Quick guide for course eligibility and progression

For a student to be eligible for WGLG FE funding, their application must pass eligibility criteria as assessed by us and you.

The assessment is handled in 2 parts. We'll assess the financial, nationality and residency criteria. You'll assess the course eligibility.

The main principle of the WGLG FE scheme is to support the progression of eligible students from a previous year of study. To show progression from a previous year, you should check the student is enrolled on the following year of their course. Alternatively, they may be enrolled on a course at a higher level of study from when they were last eligible for WGLG FE.

Students will not be eligible for WGLG FE if they've previously received WGLG FE support for attendance on a course at the same or higher level. They must normally show advancement to a higher level of learning to remain eligible.

In exceptional cases, WGLG FE eligibility may be considered for a repeat period of study. This is usually when the student could not pass the academic year due to extenuating circumstances.

Another exception is if a student is studying at the same level as the year before, but in a related area of study. This may complement their original course and show progress as a whole. For example, they may follow Level 3 Beauty with Level 3 Hairdressing.

You can check the Learning Centre Portal to see how an application is progressing through our systems. To do this, select Worklists, then Application Worklist and Application Status.

Once the application status shows as Approved, you must update the student’s profile. To do this, select their surname in the worklist. This acts as a hyperlink that opens their profile.

Once in the student’s profile, you must confirm if:

• the student is on a designated course
• the student is progressing
• the student should be receiving WGLG FE funding

We’ve added a note to help you decide this. Only further education courses are valid for WGLG FE support. To be eligible for WGLG FE funding, the student must be studying a course at level 3 or below. Higher education courses (level 4 and higher) do not qualify for WGLG FE funding.

If a student is on a course above level 3, you must mark the course as not designated. This will reject the application.

We’ve also added an enhancement to the Learning Centre Portal to help with qualifications. When you enter a WGLG FE Learning Agreement on the portal, the Qualification dropdown no longer includes 'other' as an option. Instead, you must map your courses to the qualification framework to enter your courses at the correct level.

We’ve also reduced the list of specified qualification options. This is to ensure that you can only choose levels that have funding attached.

You can find more information about how to map qualifications on the Welsh Government website.