Bulletin for February 2024

It’s almost time to register – the annual forums for EMA and WGLG FE are returning for 2024!

Registration will be open very soon for our service review forums.

This is an opportunity for Learning Centres to participate in small groups to discuss the administrative requirements of the Education Maintenance Allowance and Welsh Government Learning Grant (EMA/WGLG). This year, we'll run a mixed schedule of virtual and face-to-face events.

Face-to-face events are all morning sessions from 9.30am to 12pm. We'll provide tea and coffee and a light lunch.

15 April - Cardiff -Clayton Hotel, St Mary St, Cardiff CF10 1GD
16 April - Swansea - Gower College Swansea, Tycoch Rd, Sketty, Swansea SA2 9EB
17 April - Llandudno Junction - Welsh Government office, Sarn Mynach, Llandudno Junction, LL31 9RZ
18 April - Wrexham - Glyndwr University, Mold Rd, Wrexham LL11 2AW

Virtual events will be held on Microsoft Teams:

23 April - morning session from 9.30am to 11.30am
24 April - morning session from 9.30am to 11.30am
25 April - morning session from 9.30am to 11.30am
26 April - morning session from 9.30am to 11.30am

EMA and WGLG FE materials for academic year 2024/25

This year, we'll start to distribute the Little Book of EMA in late February so these should be with you by early March. We're planning to keep paper copies to a minimum, so will only deliver these to larger colleges to help with open days and other events.

All schools and colleges already have access to the 2024/25 materials in PDF. Please download these and share with students, parents and guardians by email or any other method you find best:

EMA materials for academic year 2024/25
WGLG FE materials for academic year 2024/25

Reminders

With the ongoing cost of living increase, it's as important as ever that students get any money they're due on time every 2 weeks.

Please check that your submissions on the Learning Centre Portal are 100% up to date.

Unconfirmed weeks

Please check for any unconfirmed EMA attendances. To do this, go to Worklists and select Attendance worklist. If the Unconfirmed weeks indicator appears, select it to see further details.

Attendance

You must submit a weekly confirmation for every EMA student, whether they're in attendance or not. The deadline for submitting confirmations for each week is 5pm the following Wednesday.

Holidays

Please check for the upcoming Easter break that you've marked the following weeks as holidays on the Learning Centre Portal:

• all weeks when your Learning Centre is closed
• 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.

Maintain Profile tab of the Learning Centre Portal

We're using the contact details on the Maintain Profile tab of the Learning Centre Portal to send you important service information and regular updates. Please check that your information is up to date there so you do not miss any important emails from us.

EMA and WGLG FE support desk

Our support desk team is available to answer any day to day operational questions about individual students, application processing, payments and system issues.

You can contact the support desk on 0300 200 4050 (option 6 for EMA queries, option 5 for WGLG FE) or email emainfo@slc.co.uk.