City & Guilds funding update

Guidelines have been released for centres delivering pre-existing nested qualifications.

22 August 2019

Further to the decision to withdraw funding from 163 pre-existing qualifications, the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) have identified that many of the affected qualifications are run as part of a suite of qualifications where a smaller qualification is ‘nested’ within a larger one.

This means that a student who achieves the smaller qualification can top-up to a larger qualification in the same suite the following year.

The withdrawal of funding would mean that students who start a smaller qualification in the 2019/20 funding year would be unable to top-up to the larger qualification in 2020/21 and still be funded.

The ESFA have put in place a student transfer process to ensure that affected students are not disadvantaged by the change.

Student transfer process

The ESFA recommends that students starting a smaller qualification in 2019/20 should be offered the option to enrol on the larger qualification from the start.

This way they will have the option to complete the larger qualification in 2020/21 and retain the funding.

If they do not wish to progress to the second year, they can be transferred to and awarded the smaller qualification, as long as they meet all of the assessment requirements.

If a student decides to start on the smaller qualification, they will not be able to top-up to the larger qualification the following year.

This process is only available for the 2019/20 funding year, and applies to pre-existing qualifications funded through 16-19 study programmes, level 3 legal entitlement, and advanced learner loans.

 

Full guidance, including the details of the transfer process, can be found on the GOV.UK website. 

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