Bulletin for October 2024

Online applications

The EMA/WGLG online application service for academic year 2024/25 is now available.

The online service is available in English and Welsh for students to apply here.

To help promote the online service, we’ve created posters that you can display in areas where students will see them. These are available for you to download and print from the LC Services website.

As the online service is now available in Wales, we'll be sending out a survey in the coming weeks. This is to help us understand the need for paper application forms for the next academic year. If you could take the time to complete the survey, we'd be very grateful.

Backdated EMA payments

Your students must send an EMA application within 13 weeks of the course start date to receive backdated EMA payments.

If Student Finance Wales (SFW) receives an application within 13 weeks, new eligible learners may have EMA payments backdated to the start of their course.

If SFW receives an application more than 13 weeks after the course start date, they'll only be eligible for backdated payments from the date their application was received.

Returning (auto rollover) students must also sign the academic year 2024/25 learning agreement within 13 weeks of their course start date to be eligible for fully backdated pay.

Portal opening early for half term

We're opening the Learning Centre Portal early for entries for the week ending 25 October.

This means you can submit attendances from 21 October, so the allocations are in place before you break for the holidays. Please make sure to mark the following weeks as holidays:

all weeks your Learning Centre is closed for holidays

all weeks your Learning Centre is only open for one day

This will automatically mark all students as on holiday, ensuring the portal is up to date. Please also check the unconfirmed weeks section of the portal for any outstanding student payments.

Learning Centre Portal URL

Please note that if you use this link ‘www.learningcentre.uk.com’ to access LC Portal, it'll soon be disabled. We’ll let you know before this happens.

To access the portal, please save and use the following link ‘https://www.lcservices.slc.co.uk’. You’ll be able to access the portal from all pages of the LC Services website.

Performance reports

To help you check your own performance against the service standards we have reports that you can access on the Learning Centre Portal.

These reports let you track your performance in real time. You can find the reports on the home page of the portal by navigating to 'Reports' and then 'Service standards'.

EMA and WGLG support desk

Our support desk team is available to answer any day to day operational questions you have. This includes queries about individual learners, application processing, payments and the Learning Centre Portal.

As we approach our peak processing period, it is important you use all available resources. You should only escalate these types of queries to the Account Management team in exceptional circumstances.

You can reach our support desk on 0300 200 4050 (option 5 for WGLG, option 6 for EMA) or by emailing emainfo@slc.co.uk.