Professional and Career Development Loans

Professional Career Development Loans

Professional and Career Development Loans are commercial bank loans that can be used to help pay for work related learning. You can borrow between £300 and £10,000 to help support the cost of up to two years of learning (or three years if it includes one year's relevant unpaid practical work).

The Government will pay the interest on the loan while you are learning and for one month afterwards. You will then need to start repaying the loan as you would any other commercial loans product. The loan can be used to pay course fees or other costs such as travel and living expenses. You can also use the loan to supplement other forms of support such as grants or bursaries.

As the Professional and Career Development Loan is a commercial loan product, you should make sure you have investigated all the funding options that may be open to you to ensure you take an informed decision about whether the Loan is right for you.

For further information on financial assistance to support your learning, visit www.direct.gov.uk/adultlearning or contact Next Step on 0800 100 900.

Our learning provider registration number is: 20908.

Eligible Courses:

Notes on applying for a loan

These notes have been added by the Chefs Academy (July 2012) for student clarification.

  1. There are two banks that currently offer the scheme, The Co-operative Bank and Barclays Bank.
  2. You will be required to complete an application form from your chosen bank, referencing our learner provider registration number.
  3. The maximum loan amount you may apply for is £10,000.
  4. The earliest you can submit an application to the bank for a PCDL loan is 6 weeks prior to the course start date which is when the balance of course fees are due to the Chefs Academy. So regardless of the outcome of any loan application you will need to have paid the full course fees to the Chefs Academy 6 weeks prior to the course start date.
  5. Typically the loan approval process by the banks takes 2 weeks but can take longer.
  6. Once approved by the bank you will be issued with a loan agreement between yourself and the bank and a course start notification form that the Academy returns to the bank.
  7. After the start of the course the bank will transfer to the Chefs Academy half your course fee within Term 1 and the other half within Term 3. As payments are received by the Academy an equal amount of your original course fee payment is returned to you at the earliest opportunity.
  8. You will be responsible for maintaining the loan payments as per your agreement with your chosen bank.

Students choosing the PCDL solution are doing so to enable them to spread the costs of the course fees over a much longer term, however students must be able to pay the full course fees to the Chefs Academy 6 weeks prior to the start of the course date to secure their place on the course. If you have any questions, please contact us.

 

 

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