Final funding date for the Post-16 Level 3 and below qualifications with low and no enrolments

• This applies to the provision in England only​
• This affects 16–18-year-olds on study programmes, and 19+ year-olds funded under the Adult Education Budget, the European Social Fund (ESF), or accessing Advanced Learner Loans.
• This does not affect the apprenticeship funding if these qualifications are mandated within the standards.

In some cases, we will continue to offer the qualification where they are not impacted by this ESFA funding or where there is a need for these qualifications in Wales, NI or internationally.

The first stage of the consultation on the review of post 16 qualifications at level 3 and below set out the Department for Education’s intention to remove approval for funding of qualifications with low and no publicly funded enrolments.

On 14 December 2020, the Department for Education set out its process to deliver this and confirm which qualifications with low or no publicly funded enrolments should have approval for public funding withdrawn for new starts from 1 August 2022.

In August 2021, we published the final list of qualifications with low and no publicly funded enrolments where we will remove funding approval from 1 August 2022.

Please see our previous update on this in April 2020.

The list of our affected qualifications are detailed below.