Bulletin for May 2024

How to prepare for academic year 2024/25

• Learning Agreements are now available for academic year 2024/25 on the Learning Centre Portal. Please arrange for your students who are returning next year to sign these as soon as possible, this will help to prepare for September. You can find more detailed information on this below.
• You can now also download the payment information guides for academic year 2024/25 from the Learning Centre Portal.
• You should now enter holiday weeks onto the Learning Centre Portal. You can do this by going to Maintenance – Holidays - 24/25. Please enter all the weeks your school or college is on holiday.
• Students can also download the application form and guidance from nidirect.

Managing the signing of EMA Learning Agreement forms

All new and returning students need to sign a new EMA Learning Agreement for each academic year. For returning students, this is their formal application for support in that academic year. It also confirms they intend to follow the terms of the EMA scheme.

You should now start to encourage EMA students who'll be returning in September to sign their learning agreements before the end of term. You can download the forms from the Learning Centre Portal.

Students can sign the EMA Learning Agreements in person on a paper form. You can also continue emailing the agreements to your students if you prefer. You can accept return emails from students as confirmation that they're agreeing to their EMA terms. Please store these return emails in an electronic file for audit purposes.

2024/25 EMA application pack distribution

We've now completed the delivery of application packs for academic year 2024/25 and you should've received your allocation. Learning Centres that currently have fewer than 10 EMA Learners will not have received a delivery. We encourage you to print off application forms as and when you need them from nidirect.

Students can also download the application form and guidance from nidirect.

If you need more paper application packs, please email us at emainfo@slc.co.uk.

Learning Centre Services website

Please remember we also have our Learning Centre Services website to support you with anything you may need for the new academic year, including:

• publicity materials
• updated guidance
• service standards
• news
• information about SLC events for Learning Centres

There are links to sign into the Learning Centre Portal directly from the website. Please save this link as your new favourite: www.lcservices.slc.co.uk. 

EMA academic year start date

The EMA academic year start date will be Monday 9 September 2024. This is when we begin to count the 10 working day period for students to sign their learning agreements.

If your actual academic year start date is earlier than this, you'll still be able to update learning agreements and confirm attendances for students before 9 September.

Bonus allocation

You can now allocate June bonuses on the Learning Centre Portal. You should also make submissions for students who have not achieved their objectives.

We'll begin paying June bonuses from 10 June. You should confirm all bonuses by 28 June.

If you cannot decide by the end of June if a student should receive their bonus or not, do not leave the bonus allocation blank. Please mark the student's bonus as disallowed. You should tell the student that if anything changes, for example they get an extension to complete their objectives, you can change the bonus to confirmed. You can make that change as long as it's before the end of the academic year.