Skills Development Scotland - Individual Training Accounts (ITA) - Skills Development Scotland

What Individual Training Accounts offered

An Individual Training Account gave you up to about EUR 235 (£200) per year towards a single work-related course. You got it as a grant, so you never had to repay it. If a course cost more than £200, you paid the difference yourself. The money came from Skills Development Scotland, Scotland's national skills agency. The course had to lead to a recognised job qualification in a field such as IT, business, childcare, health and safety, hospitality, agriculture, social care or transport.

Important: this programme has been suspended. Skills Development Scotland confirmed there is no funding for 2024/25, and the scheme is no longer listed among its products. The details below describe how it worked while it ran, in case you are checking whether it still exists.

Who could apply

• Age: You were 16 or over.
• Where you live: You lived in Scotland.
• Not in education: You were not at school, college or university, and not on another SDS-funded scheme such as a Modern Apprenticeship.
• Your situation: You were either unemployed and actively looking for work, or working (including self-employed) with a yearly income under about EUR 25,800 (£22,000) and wanting to progress or change career. People on certain benefits, such as Universal Credit or Jobseeker's Allowance, also qualified.
• Course: Your course led to a recognised qualification in one of the approved subject areas.

How you applied

You applied online through the My World of Work platform and picked an ITA-approved training provider. You supplied proof of your income or benefits, which the provider checked before your course started. Places were limited: in 2023/24 only 6,000 applications got funding, over a short window from 19 June to 20 July.