Applicant Guidance
Please ensure that you have read this guidance in full prior to submitting an application.
The bursary scheme offers members support in paying:
- Fees for training or courses facilitating members’ personal or professional development up to and including an undergraduate degree, where the member is paying the full fees themselves. This excludes any courses that fall under the following definitions:
- Courses leading to qualifications linked to licence to practice
- Training or programmes of study intended to meet the employer’s statutory and/or legal responsibilities (e.g. health & safety)
- Grants can also be made towards the payment of exam fees, subject to the same conditions as support with course fees
There are three distinct grants available under the scheme:
Learning Grant
These awards are available to members undertaking any course for personal or professional development that doesn’t fall under the previous two categories. An award of up to approximately one third of course fees is available to a maximum of £300.
Open University Grant
These awards are available to members undertaking 30 and 60 point OU courses up to and including under-graduate level. No awards are available for master’s degree study or above. Awards are made as follows:
- 60 credit courses = up to £500
- 30 credit courses = up to £250
Trade Union & Labour Studies and Women’s Studies
These awards are available to members undertaking a programme of study specifically related to Trade Union & Labour Studies and Women’s Studies. Awards available:
- Certificate, diploma, or BA grants of up to £500 for members on Trade Union and Labour Movement or Women’s Studies courses
- Master’s Degree Grants of up to one-third of fees for a union representative studying Trade Union and Labour Studies or Women’s Studies
All of the sums above are the maximum amount which can be awarded. The actual amount awarded will depend on the funds remaining in the current financial year.
Points to remember:
- Your course must start in the same calendar year as the application is made. For example, if your course starts in 2023 you must apply during 2023
- You can apply before the course starts, and before you have all of the evidence
- There is a limited budget for this scheme and grants are considered on a first-come, first-served basis until the funding is exhausted
- Each member can only receive one UNISON educational grant in each calendar year, up to a maximum of four grants 0
- Grants are made at the discretion of the Development & Organising Committee
Who can apply?
- Full (employed) members of UNISON
- Retired, student and unemployed members can also apply, providing they were previously full employed members for a minimum of four consecutive weeks
Who isn’t eligible to apply?
- Any member in arrears of subscriptions
- Student members who have never been full (employed) members
- Any member in the first four weeks of membership
- Any member who has received four previous UNISON education grants
- Any member already in receipt of financial support toward their course fees (student loans and maintenance grants do not fall under this category)
The application process
- Read through the form summary below and prepare the information you’ll need when filling in the online form. It isn’t possible to save the form and return to it, so please ensure you have everything ready before beginning.
- Follow the link at the end of this document to complete and submit the form
- Email your evidence of course registration and payment to l.organising@unison.co.uk (this can be at a later date if the evidence is not available at the time of application)
- When your form has been submitted you’ll receive an acknowledgement email within five working days. If you don’t hear from us after two weeks please get in touch on l.organising@unison.org.uk to make sure we’ve received your form.
- We will then get in touch with your UNISON branch to confirm your membership status
- Once your membership status has been confirmed we will make a decision about your application and notify you with details of next steps
- For successful applications, once we have all of the required evidence, we’ll ask for your BACs details to pay the grant via direct bank transfer. These details will be deleted once the payment has been made
Forms must reach us by the closing date of Friday 6th October 2023
Please note that we cannot process your application until we have received your completed application form, proof of your registration and of payment of course fees, and your BACS details.
Evidence documents required
When completing the application form you will be prompted to send evidence of your enrolment and payment of fees. The specific proof required is shown below. Please note that you are also able to submit evidence after completing the form but must provide a date by which you intend to send us the evidence.
What should I provide as proof of payment?
- If you are in receipt of a student finance loan for your course fees please send a copy of your student finance letter/agreement, including the date the letter was issued, the academic year the loan is for and the details of your course
- If you are paying the full course fees directly in advance, please send proof of payment including details of the modules you will be undertaking
- If you are paying for your course in instalments, please send proof of payment of any deposit and a copy of the payment plan agreed between you and the course provider, with details of the course/modules you will be undertaking
What should I provide as proof of enrolment?
- Open University Grant
A PDF file of your Statement of Academic Record (this can be obtained via the StudentHome portal) OR a screenshot or good quality image upload of the email confirming that your enrolment is complete (usually sent by OU-Mailings@open.ac.uk) - Trade Union & Labour Studies and Women’s Studies
A screenshot or good quality image upload of the email confirming that your enrolment is complete - Learning Grant
Evidence for enrolment requires you to send proof that you have been offered a place to attend the relevant course. This can include emails, PDF documents or good-quality photographs of letters offering a place on the course.
What do I need to have ready before completing the form?
As mentioned above, the application form doesn’t allow for saving your work and returning to it so it’s helpful to have all the information you need ready to input before you follow the link below.
The form asks for details of:
Personal details:
Your name, UNISON membership number; contact details, job title & employer; working hours and the highest level of previous qualification you have obtained. The choices for this last question are:
- Entry and NVQ Level 1 (e.g. GCSEs D-G / CSE levels 2-5 )
- NVQ Level 2 (e.g. GCSEs A-C / CSE 1 / O-Level A-C)
- NVQ Level 3 (e.g. A/AS levels)
- NVQ Level 4 and above (e.g. HNC / CertHE)
- NVQ Level 5 and above (e.g. HND / DipHE)
- NVQ Level 6 and above (e.g. first level degree)
- None
Details of your course:
The course name, provider and duration of the whole course. If the course lasts more than a year you will also need to tell us which year you are applying for.
You will also need to tell us the start and end date of either the course or the year/module you are currently applying for, as well as the fee paid for this part. For OU courses we will also need to know the number of credits the module is worth.
Finally, we will ask you for a brief statement on why you would like to study this particular course. This needn’t be longer than a paragraph or so, and can be briefer, it’s just to give us an idea of why you’re interested in studying.