Training agreement contract

[tiredjockey]

Hi all,

I am in a tricky situation with my employer regarding a training agreement I signed with them. They essentially paid for a 2-year course at the cost of 6.3k. I won’t go into details, but personal circumstances necessitate I get a higher paying job.

I will attach a redacted contract below; however, in summary the details are the following:
• Company will pay course fees only (no study time, or any other expenses)
• If I leave for any reason other than redundancy before completion. I will be required to pay back 100% of the costs before my final day.
• If I leave within 1 year after completion, I will be required to pay back 100% of costs.
• If I leave within 2 years, I will be required to pay back 50% of cost, after two years it is "free"

I am grateful to them however I can’t pay the costs in the way they stipulate, 6k before my last day is impossible. I wasn’t aware this was a bad contract and not a sliding scale one which are preferable.

I am hoping someone can advise me, it mentions they can request direct repayment and make deductions from payroll but not anything about legal action.

I have handed in notice but not been contacted by HR regarding this yet.

Would like to know where I stand with this contract if I said I am unable to pay, ignored their request or simply requested to work it out via payment plan etc.

Thanks in advance,

Contract
https://www.docdroid.net/JzXmMIP/educontract-pdf

[atticus]

At which point in the time scale are you? You do not say, but give the impression it is no later than one year after completing the course.

Agreements of this kind are common, and will be upheld. I suggest that you negotiate a payment plan.

Might your new employer contribute, possibly on similar terms?

[tiredjockey]

Thanks for the response.

At this point I am within one year of finishing.

Unfortunately I think it’s a little late to ask for my new employer to contribute in this way, I suspected this would hinder my chances of an offer.

[ULA]

I have reviewed the contract which did set out a sliding scale of repayment over two years, once the course was finished which is normal. As you have not got the point of completing the course then according to the terms you will need to pay back 100% of the course fees.

You cannot ignore their request to pay back the course fees as you signed your agreement to the terms and they would be well within their right to then take you to court for payment.

I would suggest that you see if you can agree a repayment plan but do not expect the terms to be generous in regard to time to pay back. You are a leaving employee and if you then reneged on the agreement once you had left, then again they could take you court for repayment of any balance you have not already paid back.

[Whale808]

I'm not an expert at all and deep apologies for my post but I manage a team of people including apprentices and we had a similar instance where an employee left within the repayment period. We're a relatively large company and have an internal legal department and their advice was that it would be difficult to enforce the repayment- despite a similar clause. The person had not completed their training and the further advice was that we should pro rata the fees to work out how much would the remainder of the course would cost and deduct that from them. I'm not sure if this anything to do with their status as an apprentice or perhaps the fact they were on a low wage in a cost of living crisis played into it? Reading this thread it makes me doubt the legal advice we received.

[ULA]

Hi Whale808 I cannot comment on the information you received from your internal legal department and there may have been special circumstances as to why they gave you the advice they did. However, clauses such as these are enforceable and I have known companies who have pursued for payment successfully after an employee has left the company, if the repayment has not been made.