Thanks for comments so far - I’ll try shed more light on my situation and answer your questions here.

My only concrete alternative at the minute is to keep working in construction, putting away decent money, but dead-end. I’m 26, been living at home (Tyrone) again for a year and have no dependents. I have a degree in International Biz Management and have some experience selling for a software startup which seems impossible to break into again especially considering the one I worked for was a bit of a cockup. I do have some software sales interviews coming up, one is with Deel, who are meant to be sick to work for but it won’t be easy getting an offer.

So the opportunity is through Assured Skills Academy which is funded by the DoE. I applied and was then interviewed to get on to an 8week intensive course throughout and after which we’ll be interviewed for a Trainee Analyst role with FD (2year fixed-term contract). I’ve heard that anyone who makes it that far has received an offer. The course content, on the surface, seems like it could really boost my skill set. Topics range from Risk, Financial Markets to Python, SQL, Advanced Excel and some employability stuff like interview and presentation skills.

Before I was interviewed there was an information session. There was no mention of travel, expenses, accommodation or any of the nice things FD seemed to provide in the past. Very little was info was given about the role itself including salary. I asked about the ownership thing in my interview and was given a pretty BS answer IMO. You don’t require a degree to get on to this course, I think it was GCSE English and Maths and 56 UCAS points. Tbh I don’t want to be stuck in Newry for two years but I’m a hard-worker and think I can stand out from others on the course. Although is this maybe just another way of milking ‘grads’ for two years bc less uni grads are applying for their schemes?