Will FAS pay for a private course?

[ney001]

My OH has been having difficulty getting onto a large number of FAS courses. Basically he goes down to FAS office regularly only to be told that they are too busy to talk to him about courses. He sends emails to the relevant contacts for the courses he wants to do but replies are always that he needs to go to office - by the time he speaks to somebody in office, courses are full and they try to get him to do some other course completely unrelated to his skills. So, as he is anxious to get training and upskill he has undertaken a number of courses privately, question is, if you do this are you entitled to any form of grant etc?. These courses are quite expensive and we are feeling the strain. Note husband is unemployed but not entitled to claim anything.

 

[Tessi]

I don't understand why anyone in the Fas office would say they are too busy to talk. In my and my partners experience of our local fas office is that we go in regularly and read all the notices/new courses coming up. We choose a course we thing would suit us and we go up to the counter and are then asked to wait for a short period before been interviewed to put our name down. This year I completed a 8 week short course and am now on a 40wk course. My oh has completed a 10 p/t course and now has he's name down for a 36 week course starting in sept. If you don't get a s/w benefit you can still do the course but will not get a payment.