The Department for Education and Employment (DfEE) appears to have taken on board concerns raised by the British Computer Society about the potential for training providers to raise their prices to obtain extra funds for Individual Learning Account-funded courses by introducing a cap on the amount which will be funded.
From Monday 23 October, the 80% discount available to Individual Learning Account (ILA) holders paying for basic IT and maths courses has been capped at £200 per account holder.
A letter has been sent to learning providers who are registered for ILAs stating that "in the early weeks of the introduction of this discount, there has been some take up of expensive IT courses; some of them representing poor value for the use of public money. The intention of the cap is to ensure that as many people as possible will be able to access basic courses at a lower cost, thus ensuring the maximum impact from the public money available."
The government says that the discount will still allow people to access basic IT courses which they themselves can choose, on the basis that they will not be able to receive more than £200 towards the cost.
The new cap came into play from Friday 20 October - any training booked before that date, even if it has yet to take place, will not be subject to the limit. The DfEE has said that it is the responsibility of learning providers to make sure that people enrolling on courses know about the new cap on discounts
Anyone with enquiries about the funding cap should contact the Individual Learning Account Centre direct on 0800 072 5678.
