Does anyone have experience of Career Development Loans?  I have been looking into getting one as though I have a full-time job, it is in a field that is no longer my goal.  I tested the waters and decided I didn't wish to swim.  I would like now to try my hand at something else, but this something requires a course which currently I can't afford.  I believe CDL's have a low rate of interest and could help me achieve my final career goal.  But I am hesitant as do already have my student loan to pay off....

Hey

I took out a CDL for a course last year. It certainly helped to pay for the course and other costs during the year..

I would say to be aware of a few things though..

You don't pay anything for the first year/time you're doing your course.. But you will HAVE to start paying a month after you finish - you're dealing with banks here and they're not as tolerant or patient as the Student Loans Company.. You can have anything from a year to 5 years to pay it off, so if you get a good job after your course this should be ok for you.. Bear in mind though that the repayments, even if you choose to make them over 5 years, will be much higher than for your student loan - up to a few hundred pounds a month in fact, depending on how much you take out for the loan of course.

The second thing, is just make sure of your job prospects afterwards.. perhaps speak to some companies doing what you'd like to do, and get some info about their employees doing what you want to do, maybe get an opinion from someone who knows of how likely you will be to get a similar job with the qualification or degree you're planning to get. I'd say this is quite important, personally I haven't managed to get the job I wanted despite passing my degree course - so the repayments etc can be quite difficult if you're maybe going to have a few months in between passing your course and finding your ideal job, when you have to make do with temp jobs, etc.. A lot of fields also value (many even seem to require!) voluntary or internship experience too, something which I am now looking into - its another, extra cost again, and extra hours of course; but, hey, at some stage we're supposed to get into a good career and be happy right ;) ?

ha ha good luck anyway, keep the above things in mind as it does feel quite serious when it all happens and you have repayments to make...but don't let this put you off, a bit of planning and checking the feasibility of what you want to do, career prospects, costs of living during the course etc., will do you a lot of good - take care and all the best with your career..

There are some things worth getting into debt for and my CDL to complete my training is one of them. Compared to other loans the interest in relatively low and can be paid back between 1-5 years. As said in the above post you don't pay anything until a month after the course finishes which is great, though you need to have got a job failry quickly upon finishing as the repayments are quite high - mine is £180/month for five years.

All in all if you want to comeplte the training and it will lead you to a job you really want, then it is definitely worth it.