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ESFA changes in funding

Through one of its funded qualification offers, and as long as the qualification meets certain approval principles, The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) will fund learners to undertake qualifications. A full list of these qualifications can be found on the Department for Education website.

Review of post-16 qualifications at level 3 and below – funding approval moratorium and funding removal

Funding approval moratorium

The Department for Education is in the process of reviewing post-16 qualifications at level 3 and below with the aim of developing a streamlined qualification's system for students aged 16 and over. The first stage consultation on the review was published in March 2019 and set out their intention to apply a funding moratorium from 1 September 2020. This is now in place – the ESFA is now not considering new regulated qualifications for funding approval for students aged 16 and over (including 19 plus).

Funding removal 2021

As part of implementing the review, the ESFA will annually withdraw funding approval from qualifications with low and no publicly funded enrolments. This will help to ensure that qualifications the government approves for funding have demand and provide value for students. The first round of this process ended in December 2020, and as a result certain AIM qualifications,  will have funding approval removed from 1st  August 2021 for new starts. The first round only considered qualifications with no publicly funded enrolments. The ESFA moved the process to remove qualifications with low enrolments from the first round into this second round due to the impact of COVID-19 during spring and summer 2020.

Funding removal 2022

The ESFA have launched the second round that identifies qualifications with low and no publicly funded enrolments whose funding will be removed for new starts from 1st August 2022.

We have submitted appeals for qualifications on this list and await an outcome.  As soon as we have any more information about which qualifications will have funding removed from 1st August 2022 we will inform centres.  In the meantime if you have any questions about our qualification portfolio or wish to consider other options please contact your account team.

Full information about the review can be found on the Department for Education Department for Education website.


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