Supporting wife to further education

Monkey85

theoretica wrote: »

I don't think you should decide what outcome you want and then tell or try to persuade your wife to it - how does she think it is working out?

It is common to end university with debt at least form student loans - is the debt you are getting into more than average? Has she spoken to the university hardship officers about more help with the childcare? As a student she will also be exempt from council tax, are you claining the single person reduction?

Thanks for the reply. I think the wording on my post could have been better. I didnt mean to come across as me forcing a decision on her. We have talked about it on numerous occasions but unfortuanly my wife has a much more laid back attitude to money than I have. She has had debt problems in the past.

So I'm just trying to find the best way she can achieve her goal but without us getting in too deep debt wise. I think I need to crunch the figures again and go from there

Cheers

theoretica

How many hours is she actually on her course at present? The access college courses I know of are far from full time hours and would allow time for work, study and family time.

Also what happens about the fees for this course if she doesn't continue?

chocolatebum

check out whether her college has a hardship fund, it may be that it isn't possible to access this with your income but is always worth a try. i did the same as your wife an access course and i am now on my 2nd year of a 4yr uni course and i found the year at college the hardest in relation to finances, things improved when i actually started uni and could access student loans and also the hardship fund at university.

duchy

All the student midwives I know do bank/casual hours as care workers as they can pick up shifts to fit around placements.

Katzen

Does she actually need the access course to get to uni? Sounds like a daft question but a friend of mine started one but never finished as she got unconditional offers for uni so didn't need it. If it is only a year, then maybe you can sacrifice family time for that long as a means to a greater end. I don't know how they work, but if it follows an academic year then it's actually only about 7 more months with school holidays in between. Seems ages but in the grand scheme it's not too bad.

Monkey85

duchy wrote: »

All the student midwives I know do bank/casual hours as care workers as they can pick up shifts to fit around placements.

We have been looking the last couple of weeks for bank hours but very little available on the NHS website. This is the plan so she can get some experience of health care profession

Monkey85

Katzen wrote: »

Does she actually need the access course to get to uni? Sounds like a daft question but a friend of mine started one but never finished as she got unconditional offers for uni so didn't need it. If it is only a year, then maybe you can sacrifice family time for that long as a means to a greater end. I don't know how they work, but if it follows an academic year then it's actually only about 7 more months with school holidays in between. Seems ages but in the grand scheme it's not too bad.

Not a daft question at all but I have checked this and she does need the Access course to get into Uni. You are right in the grand scheme of things its only a year of college and I think from what people have said it will be easier when she is in Uni with the student loans available.

slowcoachme

Dont bother with NHS jobs website as they dont always advertise Healthcare Assistant jobs. Contact your local hospitals or care homes direct.

flea72

Its possible to work alongside the access course. Contact hours are only about 12-16 per week. Yes you are supposed to do at least another 20hrs self study on top of that, but in reality, most assignments take 2-4hrs to write, so this leaves plenty of time for paid work that fits around family.

I worked evenings/weekends, so OH was around to look after kids. condensed my days in college (12hr days), so i only had to pay for childcare one day, rather than 2-3 days. Studied at night when kids were in bed. Yours are quite young, so go to bed fairly early?

Once at uni, i just lived on credit cards, as working alongside a healthcare course was a stress i wanted to do without. Not ideal, but had to think long term about the increased earning potential and just suck it up in short term. Thankfully nhs still funded courses when i qualified, so it didnt take me too long to pay them off (£12k), but now that will obvs be different as you have student finance to repay too