Funding approval and funding validity
The difference between funding approval and funding validity.
We will only fund students to undertake qualifications through one of the offers identified in this manual if we have approved those qualifications for funding.
We regularly review new qualifications that are regulated in England by:
- the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual)
- the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education
To confirm whether a qualification meets our approval principles for public funding, we will review the qualification. This can include looking at a qualification’s title, level, size, sector subject area, operational start and end dates, as well as the qualification type and specification.
We use the term ‘funding approval’ to show where we add a qualification to at least one offer.
If a qualification meets our principles for funding approval, we will add it to at least one of the funded offers. It will be approved for one or two funding years, until 31 July 2025 or 31 July 2026. This will depend on the date to which qualifications of a similar type, at the same level and in the same offer, have been approved.
When qualifications approach their funding end dates, we will review the qualification again to determine if it is in scope to have funding approval extended into the offer for future funding years. We call this rollover.
We have already rolled over some qualifications into 2024-2025 and some into 2025-2026.
The changes to principles and processes section explains more about rollover.
Where we approve a qualification for funding, we expect information on that qualification to be easily accessible so that students and others can be informed about the purpose, content, and outcomes of the qualification they are undertaking. We also expect information, particularly the specification accompanying the qualification, to be available at the point an awarding organisation wishes the qualification to be considered for funding approval by us.
We may not approve a qualification for funding if either:
- we have concerns about it meeting any of the approval principles in this manual
- information about the qualification is not available to us when we review the qualification for funding approval
Once we have approved a qualification for funding, we will then confirm its funding validity. We use the term ‘funding validity’ to show whether a qualification will receive funding within a specific qualification offer.
The Education and Skills Funding Agency will show funding validity for a qualification by adding a funding validity start date, a last date for new starts, and a funding validity end date in Find a Learning Aim, their main online service for education and training providers and other organisations.