Tax Deductible Training

[AlexHit01]

My situation is that I am self-employed Illustrator (as registered with HMRC) and had been working freelance for an international company for a number of years, they were my only client and so when they went bump in October 2017 I lost my job. I decided to go for a complete career change and started training up to be a childminder. Over those next few months, still falling into the 2017-18 tax year, I did a lot of training that is legally mandatory to become a childminder (Home Base Childcare Aware qualification, Food Hygiene, Paediatric First Aid), however, I didn't officially begin training and taking in money with my business until June 2018 (new tax year, when my books for my new business would begin).

I'm wondering whether I can put my training expenses into my 17-18 accounts, as I believe the training itself would be tax deductible typically and considered "wholly and exclusive" as it is a legal necessity to have these qualification, however, it isn't relevant to the business I was in during that time, or does that not matter? I would really appreciate any guidance with this.

[AdamS93]

Unfortunately, the cost is not tax deductible as you have gained a new skill.

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/business-income-manual/bim35660