ILA Scotland is a Scottish Government scheme for people who have an income of £18,000 a year or less, or who are on benefits. To apply your learners will need to be aged 16 or over and be resident in Scotland to get up to £500 towards the cost of learning.
There are two types of learner account to choose from:
£200 accounts – for people who are interested in learning something new or brushing up their skills. All ILA Scotland registered learning providers can offer their eligible courses to £200 account holders.
£500 accounts – available only for people who are studying a part-time higher education course such as an Higher National Certificate (HNC), Higher National Diploma (HND) or a Degree course. Only ILA Scotland registered colleges, universities or HEI's can offer ILA Scotland funding towards these courses. Eligible courses are those listed in the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework as Higher Education courses at levels 7, 8, 9 and 10. Professional Graduate Diplomas and Certificates in Education (SCQF level 11) will also be funded. Students must be studying 50% or more of the time needed to complete a full-time course to receive this funding.
Remember from 30th September 2008 learners will no longer be able to use their ILA Scotland £100 learner account.
If your learners wish to apply for either £200 or £500 funding they can call the ILA Scotland helpline free on 0808 100 1090 to obtain an application pack and enquire about eligible ILA Scotland courses. They can also now request an application pack online.
At this point, there are more than 310 ILA Scotland approved learning providers and more than 14,000 courses are available for learners to choose from.