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Employers set to lose 'just' 20% of apprentice funding over failed GCSEs

Full funding for an Early Years Educator course will not be withdrawn if the apprentice fails to gain their GCSEs, despite misleading information from the Skills Funding Agency (SFA).

Apprentice trainers were led to believe that full funding for a level 3 apprentice would be ‘clawed back’ if the apprentice did not pass their maths and English GCSEs by the end of their course.

The SFA has now issued a correction, saying that only the final payment – about 20 per cent of the funding – would be withdrawn in this scenario.

The original information from the SFA servicedesk reads, ‘If the learner does not achieve their maths/English by the end of the EYE course then this (EYE) would need to be coded as withdrawn - no achievement as they wouldn't have met the eligibility as set out in the funding rules 14/15. Regarding the funding, if anything needs to be clawed back it will be done so automatically.’

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