Guidance

Further education adult skills qualifications list with funding rates guidance

Updated 13 July 2023

Applies to England

Summary

Following the consultation ‘Skills for jobs: Implementing a new further education funding and accountability system’, Department for Education (DfE) published in January 2023 the new skills funding bands and their funding rates which will apply from the academic year 2024 to 2025 for adult skills provision funded by Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA).

The department has now published a full response to the consultation and we are publishing the funding rates for all individual qualifications. This list includes specialist land-based qualifications following a review of the criteria applied for specialist qualifications.

This guide explains the information in the qualifications list workbook. You should read this guide and the workbook notes page.

Qualifications list with funding rates from 2024 to 2025

We have based the published list on the initial list of qualifications approved for funding in the adult education budget and free courses for jobs for academic year 2023 to 2024 for illustration. This information is set out in tab 1 of the workbook.

The actual qualification list for academic year 2024 to 2025 may be slightly different because:

• we take account of where qualifications may have reached their operational end date and therefore are no longer available when we roll over qualifications approved for funding into the next academic year
• funding approval withdrawal linked to ongoing reforms such as the review of post-16 qualifications at level 3 and below in England

Funding for qualifications in the new skills fund

Our publication in January 2023 included the 5 new skills funding bands, with sector subject areas (SSAs) at tier 2 level assigned to one of these bands. It also included the new hourly funding rates for each of the new skills funding bands.

Funding rates for individual qualifications could be determined by multiplying the relevant hourly rate by the number of guided learning hours (GLH) as assigned by the awarding organisation and recorded on Ofqual’s register of regulated qualifications. We recognise that providers will also find a detailed qualification list helpful, which this workbook now provides.

Therefore, ESFA is now publishing what this would mean for individual qualifications. This uses the initial list of qualifications which are approved for funding in the academic year 2023 to 2024 to illustrate the new funding rates for qualifications in the skills fund which will take effect from 2024 to 2025 (tab 1 of the workbook). The initial list of qualifications approved for funding in the academic year 2024 to 2025 is scheduled for publication in winter/early spring 2024. We will publish the associated funding information on find a learning aim (FALA) as usual.

Moving to standard guided learning hours

There are some qualifications, developed and approved for funding under the qualifications and credit framework, where funding was based on their credit value not their GLH. These qualifications currently receive a different rate than their GLH suggests. As set out in the department’s government response, from academic year 2024 to 2025, we will fund these qualifications using the new hourly funding rate for their GLH, in line with the other qualifications. The list shows the new funding rates for these qualifications from 2024 to 2025.

Calculating the funding rate for a qualification

We show the calculation for all individual qualifications in tabs 1 and 2 in the workbook.

For Ofqual regulated qualifications approved for funding, we calculate the funding rate by multiplying the hourly rate for the SSA by the agreed funded GLH for the qualification. We have shown the calculation methodology for a qualification funding rate in example 1.

Example 1

A diploma in engineering, in the engineering SSA, is 360 GLH and currently receives £2,583.

In academic year 2024 to 2025, the new funding rate for this qualification will be £3,456, calculated as follows:

£9.60 (the new hourly skills funding rate for engineering SSA) multiplied by 360 GLH.

ESFA will use the GLH assigned by the awarding organisation and as recorded in Ofqual’s register. However, we are aware that awarding organisations may amend the GLH recorded in Ofqual’s register.

Where an awarding organisation amends the GLH for a qualification on Ofqual’s register, we may not automatically reflect this amendment in terms of then changing the associated funding rate. Therefore, there may be a difference between the GLH recorded on Ofqual’s register and the GLH ESFA is using for the funding rate.

Where an awarding organisation amends the GLH on Ofqual’s register, we will review the rationale for the amendment to then consider whether we should amend the funding rate and reflect the amendment in FALA so that the funded GLH continues to reflect the GLH in Ofqual’s register. In 2024 to 2025, we will show the funded GLH in FALA alongside the current GLH.

The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education regulates access to higher education diplomas. For these diplomas, 1 credit is equivalent to 10 notional learning hours and access to higher education diplomas consist of 60 credits. Therefore, we have set the threshold for these as 600 hours to determine their funding rate.

For comparison, we have included both the total and hourly funding rates for qualifications under the current matrix system alongside the hourly and total new funding rates from academic year 2024 to 2025.

Under the new funding rates, 78% of qualifications will see an increase in funding and no change for 2% of qualifications. The minority of qualifications (20%) moving to a lower level of funding are those that had a significantly higher hourly rate in the current system, either because of their position in the matrix or because we funded them in a higher band than their GLH suggests (as explained above) which these tables demonstrate.

The tables in the workbook only include qualifications approved for funding in the adult education budget and free courses for jobs. It does not include advanced learner loans as some level 3 qualifications are only approved for loan funding.

The table in the workbook does not include units. We will calculate funding for units in the same way as qualifications and as shown in example 1.

Policy exceptions

The following exceptions will remain for some qualifications given their policy importance:

• English GCSEs will be funded within the low funding band rather than the base funding rate band
• functional skills in English entry level, level 1 and level 2 will continue to receive a current policy rate of £724
• functional skills in maths entry level will be funded at the current policy rate of £941, and level 1 and level 2 at £724
• functional skills in ICT currently have a policy rate of £336 which will end on 31 July 2023. We will treat the new digital functional skills qualifications as if it is in the ICT for users SSA from 2024 to 2025, meaning the funding rate for the new digital functional skills qualifications will increase to £462 (the new hourly skills funding rate for ICT for users SSA is £8.40 and GLH for these qualifications is 55 hours)

We have included the funding rates for the functional skills qualification in English and maths in tab 3 on the workbook.

The new digital functional skills will be available from early in the 2023 to 2024 academic year so we have not included the funding rates for these qualifications in the initial list of qualifications for 2023 to 2024.

Land-based qualifications

In adult provision, 3 SSAs include land-based qualifications:

• agriculture
• horticulture and forestry
• animal care and veterinary science

Funding for these land-based qualifications currently attracts a specialist funding uplift where the following 3 factors are all met:

• where providers have a ‘specialist status’ as set out in annex C of ESFA funding guidance for young people 2023 to 2024 rates and formula and this remains unchanged
• where the qualification meets additional criteria within the 3 land-based SSAs
• where a specialist provider delivers a qualification at their land-based location that meets specific and additional criteria within the 3 SSAs

This will continue to apply in academic year 2024 to 2025 and providers will receive the new specialist funding band for relevant qualifications (see below) only when all 3 factors are met. Where only 2 factors are met, these providers will not be deemed specialist and will attract the higher funding band.

As set out in the government response to the DfE consultation, we have reviewed the criteria applied across these SSAs at qualification level to ensure the criteria used are clear and can be applied consistently to all qualifications in scope.

From academic year 2024 to 2025, qualifications at level 1 and below will not be in scope for receiving the specialist funding rate. We will then apply the following criteria to level 2 and 3 qualifications to determine which qualifications in the 3 SSAs are eligible to receive the specialist funding rate.

Specialist funding rate will apply to all level 2 and 3 qualifications, except for the following:

• qualifications where employment is a pre-requisite unless the qualification is linked to occupational regulation and/or a certificate of competence. This is because the training aspects requiring specialist equipment can take place on the employer’s premises
• qualifications within animal care and veterinary science SSA which are solely focused on domestic animal care
• floristry qualifications within horticulture and forestry SSA as they do not require specialist provision
• qualifications related to forest schools
• qualifications related to garden design and planning

From 2024 to 2025, we will fund providers with specialist status:

• at the specialist skills funding band for qualifications in these sectors that meet the criteria when delivered at the provider’s land-based site (tab 2 in workbook)
• at the high skills funding band for qualifications that do not meet the criteria (tab 1 in workbook)

We will fund providers without specialist status delivering these courses at the high skills funding band (tab 1 in workbook).

Other funding uplifts

The funding rate for qualifications in the workbook does not include the additional funding uplifts for area cost adjustment and disadvantage. These will apply on top of the qualification funding rate in the same way as now.

Similarly, for qualifications in the free courses for jobs offer, we will apply an additional uplift on top of the qualification funding rate for the academic year 2024 to 2025:

• £600 per qualification for courses of 360 GLH or above
• £150 per qualification for courses of 359 GLH or below

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