Private College Student Loan

A relative of mine (UK) wants to get off benefits and get in to work/education after a tough few years...?

My neice is 20 years old, left school early and got in to quite a bit of mischeif; drugs, alcohol, "the wrong crowd" so to speak. She is now on the straight and narrow and desperately trying to get her life back in order and do something with her life. I've said things to her like "go to college" and "look for a job" but in reality, she is clueless and I am clueless as to what advice to give her and what she is entitled to. She left school with no GCSE's and has no qualifications whatsoever and no work experience. She lives with her partner (who is on long term sickness benefit, I think) and she claims jobseekers benefit. She wants to get out and work but finding a job for her is difficult because of the fact she has no qualifications or experience). She told the job centre that she had found a job she was thinking of applying to that she stood a chance of getting but it was only part time so they told her that her benefit would be stopped, rendering her worse off than she would be on benefits! Before her life took a turn for the worse she had aspirations of getting in to podietary and this is still something she enjoys doing, she looks after her Grandmother's feet and it is still something she would love to get in to. However, it's my understanding that to get in to that she would need GCSE science and she would need to carry out an access to higher learning course at college before attempting to enroll on to a university course. The problem with this, of course, is that she would not be able to afford to live while she was at college (of course, when she got to university she would get her student loan but she has a few years before she gets there getting her GCSE and doing an access course!). She would love to get in to the line of work of care...or something care related, looking after people and I would just like to know what options she has open to her that are viable (ie means she wont have to starve and be unable to pay her rent) to further her education/career prospects. She feels like she is stuck in a rut and I don't know what to advise her or where I can take her for advice. Some additional info; -she is in the north east of England.

Public Comments

1. how nice of you to help her so much. where do you live in UK? Right there are tons of agency's, people, council wanting people to get off benefits, so she must look at every option, things like new deal, i'm sure while you are on benefits your college course are paid for. she needs to go to places like Action for employment. apply to care homes, in some cases she might have to start out on the ladder but they may take on a young girl willing to learn and then she could fund her own education etc. i bet she feels like she's in a rut, and she is luck she has you to help he. Even if she got some factory work, which can be quite well paid but hard work just until she saves up enough cash to start doing the science GCSE...