Career Development Loans

Career Development Loans are one of the major strands of the Government's agenda for lifelong learning.  Their aim is to assist overcome the financial barriers to learning by making it easier for any individual to manage, plan and invest in their own learning.  The loans are a longstanding programme, available within Great Britain, intended to help remove the financial barrier to learning.  The aims are to increase the amount of vocational learning, encourage more individuals to take responsibility for their own learning, and encourage financial institutions to view learning as an investment worthy of a loan.

A Career Development Loan (CDL) is a deferred repayment commercial bank loan designed to help you pay for any of the course modules that's best for you at South Warwickshire Flying School.  As it is a personal loan you are responsible for repaying the loan to the bank once you have completed your CDL-supported learning.  It is important that you understand how much your monthly repayments will be and also that you are confident you will be able to meet these repayments.  The Department of Education & Skills (DfES) pays the interest on your loan while you're learning and for up to one month afterwards.  If you complete the course, or stop training for any reason before the agreed date, the repayment holiday will end up to one month after your last day of training.

The CDL programme is run between DfES and the following three Banks:

   Barclays,  The Co-operative  and  The Royal Bank of Scotland

These three banks have the responsibility for checking that all applicants satisfy the eligibility conditions and that they will be able to repay the loan.  All lending decisions are the responsibility of the bank concerned and they have the right to refuse any loan application.

The payment policy run by the School, is as recommended by the DfES.  If the flying module is to last less than 16 weeks then the whole fee for that module be paid before the start date of the course.  If the module is to last more than 16 weeks but less than 1 year, then two equal staged payments will be made.  However, if training has progressed well and the student is ahead of time, then the remainder of the course fees will be requested before any further training especially if the funds held in the pupils School account have been reduced to a zero balance.  If the student is unable to continue the course for whatever reason, the School will make a full refund of all the unused money held in the account at any particular time.

As a CDL is a personal loan it is important to remember that, even if you fail to complete your course for whatever reason, you will still be responsible for repaying the full amount or the remainder of your loan to the bank.

South Warwickshire Flying School is involved in the scheme and its training provider registration number is 9858.  For up-to-date information on the scheme look at www.lifelonglearning.dfes.gov.uk/cdl .