Learning Provider Updates
August 2008
New ILA500 offer goes live
We are pleased to announce that the new ILA500 scheme is now available to part -time higher education students.
Now people who are 16 or over, living in Scotland with an income of £18,000 a year or less can apply for a learner account that will give them up to £500 a year towards a part-time higher education course such as an HNC, HND or a Degree at ILA Scotland approved colleges or universities.
Application packs are available and can be obtained by calling the ILA Scotland helpline free on 0808 100 1090 or by visiting the ILA Scotland website at www.ilascotland.org.uk.
To find out more about the new ILA500 scheme please click here.
Help us promote the new offer
If you are a college or university would you be interested in running a banner advert on your website to promote the new ILA Scotland £500 offer?
If so, we’d like to hear from you – get in touch with us on 0141 285 6104 or drop us an email at marketing@ilascotland.org.uk
There is also a range of promotional materials available including leaflets and posters to help you to promote this offer to new and existing part-time students.
To request promotional materials please click here and complete the order form or contact our distribution centre on 01738 633 322.
Don’t forget you can include ILA500 information on your website and in your prospectus and newsletters – just get in touch with us at marketing@ilascotland.org.uk and we can email you the pre-approved copy.
May 2008
The Scottish Government had recently announced its intention to work towards the removal of the minimum £10 contribution for £200 account holders.
To avoid any confusion we wanted to confirm that the £10 contribution will continue until 2009.
March 2008
Help us promote the new ILA Scotland £500 offer
If you read last month’s newsletter you’ll know all about the new funding that will be available to part time higher education students from summer 2008.
If you are a college or university would you be interested in running a banner advert on your website to promote the new ILA Scotland £500 offer? If so, we’d like to hear from you – get in touch with us on 0141 285 6104 or drop us an email at marketing@ilascotland.org.uk
The ILA Scotland marketing team is preparing a range of promotional materials to enable you to promote this offer to new and existing part time students. This will include leaflets and posters that should be available from the end of April – we’ll let you know as soon as they are available through this newsletter or keep an eye on the website at www.ilascotland.org.uk/provider
Remember you can include information on your website, prospectus and newsletters – just get in touch with us at marketing@ilascotland.org.uk and we can give you pre-approved copy to use.
To find out more about the new ILA Scotland £500 offer for part time higher education courses click here.
January 2008
PROMT updates
With the New Year well underway, PROMT boasts a whole host of new features.
PROMT 4, the latest version of learndirect scotland’s Provider Opportunity Management Tool, was launched in December.
With an improved layout and brand new Business intelligence reports, PROMT 4 can now help providers target learners more effectively.
Now, not only can users check course website visibility at the click of a button, they can also generate reports showing the most popular learner searches.
Layout improvements include:
- Offer types of ILA Scotland courses (£100 scheme or £200 scheme) are now shown, both in the data grid and the opportunity extras tab.
- The provider tab welcome screen now shows organisation information, including address and contact details, and the number of courses and opportunities visible to learners.
- The toolbar has been moved from the top of the screen to the left hand side.
- Courses not visible on the websites are now highlighted in grey.
- All dates are now entered using calendars.
- A comments field has been added to the opportunity extras tab. This can be used by Learning Information Specialists to give feedback on the PROMT submissions.
- A provider opportunity ID field has been added to the opportunity extras tab, creating the option to give individual opportunities IDs.
- Selecting a venue has been made easier using the new venue search function.
The new user guide and help documents for PROMT 4 are available on learndirect scotland’s partner website at www.lds4partners.com.
To request a copy of PROMT 4 or get help with any aspect of the program, please contact the Information Services team on 0141 285 6100 or infoservices@learndirectscotland.com.
December 2007
Funding boost for part-time students announced by the Scottish Government.
As part of the commitment to move away from student loans to grants, the Government is replacing the current part-time loan with a £500 fee grant from ILA Scotland.
A copy of the full press release is available here.
October 2007
Updates to the Operational Rules
The Operational Rules and Supplementary Guidance for Learning Providers document has been updated recently. A summary of the changes from the previous version is given below.
Section "The Learning Token"
Para 23 amended to indicate that electronic copies of Learning Tokens are now acceptable.
Section "Audit requirements"
Para 29, 4th bullet, amended to indicate that electronic copies of Learning Tokens are now acceptable.
Section "Investigations"
Para 41, 3rd bullet, amended to indicate that electronic copies of Learning Tokens are now acceptable.
Annex A – Operational Rules for learning providers
Rule 10, 5th bullet, amended to indicate that electronic copies of Learning Tokens are now acceptable
Rules 16 – 23 have been re-written to reflect changes to the transaction time limits and the differences between "standard" and "flexible start date" courses
Rule 21 – learning token expiry period increased from 45 days to 60 days
Rule 22 becomes Rule 23 and all subsequent Rules have been re-numbered
Rule 24 – the cancellation period of a learning episode has been reduced from 45 days to 30 days.
Please note:
Scanned learning tokens will be accepted if they comply with guidelines defined by the Learning Account Administrator. The definition of acceptable electronic copies of ILA Scotland learning tokens is as follows:
- The organisation should have recorded procedures in place to ensure that documents are accurately scanned.
- The scanned document must be clear and authenticated by the person responsible for making the copy (simply initial and date the token in any clear space).
- An audit trail to authenticate that the scanned copy was a true copy of the original.
Annex B – Definition of Eligible Learning (DEL)
Section 2a) – £15,000 income threshold updated to £18,000
Section 7, 12th bullet, SCQF Level 5 changed to SCQF Level 6 and SVQ Level 2 changed to SVQ Level 3
Section 8, 1st bullet, SCQF Level 5 changed to SCQF Level 6 and SVQ Level 2 changed to SVQ Level 3
Annex B – Appendix 1
Recognised ICT Courses for ILA Scotland Universal Arrangements has been removed as ILA100 no longer limited to ICT courses.
Annex C – Transaction Time Limits
Diagram has been updated to reflect the changes outlined above.
June 2007
ILA Scotland income threshold to be raised
A significant change to the ILA Scotland scheme was announced this morning by deputy minister for enterprise and lifelong learning, Allan Wilson.
From summer 2007, the income threshold will be raised from £15,000 to £18,000. Anyone over 18 and living in Scotland who earns £18,000 a year or less will be able to apply for up to £200.
The announcement comes on the day that evaluation of the scheme was published highlighting a number of key strengths of the scheme, such as its ability to attract low income learners, the prestige associated with being an approved ILA Scotland provider and the improved retention rates of ILA Scotland-funded learners.
You can view the full press release issued by the Scottish Executive here. The evaluation reports can be found here.
April 2007
What's happening?
Is there something happening at your organisation that you would like people to know about?
Perhaps it's an upcoming event, a learner with an inspiring story or a particularly unusual course you are offering? Tell us about it and we'll try to feature it on the ILA Scotland website.
It's a fantastic way to promote your organisation and let others know what’s happening.
If you have an Open Day coming up in the next few months you might be interested to know that we could provide you with an ILA Scotland helpline adviser who will come along with a stand and a selection of marketing materials. Our advisers can give information on ILA Scotland approved courses and learners can also register for an application pack which will be posted out shortly after the event.
All you have to do is get in touch with our marketing team and we’ll take it from there. Why not give us a call today on 0141 285 6104 (select the marketing option) or e-mail marketing@ilascotland.org.uk
Building Links!
We would like to build the online link between ILA Scotland, you and your courses.
To do this we would like to put a link on your website that will direct learners to www.ilascotland.org.uk so they can find out more information about opening an Individual Learning Account with us and see the range of courses they can use their funds on. In return, we will add a link to your website from the ILA Scotland Learner zone.
All you need to do is get in touch with our marketing team who will provide you with text that you can use for your weblink.
Call ILA Scotland today on 0141 285 6104 and select the marketing option or e-mail marketing@ilascotland.org.uk
March 2007
Changes to the £100 and £200 ILA Scotland schemes
From the summer 2007, the income threshold for the ILA Scotland £200 scheme will be raised from £15,000 to £18,000. Anyone over 18 and living in Scotland who earns £18,000 a year or less will be able to apply for £200. Funding of up to £100 will continue to be available to people who earn more than £18,000.
July 2006
Changes to the £100 and £200 ILA Scotland schemes
The range of courses eligible for funding within the ILA Scotland £100 scheme has been extended on a pilot basis to include all subject areas, not just computer courses. This was generated from learning provider and learner feedback and will be reviewed on an ongoing basis.
The extension to the scheme has a particular focus on the skills that many employers are now looking for, such as communication, customer handling and problem solving skills.
The £100 scheme extension applies to:
courses up to and including SCQF Level 6 (SVQ Level 3);
courses leading to qualifications within SCQF or to recognised certification, or to accredited units or modules within such qualifications or certification.
The extension to the £100 scheme will be available to learners from 1 August 2006.
In addition to the £100 scheme extension, the existing restriction on the £200 scheme that ICT courses must lead to formal qualifications or recognised certification has been removed.
We invite you to register any eligible courses that you provide, so that you receive the full benefits of these changes and have the potential to increase your enrolment numbers in this key learning period.
To find out whether the courses you provide are now eligible, or to register your courses, please contact your Learning Information Specialist.
April 2006
SQMS certification no longer recognised
Following the closure of Babcock Enterprise Ltd, the organisation responsible for the delivery of SQMS audit services, SUfI regrets to announce that it will no longer recognise SQMS certification as being a qualifying quality standard for the ILA Scotland scheme for any ILA Scotland submission received after 5th April 2006.
Existing learning providers who qualified for participation in the ILA Scotland scheme on the basis of meeting the SQMS quality standard will be able to remain in the scheme until such time as their existing SQMS certification expires.
March 2006
Amendments to DEL
The Definition of Eligible Learning (DEL) has been extended to include E-Citizen for both ILA Scotland £100 and £200 offers. The £200 offer will also now include Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 as well as CIW Associate and its associated components.
If you offer these courses, you can now submit them using PROMT. The Information Services team will process your submissions as soon as possible.
If you have any questions about this amendment please call the Learning Provider helpline on 0141 285 6104.
December 2005
Amendments to DEL
We are pleased to let you know that the Definition of Eligible Learning (DEL) has been extended to include the individual modules of New CLAIT and CLAIT Plus. This applies to both ILA Scotland £100 and £200 offers.
If you offer these courses in module format, you can now submit them using PROMT. The Information Services team will process your submissions as soon as possible.
If you have any questions about this amendment please call the helpline on 0141 285 6104.
November 2005
Learning Provider Payment Agreement - Notice No. 1
Some learning providers have asked us to explain more about Clause 6 of the Learning Provider Payment Agreement (LPPA).
To help clarify this Clause, we have issued a notice to all registered learning providers. Please note, this notice is not a change to the terms of your agreement, it is simply a clarification. You should add this notice to your copy of the LPPA.
If you have any questions about this notice or the LPPA, please contact our Learning Provider helpline on 0141 285 6104.
August 2005
Amendments to DEL
Following consultation with stakeholders, in particular with learning providers, the Definition of Eligible Learning (DEL) has been updated. The following paragraph has been added to section 6:
6c) “For the scheme’s Universal arrangements, ie where an individual learner does not qualify for ILA Scotland Targeted Arrangements, only ICT courses leading to the qualification or certification specified in the current ‘Recognised ICT Courses for ILA Scotland Universal Arrangements’ attached as Appendix 1 to the DEL or which lead to a recognised qualification at a level up to SCQF level 5 (Int 2, SG Credit, SVQ level 2) are eligible for funding."
The Operational Rules and Supplementary Guidance for Learning Providers document has been updated to reflect this change.