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PGCE / Initial Teacher Training Year - Should I take the student loan?

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Hi,

Tired to figure this out, and searched for other posts but have struggled so any help would be appreciated please.

I'm changing careers to become a secondary school teacher. For this I will get a bursary of £26,000. The fees for the course are £9250. Paying the fees 'upfront' from savings will cause no financial hardship.
The starting salary after training year is £24,373, which is below the repayment threshold. However by ten years I'd hope to be on at least the lowest leadership scale so at least £40,000.

Should I take the tuition fee loan and pay the "tax" after getting the PGCE, or pay upfront?

Thank You!

Comments

  • silvercar
    silvercar Posts: 49,621 Ambassador
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Academoney Grad Name Dropper
    Do you already have a student loan? 
    I'm a Forum Ambassador on the housing, mortgages & student money saving boards. I volunteer to help get your forum questions answered and keep the forum running smoothly. Forum Ambassadors are not moderators and don't read every post. If you spot an illegal or inappropriate post then please report it to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com (it's not part of my role to deal with this). Any views are mine and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.com.
  • Seldonista
    Seldonista Posts: 63 Forumite
    10 Posts Name Dropper
    If you stay in teaching at that salary level you will end up fully repaying the loan, so yes financially you would have avoided a potentially very high interest loan that will take you a very long time to repay by paying up front and avoiding the loan altogether.
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