Company want training costs repaid - please advise!

TheGreatPretender

Hello! 
I've been through the MSE Forum archives and found a few posts like this, but never with the exact circumstances - so thought I would reach out and see what your great minds thought of it. 

Basically, I was in an employment for 6 years until a couple of months back. During that employment, I asked to be put through a degree course that would be beneficial to both myself and the Company. I did sign an agreement for repayment each year of the course -- which ended up being 3 years, but not completed. 

Towards the end of the course, I'd fallen out of love with not only the job but the industry, and (it sounds like a cop-out, but it's entirely true) going to work was affecting me mentally. Whilst it may sound OTT, this job involved very early mornings (3am etc), staying away all week & working extremely long hours (12/13 hours) and, add into that a toxic and negative environment for the work, you have a job that I didn't want to do anymore. 

However, I digress. At this point I just wanted to finish the course, and make choices about the future after I have the qualification. Unfortunately, in my third year, the Company was late in paying my fees for that year which lead to me being unable to sit an extremely important exam -- and one that ultimately led the University to the decision that I was not allowed to sit the final year and finish the course. 

I brought all this up with HR of the Company who, in various expert ways of mental gymnastics, twisted it so that the fees not being paid on time were not the issue and said the Company would still want the whole payment - upwards of £15k. Whilst I totally understand that I have signed an agreement for repayment of costs, it doesn't sit well with me that the whole course was effectively failed because of their ineptitude - which had a massive part in my leaving their employment, as I was only really staying there due to the qualification anyway. 

I have since left their employment on very good terms with almost all managers into a completely different field, yet they are demanded illogical amounts (£5k by the middle of next month was one!) and very high monthly payments. I have never said I won't pay it but I just wanted to get the opinion of people much smarter than I in areas like this to see what you all think? 

Thank you for reading that extremely long piece!

74jax

TheGreatPretender said:

Basically, I was in an employment for 6 years until a couple of months back. During that employment, I asked to be put through a degree course that would be beneficial to both myself and the Company. I did sign an agreement for repayment each year of the course -- which ended up being 3 years, but not completed. 

I have since left their employment on very good terms with almost all managers into a completely different field, yet they are demanded illogical amounts (£5k by the middle of next month was one!) and very high monthly payments. I have never said I won't pay it but I just wanted to get the opinion of people much smarter than I in areas like this to see what you all think? 

Thank you for reading that extremely long piece!

I've cut it down a fair bit. 

If you have never said you won't pay, I would go back and ask for the 5k to be split over however long you feel acceptable . Does the agreement you signed state when repayment should be made?
5k is rather low, I'd make sure they stick to that and not try to increase 

TELLIT01

If the only reason you were unable to complete the course is because your employer didn't pay the fees in time, I would certainly question why any part of the fee should be repaid.  It would be worth contacting the organisation who ran the course for written confirmation that this is the case.  It will strengthen your hand greatly if they do confirm that.

Dox

TheGreatPretender said:

Towards the end of the course, I'd fallen out of love with not only the job but the industry, and (it sounds like a cop-out, but it's entirely true) going to work was affecting me mentally. Whilst it may sound OTT, this job involved very early mornings (3am etc), staying away all week & working extremely long hours (12/13 hours) and, add into that a toxic and negative environment for the work, you have a job that I didn't want to do anymore. 

However, I digress. At this point I just wanted to finish the course, and make choices about the future after I have the qualification. Unfortunately, in my third year, the Company was late in paying my fees for that year which lead to me being unable to sit an extremely important exam -- and one that ultimately led the University to the decision that I was not allowed to sit the final year and finish the course. 

This is an extremely unusual and frankly unlikely scenario. Universities are never keen to lose students or see them fail, so there must be more to it than this? They would normally flag the issue direct to the student even if they knew an employer was paying the fees - and to use that as a pretext for jettisoning a student makes no sense. I think you'll struggle to use this as any sort of 'defence' against repaying the costs.

Manxman_in_exile

I also find it a bit difficult to believe that a university would - without any negotiation - not allow a student to complete a final year of a course because the employer failed to pay the fees.  It's simple enough to get sorted and in my experience universities will do anything for money these days.  Didn't the university remind anybody the fees were due?

But if it is true and the OP has evidence that they failed the course because the employer didn't pay the fees, and if they can show that this played a significant part in their decision to leave, I think I'd be inclined to let them sue me.  (That's what I'd do - but my credit rating is secure and I could afford to pay if I lost.  The OP may not be in that happy position).

Savvy_Sue

Having been on the university's side of the desk in this, I can confirm that if debts were outstanding - even library books! - then exams could not be sat. It did concentrate the minds of some students, and of course in some cases their fees were supposed to be paid by third parties. 

Too much to hope that the OP is in a union? 

Dox

Savvy_Sue said:

Having been on the university's side of the desk in this, I can confirm that if debts were outstanding - even library books! - then exams could not be sat. It did concentrate the minds of some students, and of course in some cases their fees were supposed to be paid by third parties. 

I don't think anyone was disputing that was likely to be the case. What seems far less likely (and also with first hand experience, albeit with a university as a client rather than an employer) is that any university would not be chasing for fees outstanding.

Manxman_in_exile

I can't believe a university would not make several attempts to get in a whole year's fees before stopping the OP taking the final exams.  What's in the university's best interests - getting in £9k or barring a student from sitting an exam?  It's somebody's fault, whether the OP's or their employer's.

(OP isn't coming back, are they).