An education at an aviation school can be a great investment to put you on the track of a high-paying and fast-growing career. But though this is a good option if you’re looking for a career change into a field with consistent salary growth, they still often require a significant payment up-front. So, here are a few options if you can’t afford flight school!
Scholarships and grants
The first step you’ll want to take when considering how to pay is to look into scholarships and grants. Check your school’s website or talk to a representative to learn about available options — oftentimes, schools will have scholarships open to their students, or you might be able to find third-party scholarships online that can go towards tuition or living expenses. Are you looking into available options for a variety of aviation training programs (or any other career training program)? A great resource to have on hand is scholarships.com!
Employer reimbursement
In the aviation field, employer reimbursement programs are fairly common. How it works is: your future employer pays for your tuition in exchange for an employment contract. Generally, these contracts require a commitment 1-2 years of employment from you in exchange for full or partial tuition.
These can be a great way to cover the cost of your program, but you’ll want to make sure you read the contract carefully! In some cases, if you stop working for the employer before the contract expires, you’ll be required to pay back the full amount of your tuition.
If you’re interested in taking advantage of this payment option, check with your school to see which companies they partner with.
Veteran benefits — GI Bill
If you are a veteran, or eligible for veteran benefits, you may be able to pay for your pilot training program through the GI Bill®, an education grant available to veterans and military personnel.
If you’re eligible, the GI Bill may be able to cover your full tuition. Apply on the VA website or ask your school for more information about qualification!
“GI Bill®” is a registered trademark of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). More information about education benefits offered by VA is available at the official US government website at www.benefits.va.gov/gibill.
Payment plans
Some aviation training programs will offer payment plans, so you can pay the total tuition amount over a few months. If you can’t afford flight school, it may be easier to pay these installments rather than the total tuition up-front. However, the monthly payments on these plans can still be quite large and a lot to manage while you’re looking for work after your program.
Climb loans
At Climb Credit, we offer student loan options for programs at our partner schools that have passed our return-on-investment (ROI) evaluation. This is a good option if you don’t want to commit to a specific employer or pay a large amount of money up-front. With us, you’re able to defer payments while in your course, followed by smaller monthly payments during the next years. If you decide you want to pay your loan balance early, you can do so at any time without a prepayment penalty. We offer fixed-rate loans for multiple aviation programs!
Want to know more? Check out some of our partner schools at the link below, and feel free to contact Climb Credit through the chat box in the corner or email at hello@climbcredit.com to learn how we can help you pay for your flight school!
