ILA Scotland is a Scottish Government scheme for people who have an income of £22,000 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 or professional qualification course such as an Higher National Certificate (HNC), Higher National Diploma (HND) or a Degree course. Eligible courses are higher education courses, Professional Development Awards (PDA) and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) courses at SCQF levels 7-10.
And for academic year 2009 – 10 you can also get up to £500 towards eligible part – time taught postgraduate courses, PDA and CPD courses at SCQF level 11.
Students must be studying 40 Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) credits or more in an academic year.
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 360 ILA Scotland approved learning providers and more than 14,000 courses are available for learners to choose from.