FE ITE bursaries funding manual: 2023 to 2024

Question 1

Subjects eligible for a bursary

Accepted Answer

ITE bursaries are only available for the subjects in this table, for courses starting in the 2023 to 2024 academic year.

Subject	Bursary
Mathematics	£29,000
Science, including biology, chemistry, or physics	£29,000
Engineering or manufacturing	£29,000
Computing	£29,000
Special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)	£15,000
English ^{[footnote 1]}	£15,000

Funding is not available for any subject that is not included in this list.

Question 2

Trainee eligibility

Accepted Answer

For a trainee to be eligible to receive a bursary, you must make sure they meet the criteria.

A trainee must:

be eligible to receive student support (although it is not a requirement for them to be in receipt of student support)
have achieved a standard equivalent to GCSE grade 4 (C) or above in English and mathematics, and at least a level 3 qualification in their subject of teacher training, or have relevant professional experience
be taking a qualifying pre-service ITE course in England
meet other related expectations, including intending to seek an FE teaching post in England after qualification

There is more information on the eligibility criteria.

A trainee is not eligible if they:

already have a Diploma in Education and Training (DET), DET-compliant qualification or equivalent
have already received a full FE ITE bursary or grant award for a previous FE ITE programme or qualification
receive a salary or other payment for any teaching work associated with the FE ITE programme for which they are receiving the bursary
are also on another ITE course, training scheme or programme, which leads to a DET or DET-compliant qualification
are on an apprenticeship programme

Trainees are not eligible for a bursary if they already hold, or are eligible to receive:

early years teacher status (EYTS)
qualified teacher status (QTS)
qualified teacher learning and skills status (QTLS)
advanced teacher status (ATS)

Student support

You must make sure that from the first day of training the trainee meets the criteria of being an ‘eligible student’ and is eligible to receive support from the Student Loans Company (SLC). The trainee does not need to have applied, or intend to apply, for a loan, but you must be satisfied that they are eligible to receive student support.

You must also ensure that the ITE programme is a designated course for the purposes of student finance as set out in the regulations.

See regulations 4 and 5 (Part 2, Eligibility) of the Education (Student Support) Regulations 2011, as amended, for more information.

Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) does not affect a trainee’s eligibility for a bursary. Receiving a bursary does not change their eligibility to receive DSA.

Trainees may also be eligible for an ITE bursary if they are:

EU nationals who qualify for pre-settled status or settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme
from the Isle of Man, Jersey or Guernsey and eligible for support from their respective home education departments

For further information on these requirements, contact Student Finance England. International students can contact the UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA) for advice on student support and other issues around studying in the UK.

Qualifications

To be eligible to receive a bursary, a trainee must have achieved a standard equivalent to:

English GCSE grade 4 (C) or above
mathematics GCSE grade 4 (C) or above

It is the standard, not the certificate, which matters. When you look for evidence that a qualification is of a standard equivalent to GCSE grade 4, you should look at the level and breadth of the qualification. We do not provide a list of qualifications that can be considered equivalent to the GCSE examinations in English and mathematics. Qualifications in key and functional skills at level 2 are not equivalent to GCSEs in terms of content.

If applicants are suitable but have not successfully achieved at least a GCSE grade 4, you can give them an opportunity to show that they can meet the required standard - either by taking an equivalence test or by offering other evidence of attainment. Consider making similar arrangements for candidates who cannot provide original certificates as evidence.

You should be confident that the trainee’s subject qualification has the same level of breadth and depth that would be expected of a UK level 3 qualification.

If the trainee does not hold a relevant level 3 qualification, you can use your discretion when considering the trainee’s skills, knowledge and relevant professional experience to decide whether their subject knowledge will allow them to complete an ITE programme successfully.

An ITE bursary award is dependent on the subject that a trainee trains to teach - not the subject of any other qualifications they hold.

Example

If a trainee with a degree in English and relevant sector experience trains to teach physics, they will be eligible for a £29,000 physics bursary. If they train to teach English, they will be eligible for a £15,000 English bursary.

Assessing UK academic qualifications

You must make sure that those responsible for making decisions on bursary eligibility have access to advice on the range of qualifications regarded as equivalent to GCSE grade 4 (C) or above and level 3 in the UK. This may include:

overseas qualifications
professional or vocational qualifications
qualifications no longer available but held by mature applicants

You must decide whether an individual’s highest relevant qualification meets the bursary eligibility criteria.

Where the trainee does not hold a formal qualification in the subject they intend to teach, you will need to assess whether the skills, knowledge and experience that they have in the relevant subject or specialism is enough for them to meet the requirements of the training programme.

You must keep an audit trail of how you assess this and be prepared to provide evidence in support of your decisions. You can:

use internal colleagues, such as those in the relevant subject department
consult external organisations, such as the awarding body of the equivalent qualification or a professional body related to the subject
conduct a review of the course content or transcripts of a qualification

If you do not have the experience to assess the validity of academic qualifications, refer to the frameworks for higher education (HE) qualifications of UK degree-awarding bodies.

Assessing overseas qualifications

When selecting trainees with overseas qualifications, you should make sure that they meet the ITE bursary requirements.

You can get a statement of comparability from the UK National Information Centre for the recognition and evaluation of international qualifications and skills (UK ENIC). This confirms if the trainee’s qualification is comparable to a UK qualification.

You must hold full records of all trainees in receipt of bursaries. This includes any qualifications or training referenced in a trainee’s application which have been achieved before starting their ITE.

Your decision on eligibility must:

be based on the content of the relevant qualifications
not include any unrelated qualifications

Where an individual does not already hold at least a level 3 qualification in the subject of training, you must make a professional assessment to determine eligibility. This should include considering the skills, knowledge, and experience that an applicant has.

Eligible ITE courses

To be eligible to receive a bursary, the trainee must be on a qualifying pre-service ITE course in England. The course must begin on or after 1 September 2023 and finish no later than 31 August 2024 (for full-time courses) or 31 August 2025 (for part-time courses).

A small number of providers may call a part-time FE ITE course an in-service course. A trainee on one of these courses may still be eligible for a bursary if they are not employed or receiving a salary for the teaching work they do as part of the ITE programme.

A qualifying course must lead to the award of a level 5 DET or a same or higher level DET-compliant qualification, with a specialisation in one of the subjects eligible for a bursary.

Courses that enable a trainee to be recommended for the award of early years teacher status (EYTS), qualified teacher status (QTS), or a non-DET-compliant qualification are not eligible for ITE bursary funding.

Combination courses

The course content must be at least 50% in the subject for which the bursary is awarded. You must be able to provide clear evidence that the course undertaken by a bursary recipient meets this minimum threshold, as this may be required by the department for assurance purposes.

We award courses with equal content of 2 subjects the bursary for the subject with the highest bursary rate.

Example

A course with content of 50% or more in English and the rest in drama would receive the English bursary.

A course with content of more than 50% drama would not be eligible for a bursary as there is no bursary award for this subject.

English for speakers of other languages (ESOL)

There is not a bursary specifically for ESOL. The English bursary is to support those intending to teach English from basic skills to GCSE and up to level 3.

If a trainee is registered to undertake a combined specialist ITE programme in ESOL with an English speciality of at least 50% of the programme this is in scope of the bursary. In this case, the provider would be expected to be able to provide clear evidence that the course content meets the eligibility threshold.

Trainee expectations

We expect that trainees who accept a place with you and are eligible to receive a bursary will:

inform you of any changes to their bank account details and address
promptly inform you if they intend to withdraw from the course
sign a declaration of understanding with you that they expect to seek a teaching post in the FE sector in England on successful completion of their course

You should make it clear how you intend to pay the bursary to the trainee. The bursary payments section has more details on payment patterns.

Question 3

Ofsted judgments and provider eligibility

Accepted Answer

If you have received an Ofsted judgement for overall effectiveness of either inadequate or requires improvement for FE ITE, you will not be eligible to submit applications for the bursary.

This relates only to FE ITE bursaries and does not impact bursaries relating to QTS programmes or eligibility for student finance for FE ITE.

Eligibility is based on your most recent Ofsted ITE inspection at the date an application is submitted. If you have not yet been inspected for your FE ITE provision, you are still eligible to submit applications for the bursary.

If you offer more than one phase of ITE, for the purposes of assessing eligibility for the bursary, only the FE judgement will be taken into account. If you have received a separate judgement for your ITE provision and further education and skills (FES) provision, only the ITE judgement will be considered.

If your ITE is rated by Ofsted as either inadequate or requires improvement while one or more of your trainees is already receiving bursary funding, this will continue to be paid, regardless of the academic year for which that funding is provided.

Once an inspection outcome of requires improvement or inadequate has been published by Ofsted, any additional applications will be refused, and additional funding will not be awarded.

Franchise arrangements are inspected as single entities by Ofsted, and the grade will apply to all providers in the partnership when we assess eligibility for FE ITE bursaries.

In validation arrangements, each individual provider will be inspected by Ofsted and will receive a separate grade. It is the grade received by the individual provider (and not the validating partner) that determines whether they are eligible to submit FE ITE bursary applications.

The terms ‘validation’ and ‘franchising’ are applied as set out in the QAA UK Quality Code, the Office of the Independent Adjudicator, the Office for Students Regulatory Framework and Ofsted’s ITE inspection framework.

Question 4

Apply for a bursary

Accepted Answer

Applications for bursaries for the 2023 to 2024 academic year have now closed.

We do not accept applications from trainees. All applications must come from an FE ITE provider.

You can make applications for trainees at any time either on an individual basis or in batches, ahead of a course starting. Find out if a trainee and their specific course are eligible for a bursary before making an application.

Check your trainee has not applied for a bursary from another FE ITE provider. Only one bursary is available per trainee.
Complete the application form and email it to FE.workforceincentives@education.gov.uk.
Wait for us to confirm we are awarding a bursary before informing your trainee in writing. Make sure trainees know whether they are getting a bursary before the start of their ITE course.

Bursary allocations

We award bursaries based on applicants meeting the eligibility criteria and the availability of funding. Not every candidate who meets the eligibility criteria will necessarily be able to receive a bursary. It will depend on the total number of eligible applications received.

We welcome applications from everyone irrespective of background but, as ethnic minority groups are currently under-represented in the FE teaching workforce, we would suggest that ITE providers encourage applications from members of these groups.

For the 2023 to 2024 academic year, we will allocate funding on a first-come-first-served basis. In order to allow for more of a focus on SEND and science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects, English places will be capped at 100.

Once the available funding has been exhausted, we will keep details of anyone remaining on a waiting list in case any trainee withdraws before their course starts, and their bursary can be reallocated.

If a trainee withdraws, you must let us know immediately so we can consider reassigning the funding to another trainee. See withdrawals and deferrals for more information.

Bursary funding cycle

These key dates set out the timeline for when you will need to apply, send bursary funding data and when we will make payments.

If successful, you will receive a grant funding agreement to sign and return to us as soon as possible.

We must approve your grant funding agreement and your payment details must be on our system before August 2023 to make payments from September.

August 2023

We will write to you about funding amounts for September 2023 to January 2024 based on your trainee data.

September 2023

If you have a grant funding agreement in place, we will make the first payment. It will be based on your trainee data.

October 2023

If you have a grant funding agreement in place, we will make the second payment. It will be based on your trainee data.

November 2023

If you have a grant funding agreement in place, we will make the third payment. It will be based on your trainee data.

In November, we will ask you to confirm trainee records using the form we provide. If you do not reply by the given deadline, we will suspend future payments.

December 2023

If you have a grant funding agreement in place, we will make the fourth payment. It will be based on your trainee data.

January 2024

We will write to you about funding amounts from January 2024. It will be based on your trainee data.

January to July 2024

If you have a grant funding agreement in place, we will make the remaining payments each month. They will be based on your trainee data.

In March and July, we will again ask you to confirm trainee records using the form we provide. If you do not reply by the given deadline, we will suspend future payments.

August 2024 to July 2025

This process will be repeated for providers with part-time trainees still on the programme.

December 2024

You will need to supply retention-related data on former trainees alongside your annex G return. This activity will be repeated in December 2025 for providers with part-time trainees.

Question 5

Bursary payments

Accepted Answer

You are responsible for the management and administration of bursary payments, including:

assessing the eligibility of the trainee and their specific course
awarding the bursary to the trainee
letting us know if a trainee withdraws from their course

To be able to receive bursary funding for your trainees, you must complete and return a grant funding agreement. We cannot release any funding until we have received and accepted the signed grant funding agreement.

It is important that you return the grant funding agreement signed by your accounting officer as soon as possible. Failure to do this promptly may mean we are unable to release funding until after trainees have started their courses.

We will issue you with a single grant funding agreement, regardless of the number of bursary applications made.

If you are a new ITE provider and have not previously received grant funding you will need to provide information about your banking and payments to Department for Education (DfE).

Details of other requirements, including around maintaining necessary evidence and audit trails, are set out in monitoring and assurance requirements.

Payments to trainees

You should make bursary payments to trainees throughout the academic year.

These payments are not taxable. However, as with student maintenance loans, they may be treated as capital income for the purposes of assessing income for trainees in receipt of state benefits. Refer trainees to their local benefits office to determine their eligibility for state benefits.

If we find a trainee is ineligible for the bursary, we will recover any bursary payments made by you to them. You must make all reasonable efforts to recover bursary payments from your trainee.

Payments for full-time courses

Bursary awards should typically be paid in a minimum of 10 equal monthly instalments over the duration of the course. However, you may choose to amend the payment profile, at your discretion, for example to make an enhanced final payment to help with retention.

Bursary award	Value of monthly instalments
£15,000	£1,500
£29,000	£2,900

Do not make any payments to the trainee until we release the funding. Any payments made prior to all eligibility criteria being met are at the provider’s sole risk. We will not reimburse payments if the trainee is unable to meet the eligibility criteria in full.

Payments for part-time courses

For part-time trainees, you will receive:

50% of the funding in the first year of their course (2023 to 2024 academic year)
50% of the funding in the second year of the course (2024 to 2025 academic year)

Make sure that the bursary payments broadly reflect the proportion of the course that the trainee has completed at any point. This will typically be in 20 equal monthly instalments over the duration of the course.

Bursary award	Value of monthly instalments
£15,000	£750
£29,000	£1,450

Trainees should get their first bursary payment if they are actively engaged on the ITE programme on the first day of the month following their start date.

Example

A trainee starting their course in September 2023 will be entitled to their first payment if they are actively undertaking the programme on 1 October. They will be entitled to the second payment if they are on the programme on 1 November. This is regardless of your individual payment date.

Where a trainee successfully completes their course before the end of the academic year, you may choose to pay them the full balance of the bursary early at your discretion. We will continue to make payments to you on the existing monthly cycle.

Training bursary funding must not be paid:

as part of maternity or paternity pay arrangements
during a period of unauthorised absence

If a trainee is absent through sickness, you may only make one further payment following the first day of absence. After this, if the absence will continue into the next payment period, treat the absence as a period of deferral from the course. This means a withdrawal from the bursary scheme, and payments must stop with immediate effect. See withdrawals and deferrals for more information.

These principles also apply for trainees who start their courses later in the academic year if they complete their course no later than August 2024 (for full-time courses) or August 2025 (for part-time courses).

Example

If a trainee starts their course in November 2023, they will be entitled to their first payment (subject to bursaries still being available) if they are actively undertaking the programme on 1 December.

Payments must not be made before the trainee starts the course.

You must keep an audit trail of all payments made to trainees and any decisions around payment structures. Evidence of payments being made to eligible trainees may be requested by the department as part of the assurance process.

Trainees are entitled to receive bursary payments if they are actively engaged on the FE ITE programme. If you have valid concerns that a trainee is not engaging appropriately with the course, you have the discretion to withhold bursary payments until you are confident the trainee will complete the course.

Email FE.workforceincentives@education.gov.uk immediately if you decide to withhold bursary payments.

Withdrawals and deferrals

Notify us immediately if any trainee accepted for a bursary:

withdraws from their ITE course
decides they no longer need the bursary
defers their study for any period

Trainees cannot defer where this would mean they complete the course after the 2024 to 2025 academic year, so must be treated as withdrawals for the purposes of bursary management. Contact us immediately if exceptional circumstances may apply.

You must not allocate the funding to another trainee without explicit written confirmation from us.

Eligible trainees who withdraw from a course will be entitled to payment for each month up to and including the month in which they formally withdraw.

Example

If a trainee starts their programme in September 2023 and withdraws (directly or by deferring) in January 2024, they will be entitled to 4 payments in total as they were engaged on the course on:

1 October 2023
1 November 2023
1 December 2023
1 January 2024

Withdrawal information should reflect the dates given to Student Finance England for student support purposes, where applicable.

In the event of a deferral or withdrawal, you must:

suspend all bursary payments to the trainee immediately
make sure that their records are updated, detailing the formal withdrawal date, by emailing FE.workforceincentives@education.gov.uk

We will recover any overpayments made to you after the trainee has withdrawn. We will not reimburse you for any payments made to trainees in error.

We expect you to recover any bursary overpayments from trainees.

Trainees who become ineligible for bursary payments

Bursary payments for eligible trainees awarded an FE ITE bursary that later become ineligible after their course has started (for example where the trainee has taken up paid teaching work which contributes to their training) should be treated in the same way as withdrawals.

Trainees will be entitled to payment for each month up to, and including, the month in which they become ineligible.

Suspended trainees

Trainees who are suspended from their course pending investigation may continue to receive their bursary payments during their suspension.

If you decide to terminate the trainee’s programme, let us know immediately so we can stop payments straightaway.

If you make any payments in error, recover the payments from the trainee.

Question 6

Monitoring and assurance

Accepted Answer

We have a responsibility to make sure that public funds and assets generated from applicable ITE places are effectively managed in line with your grant funding agreement.

You will have to show that you have administered all bursary funding in accordance with your grant funding agreements. This includes:

selecting and recruiting the highest-quality candidates to programmes of ITE
designing and delivering high-quality programmes of ITE
rigorously assessing trainees against the occupational standard for Learning and Skills Teachers
assuring the quality of trainee placements undertaken and mentoring received
showing propriety and adequate controls in your financial management and with relevant financial reporting or governance requirements
following our data requirements and responding to requests for information in a timely manner
passing on 100% of the training bursary funding issued to you under your grant funding agreement to the trainee

Records you should keep

You must hold full records of all trainees in receipt of bursaries. This includes evidence of trainees’ academic qualifications achieved (or other evidence of attainment) prior to starting their ITE. You should keep records for 3 years after the cohort has finished.

We will ask all providers to confirm all trainee records in November, March and July.

We may also request evidence of:

your trainees’ prior qualifications
your trainees’ course and subject eligibility
payments you have made to trainees
trainee attendance

Our evidence requirements explain what you may need to provide.

Make sure that all trainee records you send to us are complete. This includes amending the records of trainees who:

withdraw (directly or by deferring) from their ITE course
start later in the 2023 to 2024 academic year

We may delay or withhold payments if data is inaccurate or incomplete.

What you need to send us

You will need to complete an annex G, with all data verified by your accounting officer. It will contain:

income
expenditure
trainee data

We will send annex G documents to you at the end of the academic year. We will populate this with the amount of funding you have received.

Your annex G must be independently audited and countersigned by your accounting officer.

We will use this information to reconcile the funding that you have received with your declared expenditure, taking into account the effect of withdrawn trainees.

You should return your annex G documents by 31 December 2024. Payments for academic year 2023 t0 2024 may be delayed if we have not received your annex G document by this date.

We will repeat this process from September to December 2025 for providers with part-time trainees.

Funding checks

We will review the ITE bursary funding you receive and reconcile this amount with your trainee records following confirmation of trainee records (in November, March and July annually), and submission of your annex G. We will adjust your funding to meet the actual amount you need.

We may ask for further information to explain any variances.

Where your funding is more than the amount that you were entitled to, we will recover the excess by invoicing you or offsetting this amount against any future payments.

We will not reimburse you for any bursaries paid to ineligible trainees.

Evidence requirements

We may ask you to supply evidence of trainee and course eligibility to meet our grant assurance requirements at any point in the funding cycle, including confirmation of your or your delivery partner’s current Ofsted rating. This could be in the form of a link to your most recent inspection outcome.

If you are not able to supply the evidence listed, email FE.workforceincentives@education.gov.uk to check if your proposed alternative evidence is acceptable.

If we ask you to supply evidence and you cannot provide it, we may have to recover your bursary funding.

Trainee existence

We may ask you to provide a statement that confirms:

you have checked, and have copies of, photographic evidence that the trainee meets nationality or residency eligibility requirements
the evidence you checked relates to the named individual

We do not require you to send any documentary evidence for trainee existence. If sent, we will return this to you and you will need to resubmit your statement.

If you cannot confirm that you have checked photographic evidence, we will recover the related bursary funding from you.

Trainee status

We may ask you to confirm whether your trainees are currently undertaking their ITE course, have withdrawn, deferred, or have completed their training. You should provide one of the following:

a screenshot of your trainee records system
a signed statement

This is to confirm the trainee’s course status for a particular period.

Where the trainee withdrew or deferred, include the date and value of bursary amounts paid to the trainee to date, to allow us to calculate how much funding to recover.

ITE route and subject eligibility

We may ask you to provide:

a signed enrolment form
a signed interview form
a signed learning and assessment plan
a screenshot of internal student records system

These should include both the name of the trainee and clearly specify the bursary subject as the teaching specialism. This is to check that the ITE course leads to the award of a level 5 DET (or higher level DET-compliant qualification), in the stated bursary subject.

In the absence of this evidence of teaching specialism in the course title, you should be able to provide evidence that:

a minimum of 50% of any training placement was in the relevant bursary subject
the trainee had a subject-specific mentor

This could be in the form of a signed statement from the provider.

If during assurance checks we find the ITE course is ineligible for a bursary, we will:

recover any funding
ask for evidence for all bursary recipient trainees

Make sure any special category data relating to the trainee is redacted.

GCSE English and mathematics requirements

We may ask you to provide:

copies of qualification certificates
if the trainee has overseas qualifications, a National Academic Recognition Information Centre (NARIC) (to end February 2021) or European Network of Information Centres (ENIC) (March 2021 onwards) declaration
if applicable, a copy of the equivalence test outcome showing the trainee meets the required standard
if applicable, a signed statement confirming you:
- have reviewed the trainee’s attainment, knowledge and expertise
- are satisfied the trainee will be able to complete their ITE course and teach to the required standard

This is to confirm that the trainee:

has a minimum of a GCSE grade 4 (C) in English and GCSE grade 4 (C) in mathematics or equivalent
will be able to complete their course of study
will be able to teach to the required standard

Level 3 qualification requirements

We may ask you to provide:

copies of qualification certificates (including higher level qualifications where these relate to the bursary subject)
if the trainee has overseas qualifications, a NARIC (to end February 2021) or ENIC (March 2021 onwards) declaration
if applicable, a signed statement confirming you:
- have reviewed the trainee’s skills, knowledge and experience
- are satisfied that their subject knowledge is sufficient to complete their ITE course and teach to the required standard

This is to confirm that the trainee:

has a suitable level of subject knowledge
will be able to complete their course of study
will be able to teach to the required standard

Payments to trainees

To check that 100% of bursary funding is being paid directly to the trainee and the payments reflect the % of the course undertaken, we may ask you to provide:

a monthly breakdown for bursary payments to the trainee - this can be in the form of a spreadsheet, or a table
if payments are not proportionate to the percentage of a course undertaken to date, a statement explaining why
remittance or BACS reports that clearly demonstrate payments made to the trainee

Redact any information that does not relate to the trainee.

If you are not able to provide remittance or BACS reports, send us:

screenshots of internal systems showing payments to the trainee
bank statements or account statement reports showing the total payment made for the selected sample period

Screenshots of internal systems must be linked to bank statements or account statement reports.

Attendance

We may ask you to provide:

an attendance log, for example a screenshot of trainee records system showing attendance, or a spreadsheet
a statement from the course tutor or lecturer referencing the attendance and engagement of the trainee for any selected sampled period

This is to check that the trainee was actively engaged on their course.

If the trainee was not on the course for the selected sampled period, send your evidence for the closest month.

Question 7

Data requirements and reporting

Accepted Answer

You must send relevant trainee-level data to us, at specific times before, during and after the course, including:

individual and course data
applications
recruitment and employment outcomes

The bursary funding cycle sets out the key timeline for when you will need to send data. We will provide further details of the data you need to send us when we confirm the bursary availability for your trainees.

When sending information to us you must follow General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirements.

As bursaries are grant funding, you are the data controller for any personal data you process. For further information, read how DfE shares personal data.

If you have any queries about the submission of trainee-level data, email FE.workforceincentives@education.gov.uk.

Capped at 100 places. ↩

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Applies to England

Subjects eligible for a bursary

Trainee eligibility

Student support

Qualifications

Assessing UK academic qualifications

Assessing overseas qualifications

Eligible ITE courses

Combination courses

English for speakers of other languages (ESOL)

Trainee expectations

Ofsted judgments and provider eligibility

Apply for a bursary

Bursary allocations

Bursary funding cycle

August 2023

September 2023

October 2023

November 2023

December 2023

January 2024

January to July 2024

August 2024 to July 2025

December 2024

Bursary payments

Payments to trainees

Payments for full-time courses

Payments for part-time courses

Withdrawals and deferrals

Trainees who become ineligible for bursary payments

Suspended trainees

Monitoring and assurance

Records you should keep

What you need to send us

Funding checks

Evidence requirements

Trainee existence

Trainee status

ITE route and subject eligibility

GCSE English and mathematics requirements

Level 3 qualification requirements

Payments to trainees

Attendance

Data requirements and reporting

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