A Professional and Career Development Loan is a deferred repayment bank loan set at a competitive fixed interest rate that can be used to support learning that improves your career and salary prospects – whether it’s to protect your current career in times of job insecurity, to gain a qualification to improve your longer term career prospects or re-skilling to start a new career.
You can borrow any amount between £300 and £10,000 from a participating bank (currently The Co-operative and Barclays) and use it to fund the course of your choice. Like any loan, you need to repay the money you borrow but with a Professional and Career Development Loan the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) will pay the interest on the loan while you are learning and for up to one month afterwards. Even when you start to repay the loan to the bank, interest rates are set at a fixed rate that is competitive, compared with other commercial unsecured loans.
For more information, call the Professional and Career Development Loan helpline on 0800 585 505 or visit www.direct.gov.uk/pcdl
If you’re training for a professional qualification in, for example, Law or Medicine, most banks offer some sort of professional studies loan scheme. NatWest offers the Professional Trainee Loan Scheme and the College of Law Loan Scheme, and Barclays and the Royal Bank of Scotland also run loan schemes specifically for law students.
Loans are available to students who are studying full-time for a professional qualification to become one of the following: barrister, dentist, osteopath, solicitor, chiropodist or podiatrist, doctor, pharmacist, vet, chiropractor, optician or physiotherapist. Postgraduates studying for a diploma, MSc or PhD are eligible.
Students on MBA (Masters in Business Administration) programmes accredited by the Association of MBAs (AMBA) are eligible for the Association of MBAs Loan Scheme, which is designed to help students paying their own fees or part-fees.
AMBA operates this scheme, which is financed by the NatWest Bank. Students can borrow up to two thirds of their pre-course gross annual salary plus tuition fees for each year of full-time study. Loans to part-time and distance learning students can cover tuition fees and study equipment.
Distance learners can borrow up to a maximum of £10,000. For full-time and part-time students, there is nothing to pay until three months after graduation. Since MBAs are expensive and most MBA students are self-financing, this loan scheme is very popular.
To apply for the AMBA Loan Scheme, you must:
- Be a permanent UK resident (ie have been resident here for a minimum of three years immediately prior to commencement of study).
- Have secured a place on an AMBA-accredited MBA programme.
- Have five years’ practical work experience within industry or commerce, or if you are a recent graduate, two years’ work experience.
- You’re expected to make a contribution equal to 20% of the total course fees from your own funds.
You need not already bank with the NatWest to apply for an MBA loan but in order to take out a loan you must open and maintain your main current account with them.
Repayment of this loan begins three months after the course has finished. After this time, repayments can be made over a period of up to seven years or, in the case of loans of £20,000 and over, ten years. For distance learners, repayments commence one month after the funds have been paid into your account. The maximum term is ten years.
Further details and an application form can be obtained by calling the NatWest information line free on 0800 015 1166 or the Association of MBAs on 020 7246 2686.
