Repayment of educational costs - poorly worded contract

EJBatch

Hello all,

I have recently handed in my notice to my employer.

In January 2016 I agreed and signed a training contract with my employer for an external qualification, I immediately enrolled on a training course with the aim of sitting for the June-16 exam. The bank subsequently forgot pay the entrance fee and I couldn’t sit until December of that year, which the bank paid (although I had gone to classes focused on the June-16 exam.

I have since decided I wanted to move on. I received an offer to pay half the cost of the training, which some £2000, as settlement; inclusive of a small gesture of goodwill with the calculation from when I sat my exam not the training courses (as per the contract). I failed the exam in the December.

However, upon reading the contract there is no mention of what to do in the event of my failing the exam and leaving the company, it states that if I pass the exam then I owe pro rata the amount for 24 months from the exam. The contract implies that if I hadn’t passed then I would be liable for the full amount with no scale downwards, the company at the moment have used this scale as a basis for the offer but nothing has been outlined in the contract.

There is no specification on how to pay and they have asked for this amount before I leave (deducting from final salary).

My question is, is there a basis for not paying? The contract is extremely ambiguous around this area and it would appear they’ve come to this figure on a retrospective basis (appreciate that if I had passed then this wouldn’t be the case).

Would this hold up at a tribunal/would there be scope to negotiate down from this?

engineer_amy

Might be better posting this on the Employment board, theres people with more experience of employment law, and some previous posts of training deductions.