As far as I know if we go do our training at Cwmbran then we get cedit for the Met which takes 1 week off the course. If we train with NATS then we do the full course.
Back to the original question, you would be crazy to pay thousands of pounds to train if you can get paid for it. Either accept that you are going to have to be mobile if you want to be a controller or think about another career. Either way good luck.