Guidance

FE ITE bursaries funding manual: 2022 to 2023 academic year

Updated 31 October 2022

Applies to England

Overview

This guidance sets out the scope, eligibility criteria and application process for further education initial teacher education (ITE) bursaries.

These bursaries support the training of further education (FE) teachers in certain defined high priority subject areas.

They provide funding for trainees before they are employed as a teacher in their specialty.

We award the bursaries to trainees based on their:

• relevant qualifications or professional experience
• intention to teach a designated priority subject in the FE sector

The bursary amount varies according to the subject in which they train to teach.

Bursary awards are fixed for the duration of the trainee’s ITE programme and are for qualifying ITE courses starting in or after September 2022, and finishing no later than August 2023 (for full-time courses) or August 2024 (for part-time courses).

These bursaries are for teaching in the FE sector only. They are distinct from the school teacher training bursaries also available.

Funding to train ‘while you teach’ (also known as ‘in-service training’) in English, maths and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is part of the wider Taking Teaching Further programme from 2022 to 2023 onwards.

Subjects eligible for a bursary

ITE bursaries are available in the subjects in this table for courses starting in the 2022 to 2023 academic year.

Subject	Bursary
Mathematics	£26,000
Science, including biology, chemistry, or physics	£26,000
Engineering (or manufacturing)	£26,000
Computing	£26,000
Special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)	£15,000
English	£12,000

Funding is not available for any subjects that are not in this list.

Trainee eligibility

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
• 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 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

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
• already hold or are eligible to receive:
  • early years teacher status (EYTS)
  • qualified teacher status (QTS)
  • qualified teacher learning and skills (QTLS) status
  • advanced teacher status (ATS)
• receive a salary or other payment for any teaching work associated with the FE ITE programme for which they’re 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

Eligibility for UK 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) - they do not need to apply for a loan, they just need to be eligible to receive student support
• the ITE programme is a ‘designated course’ for the purposes of student finance as set out in the regulations

See regulations 4 and 5 of the Education (Student Support) Regulations 2011, part 2 (eligibility) 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’re:

• EU nationals who qualify for pre-settled status or settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme
• from the Isle of Man, Jersey and 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
• Maths GCSE grade 4 (C) or above

It is the standard, not the certificate that 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 breath 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.

You can give applicants who are otherwise suitable but have not successfully achieved at least a GCSE grade 4 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 £26,000 physics bursary. If they train to teach English, they will be eligible for a £12,000 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 want to teach, you’ll need to assess whether the skills, knowledge and experience that they have in the relevant subject or specialism is sufficient for them to meet the requirements of the training programme.

You must keep an audit trail of how you assess equivalency. 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 the other qualification

If you do not have the experience to assess the validity of academic qualifications, refer to the frameworks for 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 they referenced in their application which and achieved before starting their ITE.

Your decision on eligibility must:

• be based on the content of the qualification
• not include any unrelated qualifications

Where an individual does not 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.

Qualifying 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 in or after September 2022 and finish no later than August 2023 (for full-time courses) or August 2024 (for part-time courses).

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.

A small number of providers may call a part-time FE ITE course an ‘in-service’ course. If a trainee on a part-time FE ITE ‘in-service’ course is not employed then the course title would not make them ineligible for the bursary.

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

Combination courses

The course content must be at least 50% of the bursary subject awarded.

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.

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

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.

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 to the effect that they expect to seek an FE teaching post in England on successful completion of their course

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

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 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 encourage applications from members of these groups. Bursaries will be awarded based on applicants meeting the eligibility criteria set out in this manual and the availability of funding.

For the 2022 to 2023 academic year, we’ll allocate funding on a first-come-first-served basis.

Only one bursary is available per trainee. 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.

Once the available funding has been exhausted, we’ll 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’ll need to apply, send bursary funding data and when we’ll make payments.

If successful, you’ll 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 2022 in order to make payments from September.

August 2022

We’ll write to you about funding amounts for September 2022 to January 2023 based on your trainee data.

September 2022

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

October 2022

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

November 2022

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

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

December 2022

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

January 2023

We’ll write to you about funding amounts from January 2023. It will be based on your trainee data.

January to July 2023

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

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

August 2023 to July 2024

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

December 2023

You’ll need to supply retention-related data on former trainees alongside your annex G return. This activity will be repeated in December 2024 for providers with part-time trainees.

Bursary payments

You’re 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’s important to 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’ll issue you with a single grant funding agreement, regardless of the number of bursary applications made.

If you’re a new ITE provider and have not previously received grant funding you’ll need to provide information about your banking and payments to DfE.

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

Trainee payments

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’ll 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 (for 10 month payment structure)
£12,000	£1,200
£15,000	£1,500
£26,000	£2,600

Do not make any payments to the trainee until we release the funding. Any payments prior to all eligibility criteria being met are made at the provider’s sole risk. We’ll 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’ll receive:

• 50% of the funding in the first year of their course (2022 to 2023 academic year)
• 50% of the funding in the second year of the course (2023 to 2024 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 (for 20 month payment structure for part-time trainees)
£12,000	£600
£15,000	£750
£26,000	£1,300

Payment eligibility

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 2022 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’ll 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 2023 (for full-time courses) or August 2024 (for part-time courses).

Example:

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

Payments must not start before the trainee starts the course.

You must keep an audit trail of all payments made to trainees and any decisions around payment structures.

Trainee engagement

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’re 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 can not defer where this would mean they complete the course after the 2023 to 2024 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 2022 and withdraws (directly or by deferring) in January 2023, they will be entitled to 4 payments in total as they were engaged on the course on:

• 1 October 2022
• 1 November 2022
• 1 December 2022
• 1 January 2023

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

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’ll recover any overpayments made to you after the trainee has withdrawn. We’ll 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 after course has started

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.

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.

Monitoring and assurance

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’ll 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 all the relevant FE professional standards for teachers and trainers
• 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 requests
• 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’ll 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 2022 to 2023 academic year

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

What you need to send us

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

• income
• expenditure
• trainee data

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

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

We’ll 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 2023.

We’ll repeat this process from September to December 2024 for providers with part-time trainees.

Funding checks

We’ll 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’ll 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’ll recover the excess by invoicing you or offsetting this amount against any future payments.

We’ll 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.

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’ll return this to you and you’ll need to resubmit your statement.

If you cannot confirm that you’ve checked photographic evidence, we’ll recover the related bursary funding from you.

Trainee status on FE ITE programme

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 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

Where the ITE course is subject-specific, these should include both the name of the trainee and 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.

Where the course is ‘generic’ ITE, you should supplement the documents we ask for with evidence that demonstrates that:

• a minimum of 50% of the placement was in a 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’ll:

• recover any funding
• ask for evidence for all bursary recipient trainees

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

GCSE grade 4 (C) English and maths qualification requirements

We may ask you to provide:

• copies of qualification certificates
• if the trainee has overseas qualifications, a NARIC (to end February 2021) or 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 maths 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 % of 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’re 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.

Data requirements and reporting

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’ll need to send data. We’ll 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’re the data controller for any personal data you process. For further information, read how DfE share personal data.

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