1. Sign into the Learning Centre Portal.
   
   
2. Select Customer Search from the menu bar.
   
   
3. Run a search to find the student whose agreement you want to update.
   
   
4. Open the Maintain Learning Agreement tab and go to the Agreement Details section.
   
   
5. Under Part 1 Confirmation, select the Yes radio button to confirm that the student has signed Part 1 of the EMA Learning Agreement. Select No if the student has refused to sign it. Do not select either if no action has been taken for Part 1 of the EMA Learning Agreement.
   
   If you select No, the student will not appear in the Confirm Attendance tab. If you select Yes, the Date field will show the date of confirming Part 1 of the agreement.

6. Once you have entered all the relevant information, select Save.

Learning agreements should be signed before you break for the summer holidays. The deadline to sign them is the end of the academic year. If the student cannot do this due to compelling personal reasons, they must sign no later than the end of the first month (September) of the next academic year.

Course start date

You must enter the student’s course start date before they sign their EMA Learning Agreement or you confirm their attendance.

The course start date determines when the student becomes eligible for EMA payments.

Once you’ve entered this date, you will not be able to change it.

The start date determines when the student becomes eligible for EMA, and if they are eligible for any backdated payments. This date will be linked to the student's 'application received date'. If the student has applied within 13 weeks of starting their course, they may be entitled to have up to 13 weeks' worth of backdated payments.

Example

Course start date: 8 September 2025

Student start date: 6 October 2025

Application Received date: 4 November 2025

The student may be entitled to backdated payments from 4 October (approximately 4 weeks) as they have applied within 13 weeks of starting their course.

Course type

You must also select the course that the student is studying from the Course Type dropdown. We’ve predefined the courses in this dropdown in consultation with Learning Centres in Wales.

Extenuating circumstances

Students can highlight that they are experiencing extenuating circumstances on their EMA Learning Agreement.

You can select the Extenuating circumstances radio button to record this on the Maintain Learning Agreement tab.

Recording consent to share

If a student gives you consent to discuss their EMA with their parent or guardian on their EMA Learning Agreement, you can record this on the Learning Agreement tab of the portal.

Select the Consent to share radio button when you confirm that the student has signed their EMA Learning Agreement.

Recording the student’s preferred language 

All students can choose English or Welsh as their preferred language on the application form. The EMA Learning Agreement Form will also ask the same question.

When the student confirms their language preference, you will need to record this on the Maintain Learning Agreement tab, along with the other information in their EMA Learning Agreement. This will let us send students text messages about their EMA payments in their preferred language.