You must usually:

• be living in the UK on the first day of your course
• have been living in the UK, Channel Islands or Isle of Man for 3 years before starting your course
• be a UK national or have ‘settled status’ (this means there are no restrictions on how long you can stay).

How much you get depends on:

• the type of course
• your course fees
• the maximum loan available for your course

The minimum loan you can get is £300 and is paid directly to your training provider.

You don’t have to borrow the full cost of your course – you can pay for some of it yourself.

Repayments start when your income is over a certain amount (the threshold amount). You’ll be charged interest from the day you get the first payment.

The threshold amounts change on 6 April every year.

Your repayments stop if you either stop working or your income goes below the threshold.

The earliest you’ll start repaying is the April after you leave your course.

Your employer will work out your repayments and take them out of your salary with your tax.

If you’re self employed, you make repayments as part of your Self Assessment tax return.

You can pay some or all of your loan at any time without an extra charge.

Loans are written off 30 years after the April you were first due to repay.

To begin the application process you will need a letter from Realise. You will then need to complete an online application which we will help you with. Usually this process takes 2 weeks and you will then receive a letter confirming your loan. Please get in touch with us at hello@realisetraining.com to get started.

Try the eligibility calculator

Practice your application with the online walkthrough

For further information please visit www.gov.uk