No sponsor
Fair point, so did I (well, most of it anyway), but back then it WAS comparitively cheap, about £30,000 got you a good start with your training, £40,000 would see you through barring any double failures with retraining requirements.
Now I see figures mentioned of £60,000 to £70,000 (albeit for integrated courses), and wages ten years later are not significantly higher today, certainly not double what they were when I trained, yet the training cost seems to have doubled somehow, especially at CTC. That's a lo.....ong time to save up!