A quickie about retraining.

Merlot

My friend has recently been made redundant (in the past 6 weeks) and today he tells me that he wants to re-train as a gas engineer (corgi), he is under the impression that the government will pay for this. Is this correct? He is going to tell his wife tonight, and I wouldn't want her hopes dashed once he finds out they may not pay for him to be re-trained.

Does anyone have any idea how much it cost, I've done a little digging and I get the figure of £6,000

He is on paid leave until the end of January, how soon can he claim JSA?

Merlot.x.

Conor_3

They will only pay once he's been out of work for 6 months and is eligible for new deal.

honeypop

He can claim JSA from the moment his pay ends, so if he's paid up until the end of Jan, that's when he can start his claim.

Oldernotwiser

I can't think of any government scheme that would pay for this kind of training. As Conor mentions, he could be eligible for New Deal after 6 months (if he's under 25) but they only offer fairly basic and short courses. The sum that you've come up with sounds like a private training company and I've never known anyone to be able to access something like this. Sorry.

pebbles88

I may be totally wrong but one of my OH's cousins has purposefully kept himself on the JSA (doing everything possibly to not get a job kind of thing) so that he could get his re-training paid for, he is now training to be a plumber, from what I have heard he has been out of work for 12 months though.... he is certainly one of the black sheep so to speak so we have only heard bits and bobs admittedly.

briona

Not necessarily relevant in this case, but worth noting that anyone living or working in Wales who is made redundant or has been served notice of redundancy can access up to £2,500 worth of training paid for by ReACT, a Welsh Assembly Government initiative.

The company I previously worked at accessed it for some of the staff. The only explanatory stuff I could find on the web is in PDF format so I can't link it here. For anyone interested, Google "react funding for redundancy" and click on the link that says "[PDF] Microsoft PowerPoint – Presentation – ReACT Individuals".

Qualification criteria as follows:
You must live or work in Wales. If you live in Wales then you can apply whilst under notice of redundancy or up to six months after being made redundant.

Link below is to a newspaper article on the funding (note that the website link given in the article doesn't actually work!).
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/business-in-wales/business-news/2008/06/12/make-a-fresh-start-after-redundancy-91466-21060508/

arfurdaley

I know that this scheme is available in Scotland, its called Training For Work, all course fees are paid for (approx £5000) you receive your JSA +£10 and travel expenses. Course takes 1 year.

You must be unemployed for 6 months OR be part of a large scale redundancy.

Not sure if this is available in other areas.