back to college: no financial help?

Ive just signed up for the IATI part time college course and was really shocked they wouldnt do stage payments in the college.

The accountancy body will take stage payments for their fees of 700, but not the actual college. The fees are 1320.00 for 4 modules to be paid up front this week!! I am a single mother and my hours of work have just been cut so really cannot afford to pay this much money out at one time. I have scrimped and saved for the last few months to get about 800 of the course fees saved thinking I had time to save the remaining money but alas this is not to be!

I work part time and am receiving one parent family allowance plus half rate jobseekers which is due to end fairly soon. Is there no help out there for people like me who want to return to education to provide a better life for myself and my family?

The prices your giving seem very high, are you doing this by night or is it online / correspondence. I've just completed this course full-time and the cost was nothing like this. Depending on your location, there should be local colleges doing this part-time at night for a lot less. Sorry, but I'm not aware of any grant aid for part-time students.

Is it possible to ask your employer to make a contribution towards it if it benefits his company in longterm

hi rambler, Im doing this by night part-time. Each module is 330 x 4 modules =1320. The iati fees are for registration, exams, seminars etc=720 And thats only for 1 year. Yes it does seem a lot.

Papervalue- No, theres no hope of them making a contribution. I was cut to a 3 day week in work last year when things were at an all time low but since then its gotten really really busy again and now its just them jumping on the recession bandwagon. Things have never been busier in there!! Ive dropped a few hints about how much its costing me and got blank stares in return lol so its a no go unfortunately. Plus Im hoping to get out of there really soon anyway so dont want to be tied to them if they pay for my college!

Anyway, I emailed the Head course co ordinator and explained my case to them and theyve agreed to let me pay half and half next month. Will give me a bit of time to get myself sorted! Yippee, another month of scrimping and saving, but needs must!!

thanks for the replies guys!