Common approval principles
Criteria that all qualifications need to meet to be approved for funding.
Before we can fund a qualification, it must meet:
- our common approval principles
- any specific principles that apply to it
- any principles and exemptions relating to the current moratorium on approving new qualifications for funding post-16, where appropriate
This section tells you the common approval principles that apply to all qualifications we consider for funding in the following offers:
- 14 to 16
- 16 to 19
- statutory level 2 and level 3 entitlements for adults aged 19 to 23
- statutory adult English and maths entitlements
- statutory adult digital entitlement
- qualifications in the ESFA funded AEB local flexibility offer
- advanced learner loans
- level 3 free courses for jobs
The awarding organisation offering the qualification must be recognised by Ofqual. The qualification must be included in Ofqual’s register of regulated qualifications.
For Access to Higher Education diplomas, the access validating agency offering the qualification must be regulated by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA).
The qualification must be included in QAA’s database of available Access to HE diplomas.
The qualification must be listed on Ofqual’s register of regulated qualifications as both:
- available to students in England
- available for funding in England
The qualification must not be part of higher education. It must not be:
- a degree
- a foundation degree
- any other undergraduate qualification currently funded through the higher education student finance system (HESF), including:
- Higher National Certificate (level 4)
- Certificate of Higher Education (Cert HE) (level 4)
- Higher National Diploma (level 5)
- Diploma of Higher Education (Dip HE) (level 5)
The qualification must not be designed as the end-point assessment of an apprenticeship.
Students cannot study the qualification outside the apprenticeship if the end-point assessment of an apprenticeship is:
- designed as a qualification
- subject to external quality assurance from Ofqual, or in the process of transferring to it
We will not approve an end-point assessment qualification for funding as a standalone qualification in any of our offers.
The qualification must not be restricted to being delivered either:
- by only one provider of education and training
- to employees of only one employer
We approve qualifications for funding on a national scale in England across a range of providers.
The qualification must be suitable for the age groups you have indicated in Ofqual’s Register of Regulated Qualifications:
- pre-16
- 16-18
- 18+
- 19+
We will use this information to consider how suitable the qualification is for those age groups.
The following table tells you how we decide if a qualification is suitable to be approved for funding in the 14 to 16 and 16 to 19 offers.
| Approval principle | 14 to 16 offer | 16 to 19 offer |
|---|---|---|
| Supports broadening and developmental opportunities | Any qualification must access a broad range of knowledge and skills. It must either focus on a particular sector or subject (but not a specific job role), or support understanding of the world of work |
Any qualification must offer complementary, broadening, or developmental opportunities at any level, or lead to sustainable employment with a range of employers within a particular sector |
| Suitability for age category | Any qualification approved must be suitable for students aged 14 to 16, considering their maturity, wellbeing, and any health and safety requirements | Any qualification approved must be suitable for students aged 16 to 19, mainly because of health and safety requirements. We may only approve a qualification for students aged 18 and above, if there are health and safety or legal requirements that mean the qualification is only appropriate for students aged 18 and above |
| Legality | Any qualification approved must not contain any activity that is unlawful for the age group | Any qualification approved must not contain any activity that is unlawful for the age group |
All our other funded offers are for students aged 19 and over. We will approve qualifications for funding in these offers if their purpose and outcomes are suitable for the types of students that we specify for each offer.
The qualification must be at the appropriate level for the qualification offer. Each offer has its own qualification level approval principles, summarised in the table.
| Qualification level | 14 to 16 | 16 to 19 | English and maths entitlement | Digital entitlement | Level 2 or level 3 entitlement | ESFA funded AEB local flexibility | Level 3 free courses for jobs | Advanced learner loans |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entry level | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes[footnote 1] | - | Yes | - | - |
| Level 1 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | - | Yes | - | - |
| Level 1 or 2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | - | Yes | Yes | - | - |
| Level 2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | - | Yes | Yes | - | - |
| Level 3 | Yes[footnote 2] | Yes | - | - | Yes | - | Yes | Yes |
| Level 6 | - | Yes[footnote 3] | - | - | - | - | - | Yes |
The qualification must have an appropriate sector subject area (SSA) classification, based on its content. We will check that the way you classify a qualification is reasonable. We will also check that the qualification’s content and SSA classification match proportionately.
Qualifications may be updated versions of existing qualifications already in the offer. We may approve these for any of the offers covered by this guidance, including as moratorium type 4 exemptions.
In these cases, we will apply a funding approval end date in all relevant funded qualification offers for the existing qualification 2 months after we publish details of the new qualification, unless:
- you have set an earlier operational end date in Ofqual’s register for the existing qualification
- the new qualification has an operational start date that is more than 2 months in the future when we consider it for funding approval
We do not approve ESOL International qualifications in any of our funded offers.
We will not approve a new qualification for funding in any offer if it has the same or similar content as either:
- a qualification that already has funding approval removed from that offer
- a qualification that we have said is in scope to have its funding approval removed in an offer, where we have announced and published this
This will continue to apply during the focused review. It will still apply to qualifications that were in scope to have funding approval removed, which have since had their funding approval extended.
We will update this section of the manual if we need to.
The qualification must not be for the initial training of further education teachers at level 5 or above. This includes, but is not limited to:
- a Diploma in Teaching (further education and skills) (level 5)
- a qualification on the list of recognised further education teacher training courses eligible for student support
For further advice contact FE.ITE@education.gov.uk.
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Entry 3 only. ↩
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We only approve qualifications at level 3 for funding for pre-16 students where they meet the approval principle of being suitable for the pre-16 age group. ↩
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In the 16 to 19 offer, we will only approve qualifications at level 6 for students aged 18 and over. ↩