advice needed for my 22 year old son re payment of college fees to employer

[koryo]

Hi I am looking for some advice to assist my 22 year old son,
He started work 2 years ago for a company who agreed to pay his college fees (£7k) and he signed an agreement to say that he understands the company may pursue him in court for recovery of any amount outstanding under the agreement.
Anyway, fast forward 2 years, today was his last day, the company has not been a nice place to work for him, and he is leaving to go to a competitor which will be a much better environment to work in.
The company he has left have on his last day given him an invoice for £7k with 30 days payment terms.
Obviously he doesn't have £7k to pay the company. He is a young man just starting out. When he confronted the company the boss said the new company would have to pay it. So clearly he is just becoming a pawn in a bigger game between his old company and the new one.
My question is what are the chances of the company ever actually getting this money from him? Could they actually take him to court, would it be small claims court or something else? They couldn't send a debt collector round to his home to get the money without a court judgement ? What would it cost them to take him to court? Is a contract like that enforceable as it demanded that he stay with that employer for a further 2 years from now, surely this is not lawful ?
This is really playing on him and he is mentally in a bad place over this.
Any advice would be most helpful

[atticus]

Do you have a copy of the full agreement? Usually the amount to be repaid reduces on a sliding scale over 2 or 3 years.

[koryo]

Do you have a copy of the full agreement? Usually the amount to be repaid reduces on a sliding scale over 2 or 3 years.

yes there is an agreement with a sliding scale, but it says upto 6 months after completing the course it is 100% of the fee. He hasn't yet completed the course. I believe the employer gets the fees paid by the government in the form of a grant.

[atticus]

Can you convert your belief that the fee is paid by the government into hard fact?

[koryo]

Can you convert your belief that the fee is paid by the government into hard fact?

that's what I am currently researching - I know that companies have been able to apply for grants to get the fees paid for, I am currently trying to get some info on this, I am pretty sure they did get either it all paid or a large proportion of it paid