as possible, but it will involve filling in forms, providing evidence and telling us about your financial situation. We will then make an assessment based on your personal circumstances.
Professional and Career Development Loans
A Professional and Career Development Loan can help you gain the experience, training and qualifications you need to improve your job skills or even launch a new career. You can use it to fund a variety of courses so you are able to choose the course that best suits your needs. You can borrow anything between £300 and £10,000 to help you fund up to two years of learning (or three years if the course includes one year of work experience).
Courses covered by Professional and Career Development Loans
A Professional and Career Development Loan can be used for a wide range of courses. The course doesn’t necessarily have to have a qualification at the end, but it must be a course that will help with your career. You’ll find detailed information in the application pack. In general a Professional and Career Development Loan could be used for:
- a postgraduate course, like a masters
- technical or management training
- a professional qualification
- a course at your local college or learning provider
- an additional bachelors degree (if you’re already a graduate)
You can use a Professional and Career Development Loan to help with:
- up to 80% of course fees (or up to 100% if you’ve been unemployed for three months or more)
- other course costs, like books, travel and childcare
- living expenses, like rent, food and clothing (if you are unemployed or working less than 30 hours per week)
For advice on your application, call a Next Step adviser on 0800 100 900.