LAKE COWICHAN - Unemployment is on the rise on Vancouver Island.

For those who are out of work, finding new work often means finding a new career.

But training courses offered to do that can be expensive.

Now, people who depend on tuition grants from the BC government are reeling from a sudden decision to slash that funding.

Kathy Wagner was set to begin a career-training course in January, but that's now on hold.

She thought she qualified for more than $11,000 in relief, until the province dropped a bombshell, and capped her tuition limit at just $4,000.

The Ministry of Social Development and Housing says it had no choice but to cap the funding, because the $280 million allocated to the re-training program was being spent too fast on too many applicants, and that cash has to last until next March.

Wagner says she's back at square one. Unemployed for a year and steps from bankruptcy, she says she can't apply for a student loan. She is essentially stuck.