Home Study Courses - Government Funding for JSA Claimers

IQ225

Hi,

I am interested in doing a Home Study Course (ICS, UK Open Learning, DCA Home Learning, etc.) to help me secure a job and wondered if the Government helped JSA claimers with the funding of these courses as they are quite expensive, does anyone know?

Cheers.

Becles

You might be able to get help with costs from the Open University.

Pop your details into the calculators on this page:
http://www3.open.ac.uk/studyatou/apply/financial-support.shtml
and it'll tell you what you are entitled to depending on your household income and any dependants.

Do check out the qualification you will get from home study colleges. Some are not worth the paper they are written on compared to courses you can study at a tradtional college or university. Also check out your local colleges as they may offer free/low cost courses to people on JSA.

LittleVoice

All the training companies you have named are commercial organisations. Unless they are offering training which is not available elsewhere (that is in the public sector), then I do not see that the taxpayer should be paying them on your behalf.

If they are offering training for worthwhile qualifications (that is fully recognised national qualifications rather than their own bits of paper), then learning opportunities should be available in the public arena - like local colleges and local authority adult education service. These courses are usually offered at some sort of discount to people who are on means tested benefits - but not always on contribution based JSA.

robredz

A lot of these firms want fees and usually stress that the study fits round your existing work commitments, a lot of the become a driving instructor and IT certification courses follow this format, and usually Jobcentres cannot help with fees.