What an horrific email, to my simple head it smacks of throwing good money after bad. Consider the following situations:
1. A few students agree to pay the extra money which goes into the Cabair debt black hole, but not enough students stump up to stop Cabair going into administration so the students that have paid extra lose that money as well as their initial fees that they paid when they signed up to the school.
2. Enough students stump up extra money to keep Cabair alive but some students refuse to pay extra. Do the students that have not paid extra get to continue their training as well as those that did pay extra?
3. Assuming enough students pay up to rescue Cabair now, what happens in 3 months when that extra money is gone and they’re back in the same situation, do the students have to pay even more?
The only way for the students to make anything work is for all of them to form a group and speak with one voice.
It’s interesting to note that the email from Cabair makes no mention of senior staff getting their wallets out to prop up the organisation that has feathered their nests for some time, maybe it’s true that there is no honour among thieves.
Much as it pains me to state it, the only sensible thing to do would be to let the school go into administration and for the affected students to register a claim with the administrator for any money that they are owed for training not yet received. It will take years to settle any claims and no-one will get 100% of what they are owed but some might get a little refund.
As the email states, it’s up to the students to be the jury and it may well be time to ‘send the accused down.’
Whatever the outcome, my sincere best wishes go out the Cabair students and decent ‘shop floor’ employees who are affected by this situation.