Would it be crazy to take out a loan to pay for a course?

[puppyplatter]

I've just bought a house. Mortgage is £620 per month and bills are on top of that. I earn just over £1900 per month. I'm single and have no kids. I have a dog.

There's a course I'd love to do which starts in September to train to be a counsellor. It costs £2750 per year (two years) which has to be paid upfront, or you can pay in instalments of £250 per month. In addition you have to pay for personal therapy (which I already do anyway at a cost of £200 per month) and supervision. The course only runs every two years so if I don't start it in September 2025, I'd have to wait until September 2027.

I'm currently pretty skint having just bought my house and paid for some work to it etc. I already have a degree so student finance wouldn't be an option but I've been pre-approved for a personal loan of £5k over 5 years. The repayments would be £113 per month. It says that overpayments are allowed without extra charge, so if I did get a promotion or a better paying job I could pay the loan off sooner. Would it be crazy to do it this way?

Nope, not crazy to consider it. It's enhancing your learning.

Oh tricky... I suppose if you know it will lead to more opportunities and if you will be able to pay it back OK. What you wouldn't want is to default on repayments and then them selling on the debt or the interest rates increasing etc. Because debts can snowball and if you're already skint and have just taken out a mortgage... I'd just want to be really sure it would be a smart decision financially.

Could you and the course be eligible for an advanced learner loan?

https://www.gov.uk/advanced-learner-loan

Just make sure it's accredited with the right professional bodies. Lots of places offer these type of courses but they are often worthless when it comes to it.

If its postgraduate and you haven't studied at that level before then you can get a student loan.

If you’re looking at the level 4 diploma there are lots of other costs to consider with this course. The books are very expensive and you have to do a 100 hour placement in your second year which you don’t get paid for. Supervision can be up to another £100 per month plus you need BACP membership and insurance in the second year which is probably another £150.
Time wise , cost wise and emotionally it’s not for the faint hearted but is a really rewarding course

Encouraged it doesn't sound like an outright no!

Unfortunately an advanced learner loan isn't an option as I'm not in England and it's not a postgraduate course so can't get a student loan.

The course is BACP accredited. I'm really keen to do it despite the costs (not just financial) involved.

Other than a student loan which is more like a tax, I've never had a loan before so would appreciate any thoughts on whether getting one for this purpose sounds like a wise move or not. I also plan to try my best to build up a cushion of funds in the next three months or so to see if maybe I could pay in instalments or at least borrow less. Do repayments of £113 sound feasible alongside my other outgoings?

Do repayments of £113 sound feasible alongside my other outgoings

It depends on what those are and also your lifestyle expectations.

Do you have significant commuting costs? What is your spending like generally? There can be hundreds of pounds a month difference between people in what they spend if you add up things like food, socialising, mobile/broadband/subscriptions, clothes, grooming, gym/hobbies, holidays, etc etc.

You say you're 'pretty skint'. Do you run out of money before the end of the month? Feel miserable because you can't afford the things you want?

What if something like your boiler broke, your car needed repairs or your dog needed veterinary treatment (although hopefully you have insurance)?

If you walked/cycled to work and were happy with a low key lifestyle it would be a lot more feasible than if you had a long list of optional spends that you regarded as basic essentials that you'd struggle to live without.

This. And check what jobs accept the qualification.

Training as a counsellor is expensive both in money and in time: as well as the time and money on the course and time to write essays etc you have to find a placement which you don't get paid for and have to do in your own time on top of the course hours; then there's the time and money you spend on clinical supervision; the time and money you spend on personal therapy; and then once you qualify you have to work another several hundred hours for free, sometimes still paying for your own clinical supervision and personal therapy, to apply for BACP accreditation - and BACP membership costs ££ too, and you have to keep paying out for 30 hours of CPD every year as well as BACP membership and 1 1/2 hours of clinical supervision per month is compulsory to stay accredited even when you have no clients.

Then after all that investment, the chance of you getting a paid job as a counsellor with enough hours that you actually make your living out of it, is slim, so you might end up setting up self employed in private practice, or working a portfolio of several piecemeal jobs to make a living. It's a money- and time-expensive training with not very much chance of making a living out of it at the end. Sorry.

Education leading to employment is one of the few good reasons to acquire debt.

take a hard look at your career prospects with the training. Sometimes people see a course and think it will be the path to success, but you want to look at the employment patterns of previous graduates. Also ask about how many people finish the course. What is the drop out rate? Consider your own chances of completion. What life barriers do you have that might get in your way? How will you get past them?

you end up with debt whether you complete the course and get a job, so the key is to make sure you have a full path to better employmwnt

I’d go for it. I applied for a postgrad loan from a bank that offered it specifically. Didn’t need it in the end as I got a scholarship but I would still have done the course and taken the loan.