Gaelic Teacher Training Grants Guidelines 2025/26

About this fund

This fund is available from Bòrd na Gàidhlig to provide support to those training towards a career in Gaelic teaching or Gaelic early learning and childcare who require additional financial support to complete their course.

The scheme for 2025/26 has been amended substantially to prioritise support towards those demonstrating a requirement for financial assistance to undertake the course, therefore previous applicants should consider the guidance carefully before starting an application.

The fund is currently open for applications for courses running in the 2025/26 academic year (August 2025 – July 2026) only.

What support is available?

Support is available as a grant for those who can demonstrate that financial assistance is required to undertake an eligible course.

Support can be requested for:

Course fees (if you are ineligible to receive support from SAAS);
Travel costs if you are required to undertake a teaching placement on your year of the course;
A cost-of-living grant if you are in receipt of Carer’s Allowance or Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) or are care-experienced;
If you are or were in care (looked after by a local authority) while under the age of 18; or
Another reason where you can demonstrate that financial support is required and unavailable from SAAS or another funding source

There will be a maximum grant of £1,820 for those requiring support towards course fees or £1,000 for other applicants, although we cannot guarantee that all applicants who apply will be successful or will receive the full amount requested).

If you meet the criteria above, you will be required to provide evidence of meeting these criteria along with information as to how your costs will be calculated.

Who can apply?

To apply you must be undertaking one of the following eligible courses:

a Gaelic Education undergraduate Degree (BA/MA Education or MA Gaelic with Education)
a PGDE in Gaelic Education (either Primary or Secondary – Gaelic as a subject and subjects through the medium of Gaelic)
an HNC or HND in Gaelic early years or childcare
a Masters of Education (MEd) course in Gaelic

In addition to the above, to be eligible you must be resident in Scotland, be taking a course with a Scottish college or university, have the right to work in Scotland as a Gaelic early years practitioner or teacher after completion of the course and have an active UK bank account at the time of applying.

If you are enrolling on a PGDE course, if you meet the criteria for the Scottish Government/Skills Development Scotland Teaching Bursary Scheme and are successful in applying, you will be ineligible to receive support through the Bòrd na Gàidhlig scheme. We strongly recommend reviewing the eligibility criteria for this scheme and applying if you are eligible, as you may be eligible for a bursary of up to £15,000.

You may only submit one application to us through this round of funding.

Submitting an application

You should talk to Bòrd na Gàidhlig as soon as possible if you have any questions about your application by sending an email to foghlam@gaidhlig.scot or tabhartas@gaidhlig.scot

Applications should be submitted via our Fluxx application portal at bng.fluxx.io. An account can be registered for free on the website and it is possible to save the progress of an application whilst working on it. Alternative formats of the application form are available upon request.

The application form will ask you:

Information about you
What course you are taking
What support you are requesting (and how you have calculated this)
Why the support is required (and for evidence as appropriate)

You must submit evidence with your application to confirm that you have accepted your place on your current course (if you are entering the first year of a course) or that you are matriculated for the upcoming year of your course, and the evidence must include your name, the course institution and name and confirmation of the year in which you’ll be entering.

Evidence of course place acceptance can be provided as a copy of a letter or email from UCAS, the university or college. If your offer of a course place is conditional, you can still apply, but a grant will not be offered until you provide evidence to us that you have fulfilled the conditions and received an unconditional offer of a course place.

If you are continuing on a course, guidance is available below for obtaining matriculation evidence from various universities:

University of Edinburgh – Certificate of Matriculation (available via Electronic Document Service in MyEd)

University of Glasgow – Certifying Letters (available via Student Center > My Academic Record)

University of the Highlands and Islands – Study Status Letter (available via Student Hub)

University of Strathclyde – Student Status Letter (available under the “Personal” tab of Pegasus)

Sabhal Mòr Ostaig – A letter is available from Shona Cormack (snc.smo@uhi.ac.uk), Head of Teacher Education, to confirm your matriculation

Depending on your request, you may also need to submit further evidence of the following:

Confirmation of course fees (for all applications requesting support with course fees)
Confirmation that SAAS will not pay course fees (if you are requesting support with course fees for an undergraduate or postgraduate course)
A record of your employment history, available via HMRC’s PAYE Income Tax history, or by submitting P60s/P45s or letters from previous employers or submitting evidence of receipt of Carer’s Allowance (if requesting support due to being in full-time work)
A letter from a professional person to confirm care-experience (if claiming a grant as care-experienced). See guidance from SAAS for definition of professional person

You must submit your application by 3pm on Tuesday 30 September 2025. Late applications will only be accepted at Bòrd na Gàidhlig’s discretion.

Please note, Bòrd na Gàidhlig may request additional information or clarification of details after the application has been submitted. Any application which is not compliant with this guidance and does not contain all of the required supporting documents by 10am on Tuesday 7 October 2025 may be declined.

How we will handle your application and grant

All applications will be assessed together by a panel of Bòrd na Gàidhlig officers at the start of October 2025 after the scheme closes, to ensure that there is sufficient budget to support the number of applications received, according to the need demonstrated in the application for the support requested. We will let you know of the decision on your application by email in mid-October 2025.

If there are significantly more applications than the budget of the fund can allow (estimated at £20,000), a proportionate reduction in grant sums across all successful application will take place, except where support is agreed towards course fees where we will aim to provide the full amount.

If your funding application is successful, a letter of offer will be sent to you by email via Docusign. This will explain the level of funding agreed and the conditions that apply and ask you to confirm your bank details to allow us to make grant payments you. If your application is unsuccessful we will email you to explain the reasons behind the decision.

If support for course fees is agreed, we will ask you to arrange for your college or university to provide us with an invoice for the payment of the fees directly to them. If you have paid for your course fees in advance of a decision on your application, we may require proof of payment to the college or university in order for us to make the payment to you directly.

If support for a grant is agreed, it is expected that 50% of the grant will be paid upon return of the signed letter of offer and confirmation of your bank details. Please note that if funding has been received in previous years that progress reports for those years must be submitted and approved before we can make any payment under your new grant.

Payment of the final 50% of the grant will be made in January 2026.

Please note within your application or contact Bòrd na Gàidhlig’s funding team at tabhartas@gaidhlig.scot if you would like to arrange for a different payment schedule.

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of your application, while we do not offer an appeal process you may make a complaint if you believe your application has not been dealt with in accordance with this guidance and the assessment guidance. For more information, our complaints handling procedure is detailed online here.

Progress monitoring and evaluation

As a condition of funding, you must agree to:

Complete the year of the course for which you are requesting support;
Submit a progress report to Bòrd na Gàidhlig before 14 August 2026; and
Commit to taking the next available step towards teaching in Gaelic education, whether this is:
- Continuing on to the next year of your course;
- Continuing on to a probationary year; or
- Continuing into a Gaelic teaching or early years post

Bòrd na Gàidhlig officers may also contact you during your course for informal progress updates.

Should you not complete your course or decide not to follow a career in Gaelic education, you must inform Bòrd na Gàidhlig immediately, with part of the grant then liable to be returned as per the details of your letter of offer.

More information

For more information about funding, please visit Bòrd na Gàidhlig’s website, or email us at tabhartas@gaidhlig.scot.

You can also find answers to frequently asked questions about our funding on our website.

Privacy information relating to our funding schemes can be found on our website.

Alternative forms of this guidance and application forms can be made available on request and may be published at: https://www.gaidhlig.scot/en/funding/funding-schemes/gaelic-teacher-training-grants/

Version History

v1 – 19 August 2025 – Published