How to apply for funding

How to apply for funding

Below is a step by step guide to help you complete the application form and gather all the information we need to help you with a successful application. Please read carefully before completing the form.

1. Open the application form

Click here to pull up the application form

2. Answer all the questions about yourself

Make sure you answer all of the questions about yourself – we need this information to consider your application and to contact you about it

3. Meet all 4 tenets

In order to be considered for a grant your application must demonstrate that you satisfy our four key tenets of Talent, Opportunity, Financial Need and Sustainability:

Talent

You’ll need to show that you have a vocation or a real talent for what you are wanting to be trained in. It’s more than simply ‘I’d like to have a go at….’ So give us as much information as you can about what you have done so far, and what your ambitions are and why. If past or current teachers or trainers are happy to write you a reference to support your application, that can be very helpful. You’ll need to email those, and any other documents that you’d like us to see to evidence talent, to us at [                   ]. Don’t forget to put your name in the subject of the email so we can link it to your application.

Opportunity

This is about demonstrating that the course or training you want to undertake is the right next step for you in fulfilling your talent. So it’s helpful to give us as much information as you can about the course or training and why this course or training is the right opportunity for you. We’ll need to have confirmation too that you have a place on the course or training, so if you have confirmation of that already, please email that to us. If you haven’t received it yet you can send it to us later but we will need it before we give the final confirmation of any grant.

Financial Need

You need to be able to demonstrate that without our grant you would be unable to take up the course or training. So we do need please information about your finances; the total costs of the course/training (so both the tuition fees, rent and living expenses, and any extras that are important for you to get the most from the course/training); and the income, savings, scholarships, student loans, family contributions and other grants that you already have to help cover those costs. It’s often helpful to do this in a table or spreadsheet; you’ll need to email that to us with any other supporting documents you want us to see.

Sustainability

Our grants are about helping you to see the course or training through right to then end – so when we are looking at the financial information, we look not just at the first year of the course or training, but what your financial position is for the subsequent years too, as we want to be sure that you are funded right through before we confirm our grant. So it’s important therefore to give us as much information about that as you can.

3. Once we have got your application and any supporting documents you’ve sent, we’ll do an initial review. We might come back to you at that stage to ask for additional information or evidence if there’s something we need clarifying. The Trustees usually look to make the final decision on applications in July each year, ready for the start of the new academic year in September. But if you’ve had a change of circumstances and are in need of emergency funding part way through the year, we can look at that at any time – and if you need to know whether you can get a grant in order to assist you with the application for your course we can probably help with that too – just let us know in the application form.

4. Send the application form

Once we have got your application form we'll automatically send you an email to attach any supporting documents that support your application and we’ll complete an initial review. We might come back to you at that stage to ask for additional information or evidence if there’s something we need clarifying.

5. What happens next

The Trustees usually look to make the final decision on applications in July each year, ready for the start of the new academic year in September. But if you’ve had a change of circumstances and are in need of emergency funding part way through the year, we can look at that at any time – and if you need to know whether you can get a grant in order to assist you with the application for your course we can probably help with that too – just let us know in the application form.