TRAINING VENUE
Rooms Worthing
Cara courses and workshops are run from the modern, bright and vibrant Rooms function space in Worthing, right in the heart of the town centre. It’s the perfect venue – modern, easy to find, convenient and great for parking as the entrance is on the Level 2 of the Guildbourne Centre car park. A giant letter R will lead you to the step-free entrance.
Rooms is a multi-faceted business and meeting facility. The centre was totally restored and renovated in 2021 and has an industrial feel with clean modern lines. Rooms cater for events, meetings and classes and has coworking space, multi-use rooms and a 250 seat auditorium for larger conferences.
Rooms Worthing, 44 Guildbourne Centre, Worthing BN11 1LZ. Map link: Rooms Worthing. Guildbourne Centre car park is open 24/7.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What qualifications do I need to become a counsellor?
The counselling profession is regulated as some other professions are, this means that the job description of ‘counsellor’ is not protected by law. Unfortunately, this means that some individuals with minimal training can set themselves as a ‘counsellor’. There are however, benchmarks set by professional bodies such as the BACP (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy) which stipulate clearly what training is needed to become a registered or accredited member. The absolute minimum training requirement is a Level 4 Diploma in Counselling or above.
How long will it take for me to qualify as a counsellor?
Generally, it will take you between 3-4 years to qualify depending on your training route.
I have a degree, can I join the Level 4 Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling?
The entry requirements onto the level 4 Diploma are the CPCAB Level 2 Certificate in Counselling Skills and the CPCAB Level 3 Certificate in Counselling Studies or their equivalent. As a minimum you need to have completed 150 guided learning hours in counselling. Counselling courses are relationally and practically focused rather than academically focused.
If I already have counselling qualifications do I have to start with the Level 2?
If you have successfully completed 150 guided learning hours you may be eligible for entry onto the Level 4 Diploma however the course tutors would need to assess your prior learning. If you have had a gap in your training of 4 years you would need to re-take Level 2 if you are not in a role where you use counselling skills.
STUDENT FINANCE
As we are an independent training organisation we are not able to access the Adult Learner Loan for our students.
If you are aged 19 you may be eligible for the government Adult Learner Loan. These loans help pay your college or training organisation for your course fees; you would need to be enrolled at a college to access this kind of funding, as independent training organisations do not qualify for a student loan facility.
Finding the right course is important and not all programmes are at college. As we are unable to provide government loans, if you wish to train with us, you will need to fund your course through a different route. You could use savings to pay for your course fees or get a loan from elsewhere, a personal loan or a credit card balance transfer. Both a personal loan and a Credit Card Balance Transfer provide a fixed monthly payment and a pre-determined date by which the loan is repayment is finalised.
Cara Counselling Training Limited also offers student the opportunity to spread the cost of the course over the two-year study period without attracting any interest rate. The repayment for a level 4 course for instance, would be around 22 monthly payments of around £275. Whatever you decide, it has to be the right decision for you and your circumstances.
An Explanation of College Adult Learner Loans
With a learner loan the way repayments are linked is to how much you earn, not how much you borrow. So, whether you borrow the maximum £6000 or less as a contribution to the £7010 fee for the Level 4 programme the payback is the same.
You will only pay back money when you are earning more than £21,000 a year and you then pay 9% of the money you earn over £21,000, before tax.
If you earn £27,000, that is £6,000 more than £21,000 you pay back 9% of £6,000 per year: 9% of £6,000 is £540 a year or £45 a month.
However, there are some other important considerations to take on board. If you are paid weekly or monthly it is your weekly or monthly earnings that are considered. You will be able to earn up to £404 per week or £1750 per month before you start to make repayments.
A wage of £21,000 a year works out at £404 per week. So, if you were paid overtime one week and that increased your weekly earnings to £804 before tax that would be £400 over the weekly limit so you would pay back 9% of that £400 (i.e. £36). The same applies if you earn more than £1,750 per month.
With a personal loan the interest rate you pay is linked to how much you borrow and the repayment period. So, if you borrow £6,000 the equivalent of the maximum Adult Learner Loan over a period of 3 years the best deal currently is 7.2% and the repayment is likely to be in the region of £173 per month.
With a Credit Card Balance transfer, how much you pay back per month is up to you, but you do need to clear the balance by the end of the offer period. The best current deal a fee of 3.45% so if you borrow £6,000 your initial balance is immediately £6,207 and to repay this over 29 months would require a monthly payment of £180.
How much interest will I have to pay of a college Adult Learner Loan?
With an Adult Learner Loan, the interest is applied to the loan as soon as payments to your college is made, around six weeks after your start date. The rate of interest will be 3% +RPI until the April after you leave your course.
Note RPI stands for Retail Price Index. It is a way of working out inflation – the changing cost of typical goods and services that people buy. For example, if inflation was at 5%, a basket of shopping that cost you £100 this year would cost you £105 next year. If the cost of goods and services goes up or down, the outstanding balance of your loan will go up or down at the same rate.
This means that the sum you owe is attracting interest for the duration of your course plus a number of months after you finish until April the following year. So, if you borrow the maximum Adult Learner Loan of £6,000 your balance will be £7,318 the April after you finish assuming an RPI of 5% (it could be higher or lower). An RPI of 5% (it was 4.5% in August 2024) is assumed in Adult Learner Loan the figures provided below.
After you have finished your course, the interest by which the outstanding balance accumulates will depend on your income.
Group 1 earning less than £21,000 the interest on your loan will be RPI.
Group 2 earning between £21,000 and £41,000 the interest on your loan will be RPI + 3% or less.
Group 3 earning more than £41,000 the interest on your loan will be RPI + 3%.
Both a personal loan and a Credit Card Balance Transfer will require monthly repayments commencing a month after the agreement is made and will have a fixed interest rate for the agree period.
Repayment Period
With an Adult Learner Loan, the repayments are always worked out in the same way. Your earnings will be in one of the above bulleted groups it does not make any difference whether you borrowed £1000 or £6,000, your repayments will always be the same per month until you have paid your loan off. If your earnings go up or down, then your repayments will change to reflect that.
If your earnings are less than £21,000 per annum you will not make any payments towards reducing your Adult Learner Loan, however it will continue to attract interest at the RPI value this a loan of £6,000 taken out for a two year programme will have a balance of £7,318 by the April following the end of you course. That will continue to grow to around £11,000 over the next ten-year period.
If your earning are:
• between £21,000 and 41,000, say £27,000 you may be paying RPI plus 1%. At the end of the same 10-year period the balance of your adult learner loan would remain around £7,600 having paid of £3,000.
• £35,000 per annum, RPI pus 2.1%, you would pay off your loan after approximately 10 years with a total repayment of around £10,000.
• £42,000 per annum, RPI plus 3%, you would pat of your loan in just over 5 years with a total repayment of around £9,000.
In order that repayments cover the interest only you would need to have annual earnings of around £27,900.
NB Please note that this information sheet has been written by doing independent research on the government website and searching for current loan rates. We aren’t providing this as financial advice and are not loan or financial advisors but simply addressing in detail questions raised about future finances for Cara. This our opinion only and we recommend that you research what is best for you.
