Pilot update: Cockburnspath & Cove Education and Training Fund
The Cockburnspath & Cove Community Fund launched a pilot Education & Training Fund, offering individual bursaries of up to £1,500 towards the costs of education, training and apprenticeships.
In March 2026, the Cockburnspath & Cove Community Fund launched a pilot Education & Training Fund, offering individual bursaries of up to £1,500 towards the costs of education, training and apprenticeships. The pilot was designed to run for one year, or until its £20,000 budget was exhausted, whichever occurred first.
In practice, the allocation was fully committed within five months. By the time the Fund closed in August 2026, fifteen awards had been made, totalling £20,768, £768 above the original allocated amount.
For a fund serving a small and sparsely populated area, this represents a substantial rate of uptake.
What applicants used the funding for
The pattern across the fifteen awards is notably consistent for a fund with such broad eligibility. Seven of the fifteen (almost half) included a contribution towards driving lessons, either as the sole purpose of the award or combined with a course or accommodation cost.
The following supporting statement helps make clear why.
One applicant, a 17-year-old aspiring veterinary student, explained that the local bus service runs only along the A1 between Dunbar and Berwick and is, in their words, “relatively infrequent”, making a licence essential to their plans. Another, hoping to work in agriculture, noted that the nearest bus stop serving them was in Duns, twelve miles away. A third wrote simply that living rurally meant needing to be independent enough to get to a part-time job, school and eventually university. |
A second group of awards supported residents already enrolled in further or higher education, covering accommodation and associated living costs for courses not available within commuting distance of the village including Education Studies at Queen Margaret University, a Master of Diagnostic Radiography at QMU, a Bachelor of Law at a Glasgow institution, and an HND in Sound Production.
Once again, the supporting statements are specific to their need.
One QMU student described needing a car for fuel, parking, insurance and road tax to reach both lectures and school placements, given the limited public transport in their area. A Computer Arts student starting at Abertay wrote about living away from home for the first time and the compounding cost of accommodation alongside driving lessons. A Law student noted that the cost of accommodation in Glasgow and the intensity of the degree, which left no realistic capacity for part-time work during term. |
The remaining awards funded vocational and professional qualifications closer to home: a COSCA Certificate in Counselling Skills, where the applicant cited childcare and weekly travel to Edinburgh alongside course fees; an RLSS Pool Lifeguarding qualification for a member of a local Swim Club seeking part-time work; a PRINCE2 Project Management course looking to requalify; and an SVQ3 in Health and Social Care. In each case, the award closed a specific, itemised gap rather than funding a course in general terms.
Why the driving-lesson demand is significant
Perhaps the clearest finding from the pilot centres around driving lessons as seven of the fifteen awards supported these. In areas like the Scottish Borders, where young people leave at some of the highest rates in Scotland, transport research points to a consistent pattern, without reliable buses or trains, a driving licence often makes the difference between staying and going. For many, the cost of lessons alone puts that licence out of reach.
Each award that helped someone stay in Cockburnspath & Cove, to study, train or work further afield while still calling it home, is a quiet but meaningful counterweight to that pattern.
Final Thoughts
The pilot's £20,000 budget was fully committed within five months rather than the full year allowed, and the pattern of awards offers some insight into local need.
These findings indicate that applicants used the Fund for a range of practical costs beyond course fees, reflecting the range of barriers faced by residents in accessing education and training.
Read more about the Cockburnspath & Cove Community Fund.