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Financial Support for School Leavers


Dependent on your circumstances, you may be eligible to apply for support if you are enrolling onto a course with Doncaster College

If you are aged 16 – 18  (age taken as of 31st August 2024), you may be eligible for financial assistance towards the costs of your studies where you can evidence that you have a household income of less than £60,000pa (net income).

Applying online is quick and easy and you do not need to be enrolled to start your application.  Simply follow the ‘Guide to Applying’ and provide the requested evidence.  Please ensure you provide all the evidence requested as failure to do so will delay your application being processed.

When completing your online application, please remember the following.

  • You must have an up-to-date email address recorded on college records, without this, you will not receive your activation email.  Please check with us by emailing dcinfocentre@don.ac.uk if you are unsure what email address is held on college records for you.
  • When entering your student ID number, only enter the digits not the ‘DC’ or the ‘DC00’ prefix.

If you have registered for financial assistance previously, you do not need to register again, you just need to login using your previous login details.  If you have forgotten your password for your login, click on the ‘Forgotten password’ link and follow the instructions

Apply Online

To apply for financial assistance online, please visit the following link:

Financial Assistance Application Link

Guide to Applying

Guide to applying 24-25

If you have any questions/queries regarding the Financial Assistance Application, please email FinancialAssist@don.ac.uk.

Travel Payment Schedule

Financial Assistance Travel Payment Schedule 2024_25

Types of Support Available

Here’s a summary of some of the things you could be eligible for.

Where students are aged under 20 on the start date of their programme and they require childcare support, this is provided through Care to Learn.

Students are encouraged to apply early for this support to ensure that support is received from the start date of the students study programme (Care to Learn will only pay childcare costs from the start date of a student’s programme where they apply within 28 days of their programme start date).

In addition to the above, applications must be made for each year that the student wishes to claim childcare support for.

Care to Learn is applied for online via the following link: https://www.gov.uk/care-to-learn

Students aged 16-18 (as of 31/08/2024)

To be eligible to travel support, you must live more than 1 mile from college.

Students who live in South Yorkshire can apply for the Zoom 16-18 Travel Pass through https://travelsouthyorkshire.com/1618/ and receive concessionary travel @ £1 per journey on any bus or tram in South Yorkshire.

You can also receive 50% off Northern train fares for travel anytime, anywhere within South Yorkshire with the Zoom 16 – 18 Travel Pass.

For full guidance on the Zoom 16-18 Travel Pass and details on how to apply for this pass, please visit https://travelsouthyorkshire.com/1618/

Support towards course costs such as kit/uniform or equipment. This support must be approved by your tutor.

Daily allowance uploaded on to your student card to use at the onsite food outlets.

One off payment towards stationery.

Contribution towards printing uploaded to your student account.

If you are aged 16 – 18 on 31 August 2024 and:

  • You are in care
  • You are a care leaver
  • You receive Income Support (IS) or Universal Credit (UC) in your own right
  • You receive Disability Living Allowance (DLA) or Personal Independence Payments (PIP) in your own right as well as Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) or Universal Credit (UC) in your own right

you may be eligible for the Vulnerable Bursary (VB) and could receive up to £1,200 over the academic year towards college participation costs, subject to your attendance.

Please be aware that meeting these eligibility criteria does not guarantee an award, which depends on your individual financial needs.

Development Awards are cash awards to help young people access education, training and employment. Young people can also receive help with action planning and on-going support and monitoring.

The awards are in place to help fund additional costs such as;

  • Tools, equipment or transport for a job
  • Course fees
  • Professional licence fees
  • Interview Clothes
  • Childcare costs

For further information and full eligibility criteria, please visit:

https://www.princes-trust.org.uk/help-for-young-people/get-funding-train-learn