Funding your ICB Course Studies

Studying a course from the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers (ICB) can often be an expensive thing to do. There are options that make it more manageable to pay for your studies. The purpose of this article is to highlight some of the options available to both full-time students and those who wish to study part-time.

Study loans

One of the most common methods of funding courses is to take out a student loan from your preferred credit provider. Many banks offer reduced interest rates on student loans, however, even though it gives you the ability to pay your education provider for your studies, There are a few down sides to it.

Banks and Interest

Banks don’t just give you the money for your studies for you to pay them back. They also need to make a profit off of the service they are providing for you. The way they do this is by charging interest on the loan. Usually the bank will calculate a percentage of the loan to be paid back every year. For example, if you take a study loan of 10 000 rand to pay back over 2 years, and your interest rate is 10%, you will need to pay R1000 interest for each of the 2 years, which brings your total payments to R12 000.

Paying back more than you borrowed

Interest can escalate very quickly depending on how much money you borrow and how long you pay it off over. The longer the repayment term, the more money you will end up giving to the bank for the loan. The bank’s interest charges are calculated on the amount you still owe them during the course of your payment. This means that paying the loan off as quickly as possible is to your benefit as you will end up paying less interest. If you decide to pay back monthly, you can will end up spending more money on interest.

Credit records and blacklisting

The other downside is that if anything happens and you are unable to pay back the loan, the banks are allowed to take legal action against you. If you don’t pay back the loan on time according to the payment structure given to you, your credit score will be affected negatively. This means you’ll struggle to apply for any credit in the future until your credit score improves by paying back monthly payments reliably on anything you owe.

Avoiding Study Loans

There are ways to avoid taking study loans to fund your studies. Below are a few examples of things you can do to get around the negative aspects of student loans and fund your studies in a way that positively affects your future and career.

Bursaries

Certain companies and learning institutions offer bursaries to students who they believe are deserving but unable to afford the cost of their studies. This is one of the reasons why doing well at school is so important, as gives you a better chance of qualifying for a bursary. Most bursaries require you to maintain a certain pass mark during your studies in order to continue getting the funding.

Company issued bursaries are often given on condition that once you complete your studies, you will work for the company. This has an added benefit that you will be able to start a career as soon as you have completed the course you are studying.

Company Funding

Certain companies also offer student funding to employees who work full-time and study part-time. If you’re already employed and wish to further your studies, it may help to find out if your company has any measures in place to help you further your studies and career.

Affordable Monthly Payments

Certain institutions offer affordable monthly payments. This means that your payment structure would be similar to that of a student loan, however, you won’t be required to pay interest on your studies. Place like TWP Academy offer fully accredited ICB Courses for as little as R1000 a month. This makes it much easier to study with them while you are working.

If R1000 sounds like too much money to be paying on a monthly basis, consider the earning potential you will have after you have completed your ICB Accredited course. Most employers offer higher salaries to employees who have completed studies and sometimes offer increases to those who have completed courses. Having an ICB qualification also means that you could potentially apply for a better job if your employer does not recognise your qualification and does not offer you an increase. Your earning potential with these courses is always higher regardless of your current employment situation.