Funding approval and funding validity

The difference between funding approval and funding validity.

We will only fund students to undertake qualifications through one of the offers identified in this manual if we have approved those qualifications for funding.

How we define funding approval

We regularly review new qualifications that are regulated in England by:

To confirm whether a qualification meets our approval principles for public funding, we will review the qualification. This can include looking at a qualification’s title, level, size, sector subject area, operational start and end dates, as well as the qualification type and specification.

If a qualification meets our principles for funding approval, we will add it to at least one of the funded offers and it will be approved for one funding year (until 31 July 2024). We use the term ‘funding approval’ to show where we add a qualification to at least one offer.

We will review the qualification again to determine if it is in scope to be ‘rolled over’ into the offer for the next funding year.

Where we approve a qualification for funding, we expect information on that qualification to be easily accessible so that students and others can be informed about the purpose, content, and outcomes of the qualification they are undertaking. We also expect information, particularly the specification accompanying the qualification, to be available at the point an awarding organisation wishes the qualification to be considered for funding approval by us.

We reserve the right to not approve a qualification for funding if we have concerns about it meeting any of the approval principles in this manual, or if information about the qualification is not available to us when we review the qualification for funding approval.

How we define funding validity

Once we have approved a qualification for funding, we will then confirm its funding validity. We use the term ‘funding validity’ to show whether a qualification will receive funding within a specific qualification offer.

ESFA will show funding validity for a qualification by adding a funding validity start date, a last date for new starts, and a funding validity end date in Find a learning aim, their service for education and training providers and other organisations.