Thanks for all the good advice so far!
Yes, I agree re starting out small - I've roughly calculated that £5k would be plenty to include buying a secondhard car/van etc as sold my car last year and currently on bike, as living in Brighton and bike lanes pretty good and traffic wardens diabolical here! Don't think I'd manage the tools on a bike carrier!!
I'm going to look into the grants etc today and if I can get some funding then it would prob make sense to go for the more comprehensive course, as a once-off opportunity etc