The Literacy and Numeracy provision funding mechanism is issued by the Minister responsible for tertiary education. The funding mechanism outlines the general form and essential components of the fund. It provides the mandate for us to allocate the funding and what the funding can be used for, and details how we administer the fund.

Funding is agreed off-Plan via a funding confirmation letter.

An employer that receives WLN Employer-led funding is required to:

• comply with the requirements of the Education and Training Act 2020, and 
• comply with the conditions specified in its funding confirmation letter.

To apply for WLN Employer-led funding, please use the EWLN Application Form (DOCX 471 KB).

If the application is for a consortium arrangement with other employers (see page 51, Condition: Organisation eligibility (PDF 4.4 MB)), each consortium member must complete the EWLN Consortium Employer Participants Form (DOCX 445 KB).

This form for each participant must be submitted with the EWLN application form.

For information about applying, refer to the EWLN Application Guide (PDF 675 KB).

Application forms and guidance are also available on the Skills Highway website.

Please submit applications by email using customerservice@tec.govt.nz.

Application assessment

We assess the application to determine whether the proposed programme(s) should be funded.  

We assess applications periodically following set application deadlines.

The confirmed application deadlines for 2024 are:

• Friday 9 February 2024
• Friday 12 April 2024
• Friday 14 June 2024
• Friday 9 August 2024
• Friday 11 October 2024

We will communicate our funding decisions within 25 to 30 working days from the closing of each application round.

WLN Employer-led provision is funded up to a maximum of $95.68 (GST exclusive) per hour of face-to-face literacy, numeracy, or literacy and numeracy, tuition.

From 1 January 2023, provision is funded up to a maximum of $98.31 per hour (GST exclusive). This includes a 2.75% increase to the provision.

Each hour of provision not attended by the learner is not to be reported and is not funded.

The average funding per hour of tuition in programmes is usually significantly below the maximum level. This is because programmes exhibit some or all of the below characteristics, which reduce the costs of provision:

• repeat programmes (minimal start-up costs)
• a single site of delivery
• concentrated geographically
• large scale, and/or
• derived from existing programmes.

We advise that applicants submitting an application take these factors into account when deciding what rate of funding to request. If the requested funding rate is deemed in excess of the reasonable costs of the proposed programme, an applicant may be granted a lower rate of funding.

Payment is made in four instalments, based on employer completion of milestones. The milestones are outlined in the funding confirmation letter.

We are required to recover funding where the results of an audit, reporting or statistical return show an employer has under-delivered against expected performance targets as described in their agreed funding agreement. See Condition: Repayment of WLN Fund – Employer-led strand Funding.