ELCAS Armed Forces Funding

What is ELCAS?

ELC (Enhanced Learning Credits) is a scheme aimed at providing members of the armed forces of the UK with lifelong learning opportunities. Financial support is provided in the form of a single, up-front payment towards the courses that you wish to study. The ELC scheme is administered and managed by ELCAS (Enhanced Learning Credits Administration Services) as a part of the MOD (Ministry of Defence). Administrative support and regulating of training providers is also provided by ELCAS.

Making the transition from the Armed Forces back to civilian life can be challenging and, at times, daunting. The ELCAS scheme endeavours to make that transition as smooth and easy as possible by helping those that have served, or are still serving in the military, gain recognised certifications, giving them a far greater chance at gaining employment once they have finished their service.

Your ELC Entitlements

You can use the credits that you gain through ELC both whilst you are serving in the armed forces and for up to ten years after finishing your service.

Before being eligible to make an ELC claim, individual scheme members must have completed not less than six years eligible service (lower tier).  

If you have completed 4 years qualifying service prior to 1st April 2017, please read JSP 822.

The lower tier of funding is up to £1,000 per claim instalment and the higher tier (eight years service) is up to £2,000 per claim instalment.  

Only service accumulated since 1st April 2000, may be counted as eligible service for the purpose of the ELC Scheme.  

How many ELC claims can I make?

You are entitled to make three ELC claims in total.

You can only make one claim per financial year (1 April- 31 March), however if you have served between 6 and 8 years you may be eligible to aggregate all three lower tier claims together (subject to meeting the qualifying criteria in JSP 822).

As the expiration date of your claims is dependent upon many factors please read JSP 822.  If you are claiming in the last year of your scheme eligibility, you must commence study before your scheme expiry date.

If you are in your qualifying resettlement phase you may be eligible to claim under the Joint Funding Initiative (PF FE/HE Scheme).

What's the first step to get this started?

The first step of the process is to identify and apply for one of our NVQs (don’t forget that these are competence-based assessments, not training courses – so you’ll need to be able to prove that you’re already doing the job).

To do this, use the ‘NVQ’ menu at the top of our site to browse the qualifications (or give us a call on 01952 287 366 and we’ll point you in the right direction).

The next step is to apply for the qualification. This process is free of charge and is essential to confirm that the qualification you’re hoping to complete is achievable. 

On each qualification page of this website you can find a link to download a ‘profile tool’. This is a questionnaire that helps to confirm that you have the skills, knowledge, experience and evidence to be successful. Once a completed profile tool has been sent back to us, one of our specialist assessor will contact you for a brief telephone profiling session. 

Once our assessor has confirmed that the qualification is achievable and ‘approved’ you to enrol, you can then apply to make a claim to ELC for funding.

I've been approved to enrol by an assessor, now what?

Now you know the qualification is achievable, you will need to do the following:

Step 1: Complete the ELCAS Claim Form (click here to download it) quoting the following provider information:

  • Provider Name: CADUK- The Competence Assessment & Development Centre Ltd.
  • Provider ID Code: 8555

Step 2: Obtain your Claim Authorisation Note (CAN):

  • Those that are currently still serving in the military will need to obtain a Claim Authorisation Note (CAN) from your line manager and education staff.
  • Those that have finished their service will need to obtain a Claim Authorisation Note (CAN) from their Single Service Representative.

Step 3: Once your claim has been accepted, send the CAN through to us and we will contact you to begin the enrolment process.

Where can I find out more about ELCAS?