Eligibility
ITPs, wānanga, and PTEs are eligible to receive Youth Guarantee funding.
The target group for this initiative is learners aged 16 and 17 years, and identified Tertiary Education Strategy priority groups.
Learner eligibility criteria
In 2012, Youth Guarantee providers will need to apply the following criteria to determine a learner’s eligibility:
- Age: students must be 16 or 17 years old at the time of commencing study in a Youth Guarantee programme. Students who are 15 years of age with an early leaving exemption may also be considered.
- Full time: students must be enrolled full-time
- Full year: learners must be enrolled in a minimum of a full year’s worth of study (the equivalent of at least 0.8 EFTS)
- New learners: providers must give priority to learners who are new to tertiary education. Of the learners who have previously enrolled in tertiary study, priority must be given to learners who are enrolling in a higher level programme than they have previously completed.
Learners must not be enrolled in school and a Youth Guarantee programme simultaneously.
Learners may move from a Foundation-focused Training Opportunities or Industry Training programme into Youth Guarantee as long as they meet the eligibility criteria – although this is not expected to be a common pathway.
We expect providers to enrol learners in programmes that best meet the purpose of the Youth Guarantee initiative and also meet the eligibility criteria above. A key driver behind the Youth Guarantee is decreasing the number of students leaving education without the qualifications they need to gain meaningful employment or to undertake further study.
Priority groups
To ensure the success of the Youth Guarantee, providers will need to focus on raising the achievement of ‘priority learners’, notably Māori and Pasifika and learners with special education needs.
Māori and Pasifika learners are prioritised because, despite the continuing improvements in school leaver qualifications for all ethnicities in New Zealand, disparities remain. Māori and Pasifika students are identified not only on equity grounds, but also because the changing profile of New Zealand’s population will mean that Māori and Pasifika will be increasingly important as part of the replacement workforce.
Learners with special education needs have also received priority status because low percentages of such learners transition from secondary school to tertiary education and work. Establishing provision for these learners as a priority group will remove the disincentive for them to remain at school when they could be better served in Youth Guarantee programmes.
Student loans and allowances
Learners enrolled in Youth Guarantee are not eligible for Student Loans administered by StudyLink. Providers are responsible for ensuring learners enrolled in Youth Guarantee are not claiming any type of Student Loan through StudyLink. The TEC will periodically audit provider compliance with this requirement. To help ensure learners do not claim Student Loans, the TEC suggests that providers require all Youth Guarantee learners to sign a waiver condition stating that they will not apply for StudyLink loans.
As Youth Guarantee learners are not eligible for Student Loans, they are also not eligible for the course related costs component of a Student Loan.
Learners enrolled in Youth Guarantee may be eligible for allowances if they meet the Studylink eligibility requirements. In general, to get the Student Allowance a learner must:
- be 18 or over (some 16-17 year olds may be eligible)
- study full-time (or limited full-time with our approval); and
- be at secondary school or on a tertiary course approved by the Tertiary Education Commission.
Learners should contact Studylink for further information about Student Allowance eligibility.