Guidance

Turing Scheme: guidance for further education providers

Updated 22 March 2024

Provider eligibility

Further education providers can apply for Turing Scheme funding.

Eligible further education providers include:

• colleges
• sixth forms, including sixth form colleges
• special post-16 institutions
• apprenticeship training providers
• other types of further education providers who meet the criteria

To be eligible to apply, further education providers must:

• be registered or recognised as operating in the UK or a British overseas territory
• receive funding from the UK government, a devolved government or the government of a British overseas territory to deliver the main programme of education or training to the student taking part in a placement

Further education providers in British overseas territories should email turing.scheme2024-25@education.gov.uk to confirm eligibility before applying.

Using the services of external organisations  

Further education providers can pay for the services of third party organisations, using organisational support funding, to help administer Turing Scheme placements.

These organisations may not be eligible to apply to the scheme themselves.

You should include details of these relationships in your application.

Consortium partnerships

Further education providers may partner with each other and apply for funding as a consortium.

The lead consortium coordinator:

• must submit the application
• agrees to act as the signatory of a grant funding agreement

A lead consortium coordinator must be based in the UK or British overseas territory and can be:

• a participating direct education provider
• a multi-academy trust, on behalf of its academies or other schools
• a local authority, on behalf of a group of schools
• an executive government agency
• a non-profit, membership organisation which represents direct education providers

Further education providers can join more than one consortium application if the placements have different aims and objectives.

Any consortium members who are not acting as coordinators should be further education providers that are taking part in the scheme.

You will need to name all member organisations of the consortium in your application.

Who can go on placements

To take part in a further education placement, students must be either:

• studying with the further education provider which sends them, on recognised UK further education qualifications or courses or British overseas territory equivalent
• a recent graduate or leaver of the further education provider which sends them

We consider apprentices and students who would previously have been eligible under the vocational education and technical category to be eligible if they are studying with a further education provider.

Students do not need to be UK nationals.

Students are not eligible if they are either:

• located overseas and studying UK qualifications remotely
• students at campuses of UK providers overseas

There is no maximum age limit to participate in the scheme.

Providers should apply for funding under the higher education stream for students who are studying courses that are eligible for student finance support. Students do not need to meet student finance eligibility criteria to access Turing Scheme funding.

Recent graduates or leavers must complete their placement within 12 months of completing their qualification with their education provider. They do not need to be selected for Turing Scheme funding before they graduate.

We fund staff accompanying further education students on placements for safeguarding purposes, where required. You will be asked to set out the number of accompanying staff required for your placements in your application. The student to staff ratio should be proportionate to the numbers and ages of students going on the placement and risk assessment.

Accompanying staff are subject to the same requirements of placement length as students. If you wish to swap one staff member for another part way through a placement, funding can only be claimed for the equivalent of one staff member.

Recruiting students from underrepresented groups

You must show how you will recruit and support participants from underrepresented groups.

In the Turing Scheme, underrepresented groups are:

• ethnic minorities, including white minorities
• people with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND), including people with additional learning needs (ALN) in Wales and people with additional support needs (ASN) in Scotland
• part-time students

Part-time students include those recorded as studying:

• part-time
• full-time on courses lasting less than 24 weeks
• on block release
• during the evenings only

Placements

Students can take study, work or volunteering placements that help them to develop skills and improve their education and career prospects.

They must take place during an academic year, between 1 September and 31 August.

Placements in destinations with different academic periods or term dates may begin outside these dates, but most of the placement must be within the date range.

We will only provide funding for the part of the placement taking place during the academic year.

Length of placements

Students can:

• study, do work experience or volunteer for between 14 days and 12 months as part of a group placement
• study, do work experience or volunteer for between 28 days and 12 months as an individual placement
• attend skills competitions, as a spectator only, for between one and 10 days

Recent graduates or leavers can do work experience or volunteer for:

• between 14 days and 12 months as part of a group placement
• between 28 days and 12 months as an individual placement

On group placements that last the minimum 14 days, there must be at least 10 work or study days.

Individual placements are placements that a student does on their own, independently of other students or staff members. 

Placements outside Europe, except skills competition placements, must last a minimum of 15 days.

Students with SEND, ALN and ASN can go on placements for 7 days.

Where students can go

Further education providers in the UK can send students to public or private organisations outside the UK which are active in education, training, or the labour market.

Organisations can be:

• an FE provider
• small, medium or large enterprises, including social enterprises
• local, regional or national public bodies
• social partners or other representatives of working life, including chambers of commerce, craft, professional associations, trade unions and research institutes
• foundations
• schools, institutes or educational centres at any stage, from primary to secondary education, including vocational and adult education
• non-profit organisations, associations and non-government organisations
• bodies providing career guidance, professional counselling or information services

Providers in British overseas territories can send students to equivalent organisations outside of their overseas territory.

Placements can take place in any destination or territory, but you must follow official foreign travel advice.

Funding

Turing Scheme funding is a contribution toward the costs of international educational placements. In most cases, it is provided on a per-student basis.

You should not use Turing Scheme funding towards any costs that are already covered by another source of funding.

Travel funding

The Department for Education (DfE) will provide funding toward the direct costs of travel to and from a placement.

Further education students and accompanying staff can get funding for travel costs, for one return journey including transfers.

We will provide funding for each student, based on a travel grant rate for each destination. There is a list of destinations and grant rates.

If the cost of travel is below the suggested rate, you can use the difference for travel costs in other placements. We will no longer provide separate funding for exceptionally expensive travel.

We may request evidence of the actual travel costs.

You must:

• ensure that total travel costs do not exceed the granted amount
• return any travel funding that is not spent on eligible travel activity to DfE

Contribution to living costs

We will provide funding to help with daily living costs for each student and accompanying staff members.

The amount each student can receive depends on the group the destination is in.

Groups are based on an assessment of the general cost of living in those destinations:

• group 1 – higher cost of living
• group 2 – lower cost of living

There is information on the destinations in each group in the list of destinations and grant rates.

The funding we will provide is:

Placement duration	Group 1	Group 2
First 14 days	£109 per day	£87 per day
After 14 days	£76 per day	£61 per day

Extra funding for students from disadvantaged backgrounds

Students from disadvantaged backgrounds can receive extra funding. You will need to set out the disadvantaged groups you intend to recruit and support in your application.

We generally define these students as people who meet any of the following criteria:

• someone with an annual household income of £25,000 or less
• someone who receives universal credit or income-related benefits because they are either financially supporting:
  • themselves
  • themselves and someone who is dependent on them and living with them, such as a child or partner
• someone with experience of being in care or who is a care leaver – including anyone who is or has been in care, or from a looked after background, at any stage of their life
• a carer, meaning anyone who both:
  • looks after a family member, partner or friend who needs help because of their illness, frailty, disability, a mental health problem or an addiction, and cannot cope without their support
  • is not paid for this care
• someone entitled to free school meals
• a refugee or an asylum seeker

This list is not exhaustive. If you identify students who do not precisely meet these definitions but share similar characteristics which justify extra support, you may include them in your application. 

We will review the eligibility criteria for students from disadvantaged backgrounds for future years of the scheme.

Readiness to travel funding

We will provide funding to help students from disadvantaged backgrounds to prepare to travel.

You must only use readiness to travel funding for:

• passports
• visa applications and reasonable associated costs such as translated documents and police certificates
• vaccines
• travel insurance
• medical certificates

You should apply using estimated costs associated with the items. They will be paid as actual costs rather than at set rates.

Extra funding for students with SEND

We provide extra funding for students if their FE provider says they attend as a student with special educational or additional needs or disability, including ASN in Scotland and ALN in Wales. 

You can claim support for additional costs that these students may face on international placements.

For example, we will fund visits, of up to 3 days, where staff or students may need to visit the host destination to carry out pre-placement checks. You must outline why you need the funds when you apply for the scheme.

You will need to show the estimated costs associated with students with SEND. These will be paid as actual costs, rather than based on set rates.

Organisational support

We will provide funding to support administration and implementation costs.

We will provide £315 per student for the first 100 students, and £180 per student after that.

You must only use organisational support funding for:

• direct staffing costs which are proportionate with running placements, including language preparation and student ambassadors involved in the scheme
• costs associated with appointing an external organisation (such as a private company) to administer and implement placements, including language preparation
• external audit fees
• room bookings for preparatory or post-placement events

You cannot use organisational support funding for any other activity, including:

• promoting or marketing the scheme
• appointing an external organisation to write your application
• IT service costs such as licenses, software, or hardware
• contingency funding for other budgets or to cover emergencies
• staff accompanying students on placements
• staff or student visits to attend events with current or potential partners inside or outside the UK

You cannot claim organisational support for placements at overseas campuses of your own organisation.

Direct staffing costs may be:

• short-term costs
• entire roles
• proportions of entire roles, for example if the staff member had other responsibilities not associated with running placements

You will need to record the costs incurred for staffing because of running placements directly.

Where any of the eligible organisational support costs are paid directly by students, you may give them the money, but you will need to collect receipts.

When you apply, you will need to set out how you will use organisational support funds for your project, including how procurement of external services represents value for money.

You must regularly report how much of this funding you spend and return any unused funds to DfE. 

You should keep evidence of expenditure and be prepared to provide a detailed breakdown on request.

This could include:

• receipts
• quotes
• records of how staff time has been spent

Language support

For further education providers, DfE will provide up to £135 per student on placements over 19 days to help them learn the local language at the host organisation. 

Funding may only be used to cover language learning costs, like classroom courses or educational materials, that:

• directly relate to the student’s studies
• are reasonable given the length of the placement

Successful applicants will need to regularly report on what they have spent on language support, with supporting evidence. You must promptly return any unused funds to DfE.