Covering loan repayments over winter
For those people about to start on a Flexicrew contract, I would definitely make sure you have some other skill and therefore some other means of making money. Your life will be a whole lot less stressful if you know that were you to be stood down over the winter, you will still be able to make your loan repayments and have enough money to live. I know some might say that it's easy for me to say this but I have had first hand experience of it - there was a sizeable delay from when I finished training until when I started working and it was not fun moneywise.