Back to education allowance, question about re-applying

Mollee

My boyfriend is a qualified tradesman and like many others he is out of work at the moment. He has decided to sit his leaving certificate next year so that he can gain entry to a 3rd level course.
He will be applying for btea for the leaving certificate, he has more than enough days on the job seekers benefit to be entitled to it. We're trying to figure out though if he will be able to reapply for the btea if he gets a place in college, the information out there isn't clear.

amtw

Yes, so long as he is progressing and the course he is undertaking is at a higher level on the HETAC framework then the one he has finished. If he is progressing from a level 5 course (leaving cert) to a level 6 (diploma) 7 or 8 (degree course) then he should get BTEA providing meets all the other criteria.

wmpdd3

If hes over 23 he wont need his leaving to get into college

Mollee

amtw wrote: »

Yes, so long as he is progressing and the course he is undertaking is at a higher level on the HETAC framework then the one he has finished. If he is progressing from a level 5 course (leaving cert) to a level 6 (diploma) 7 or 8 (degree course) then he should get BTEA providing meets all the other criteria.

Thanks for the reply. I wonder though would the year spent on back to education count towards the 234 days of unemployment needed to get the btea for 3rd level? Otherwise he would only have the 3 months of summer clocked up as being unemployed...

Mollee

wmpdd3 wrote: »

If hes over 23 he wont need his leaving to get into college

Thanks for the reply. Yeah he's aware of the mature student route but he can't apply for college until febuary anyway to start in September so he wont be doing anything this year so he might aswell sit the leaving cert as this will give him a better chance of getting a place by applying through the cao both ways at least if he doesn't get in as a mature he can fall back on lc. Besides, being a mature student doesn't mean you automatically get a place, it goes on your life experience in relation to the course and there are so many people returning to college he doesn't want to risk not getting a place and will do anything he can to better his chances.

wmpdd3

I agree, but my other half left school after his Junior Cert.
He did a PLC course in the subject he wanted to do in college. He thought that would serve him better than doing his leaving in subjects he would not use in college.

He was approved for BTEA after completing his PLC course, so it looks like that is counted as being on JSA for 3 months before college.

Wish him the best of luck.

Mollee

wmpdd3 wrote: »

I agree, but my other half left school after his Junior Cert.
He did a PLC course in the subject he wanted to do in college. He thought that would serve him better than doing his leaving in subjects he would not use in college.

He was approved for BTEA after completing his PLC course, so it looks like that is counted as being on JSA for 3 months before college.

Wish him the best of luck.

Thanks Yeah a PLC course would be the way to go but at the moment he is struggling to decide what he actually wants to study. He thinks he may be interested in studying architectural technology however the plc course that leads to this takes 2 years to complete and the leaving cert only takes 1. So he has had to weigh it up this way, and without being 100% decided that it's what he actually wants to do it's a tough call! Your right though, studying all those leaving cert subjects will be a bit of a waste but at least he will get into the habit of studying again and he will have a few months to make up his mind what he would like to do at 3rd level.

LegacyUser

he needs to have claim at least 78 days of Jobseekers to get BTEA Second Level Option.

When he starts BTEA the days will freeze, so time spent on BTEA will not count towards the 234 days required, however, if he is progressing from Second level onto Third level, AFAIK, he doesn't need to have 234 days.