To receive EMA, students must be studying an eligible course. This must be provided in a school or further education college in Northern Ireland.

The school or college is responsible for confirming that the student’s course is valid. You can do this through the Learning Centre Portal, as part of the process to confirm the student’s EMA Learning Agreement.

Course length

All eligible courses must be a programme of full-time academic or vocational education with:

• at least 10 weeks’ duration
• at least 15 guided contact hours per week

For schools, all courses are considered full-time.

However, for any course where the weekly hours are higher, students must attend all allocated hours. For example, students enrolled on a course with 20 guided contact hours must attend all 20 hours to be considered in attendance for EMA purposes.

Students on the NI Traineeship Programme will qualify for EMA support if:

• the combined total guided learning hours of all programme components meet the minimum requirement
• they meet all other eligibility criteria of the scheme.

Course type

The course criteria for the EMA scheme are wide-ranging and highly flexible. These must relate to qualifications up to and including National Qualification Framework level 3 and A levels.

The most important qualification for the course is that it must show some measure of progression for the student from beginning to the end. Both academic and vocational courses are included. Examples include:

• GCSE
• NVQ1
• NVQ2
• NVQ3
• GNVQ
• AS level
• A level
• AVCE
• Basic Skills levels 1–3
• BTEC
• Entry Level

Only further education courses are valid for EMA, higher education courses do not qualify.

If you are not sure if a course is valid or not, please contact our Partners Support Desk for help.

Work-related study

Students who attend a school or college as part of an apprenticeship or work-related study are not eligible for EMA.

Students who complete a work placement as part of their course are eligible for EMA, even if the placement is paid. They must satisfy the attendance criteria in their EMA Learning Agreement during the placement. You must have procedures in place to collect attendance data from the work placement.

Normally, we would not consider hours completed during the work placement as part of the minimum 15 guided contact hours required to be eligible for EMA.

Prince’s Trust

Students receiving support from the Prince’s Trust can receive EMA if they meet their Learning Centre’s EMA criteria.