Overview of approval process
High-level overview of the approval process.
This section should be used alongside the how to get funding approval section.
- The awarding organisation prepares the qualification for submission.
- The awarding organisation should upload their qualifications data to GalaxKey - email qualifications.approval@education.gov.uk by 7 March to request access to GalaxKey.
- Once the qualification is submitted, DfE assesses if it is necessary and passes to Ofqual.
- Ofqual reviews your submission and may raise issues or seek clarification with you, for you to respond to. Ofqual will then provide feedback to DfE, taking into account your response to Ofqual as appropriate.
- DfE completes the review of the qualification against funding approval criteria. DfE may decide not to approve a qualification for funding if it believes that issues raised by Ofqual have not been sufficiently addressed.
- DfE notifies the awarding organisation of the outcome of the funding approval decisions and provides the awarding organisation with the opportunity to request a procedural review.
- DfE publishes a list of qualifications that have been approved for funding.
- The awarding organisation prepares the qualification for submission.
- The awarding organisation should upload their qualifications data to and will be made available when the submission round opens on 10 March 2025.
- Once the awarding organisation submits the qualification, it will be reviewed against technical qualification with employer input where necessary, this includes but is not limited to checking that it meets employer needs.
- The organisations involved in the approval process will share information on their respective reviews and work collaboratively as part of the end to end approval process.
- After the technical qualification is approved against the technical qualification criteria, DfE will consider it against the funding approval criteria. We may decide not to approve a qualification for funding if we believe that issues raised regarding the technical qualification review have not been sufficiently addressed.
- DfE notifies the awarding organisation of the funding approval decisions and provides the awarding organisation with the opportunity to request a procedural review.
- DfE publishes a list of qualifications that have been approved for funding.