Funding Support and College Bursaries for 2024-25
What is the purpose of the Adult Skills Fund (ASF)?
Introduction to the Adult Skills Fund
The purpose of The Adult Skills Fund is to support adult learners in non-devolved areas to gain skills which will lead them to meaningful, sustained, and relevant employment, or enable them to progress to further learning which will deliver that outcome.
ASF Funding Rules 2024-2025
ASF no longer uses prior attainment as an eligibility criterion for the policy entitlements. Learners can be fully funded if they meet the residency eligibility criteria, are aged 19 and over and earn below the earnings threshold or are unemployed. Cornwall College may fully fund learners who are unemployed, employed, or self-employed, up to and including level 2 and the level 3 offers, if they earn below £25,000 annual gross salary.
Who we fund
- individuals resident in areas of England outside of devolved authority areas undertaking ASF who have been resident for 3 years.
- continuing learners who are resident in devolved authority areas, who have not completed their learning by 31 July 2024, but started their learning before the authorities’ devolution date with providers who have an Education and Skills Funding agreement (grant) only
Age
On the first day of learning a learner must be aged 19 or older on 31 August within the 2024 to 2025 funding year to be ESFA funded.
What does ‘co-funded’ mean?
In some cases, the government expect learners and employers to share responsibility for investing in eligible provision and a learner is ‘co-funded’.
Bursaries available for 2024-5
The Cornwall College Group (TCCG) is committed to helping as many adults as possible to access our courses. Dependent upon how your course is funded, we may be able to offer financial support towards travel, course fees, childcare, essential equipment and much more.
Further Education Bursaries for Adults (19+)
If your individual income is £32,000 or less, per year, then you could be eligible for a College Bursary to offer financial support towards travel costs, childcare, essential equipment, tuition fees and access to hardship funds. We have limited funds available, so please apply as soon as possible. If you apply late and all funds have been allocated, we may not be able to provide financial support to you.
How do I apply for a college bursary?
It is easy to apply for a college bursary and you can now do this online and directly upload your household income evidence to our online portal. This can be done on a PC or a phone or tablet.
Please watch our demonstration video which takes you through the steps needed to apply for your bursary. Alongside this please read through our FE Financial Support Guide to see what household income evidence we require from you to confirm your award.
Once we have assessed your application, we will contact you by email to let you know the outcome of your bursary application.
FAQ’s
- You must live more than 3 miles from your chosen campus to be eligible for any transport assistance.
- If eligible, we will pay you a mileage allowance of 30 pence per mile, for your timetabled college sessions. The allowance will be paid to you monthly in advance, by BACs. The first payments will be received in October 2024. Mileage allowances will be monitored against monthly college attendance and can be suspended if necessary. All mileage allowances are capped at a maximum of £120 per month.
- Spare Seat Scheme. Our College buses are predominantly for our 16-18 learners. Should there be additional capacity, from October, adult learners can apply for any spare seats on college transport. These will be subject to availability.
- Yes, you can apply for up to £4250 per year, per child, once your free hours have been used, for a maximum of 3 children. This is for timetabled sessions only and does not include work placements or additional study sessions.
- To be eligible for support with childcare, cohabiting couples must have a combined income of less than £38,000 and single parents less than £28,000.
- Please read through our Childcare Bursary Booklet for more information and guidance.
- To help you with the cost of your studies we can support with the cost of any essential PPE or uniform, as necessary for you to complete your course. Consumables such as in class equipment cannot be funded through the bursary.
- We can support with the costs of registration fees, professional memberships and essential college trips.
- Depending on your age, qualifications already undertaken, benefits / allowances received or your annual wage, you may not have to pay tuition fees. In exceptional circumstances only, learners tuition fees may be supported by the 19+ ASF Bursary Fund. Learners will need to check with the College’s Registry Office, to see if they are eligible for fee remission.
- If you are studying a full-time level 2 or 3 qualification and your daily return travelling time would be greater than 2 hours per day you may be eligible for funding support with accommodation costs.
Download a PDF Guide for more information
For advice on funding, bursaries or anything else please get in touch:
Call us on 0330 123 2523Send us a message