If you are or have been in care, you can get up to £3,000 towards your apprenticeship.
If you started your apprenticeship before 1 August 2023, you could be eligible for a £1,000 bursary. If you started your apprenticeship on or after 1 August 2023, you could be eligible for a £3,000 bursary.
To receive the care leavers’ bursary, you must be:
If you’re eligible, you should talk to your training provider, as they need to claim the bursary for you. You won’t have to give them details about your care experience.
Your training provider should also ask if you’ll let them share your care leaver status with your employer. You don’t have to share your status, but your employer can receive additional funding to help support you if you do.
Your training provider will receive the bursary and give it to you.
If you’re eligible for the £1,000 bursary, you should get this around 3 months after starting your apprenticeship.
If you’re eligible for the £3,000 bursary, you’ll get this in instalments. You’ll get:
The date you get these instalments may depend on how long your apprenticeship is.
You can only receive the care leavers’ bursary once. Claiming this bursary won’t disqualify you from getting other support. You can’t claim this if you’ve finished your apprenticeship.
If you haven’t received a bursary payment from your training provider, you should talk to them about this.
As an apprentice, you’re entitled to benefits depending on your circumstances and how much you earn. Your benefits won’t be affected by any financial support you claim as an apprentice either, as long as your total savings are less than £6,000.
Local authorities have a legal duty to support care leavers until the age of 25. You may be able to get support with your:
Contact the local council where you were in care to find out what support is available to you.
There’s more information about support and benefits for care leavers doing apprenticeships, and what’s available from local authorities and government, in the care leaver covenant’s support from local authorities and central government factsheet.
You can join Care X, a network for care experienced apprentices. Care X members support each other academically, socially, and emotionally through their apprenticeship.
Use our Find an apprenticeship website to search and apply for apprenticeships.
