Learning Support
At Edinburgh College, we welcome students of all ages, backgrounds and abilities. We understand that some students may require additional support with their learning to get the best out of their time at college. Our Learning Support team is here to help.
Additional needs
Our Learning Support team offers a voluntary and confidential service to help students who tell us about a disability or additional support need. We help students who disclose:
- A specific learning difficulty such as dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, ADHD or ADD.
- A visual or hearing impairment.
- An autistic spectrum condition.
- Mental ill-health.
- A physical impairment.
- Long-term illness.
The Learning Support team can help with applications for the Disabled Students Allowance for those who are coming onto an HNC or HND course.
Learning Support Process
- When you apply, include your disability or additional support need in your application.
- When you accept an offer of a place on your course (conditional or unconditional), the Learning Support team will make contact with you to discuss your needs.
- They will ask you to share any records you have of your additional support need and/or disability; a member of the team can support you with this. It could be medical records, letters, certificates, a dyslexia screening report or a SpLD diagnostic report. If you are unsure or don’t think you have this kind of information, a member of the team will advise on the next steps.
- Your Learning Support Advisor (Further Education Students) or Needs Assessor (Higher Education students) will arrange an appointment (face-to-face or online) with you to discuss how you feel your additional support need and/or disability will impact your teaching, learning and assessment experience, agreeing reasonable adjustments with you and your teaching team as appropriate to ensure you have the support you need.
For more information about the process watch the video below.
If you have a disability or additional support need, please contact us by emailing learning.support@edinburghcollege.ac.uk so we can arrange to meet with you before you start your course.
If you are applying for one of our Access to Continuing Education (ACE) programmes, referrals to Learning Support are made via the ACE team as required. Any questions about learning support should be discussed with the ACE team in the first instance.
For Schools College Partnership pupils, the Learning Support team liaise directly with schools to gather and share additional support needs information with teaching teams.
Care-Experienced Students
Edinburgh College is a proud Corporate Parent and we take our responsibility to support care-experienced students very seriously. Our role includes supporting you through the college application process, ensuring you have a positive learning experience and providing support during your studies.
Care-experienced individuals may have been, or are currently in, the following situations:
- Foster care – Living with another family
- Residential care – Living in a children’s unit
- Kinship care – Living with friends or relatives
- Care leaver – Someone leaving care or no longer in care, and under the age of 26
- At home – Living with parent(s), but with formal social work involvement
Disclosing on your application that you are care-experienced will allow us to contact you to tell you about the wide range of support we can offer. This support includes:
- Funding and how to apply for your Care-Experienced Bursary and other funding you may be entitled to, including Childcare and Discretionary Funds.
- Putting you in touch with a member of staff who will be your key contact throughout your time at college.
- Discussing any learning support needs and assessment arrangements you might be entitled to, perhaps you had extra time and/or a reader for your exams in school
- Letting you know about the range of support available at college, like our wellbeing and counselling services.
- Edinburgh College Students’ Association (ECSA) – the college has a very active Student’s Association which has a dedicated page for care-experienced students. You will be invited to join this once you have enrolled on your course.
Care-Experienced Bursary
If you are studying at HNC or HND level, you can apply to SAAS for your Care Experienced Bursary. There isn’t a separate application, you can just complete the usual application and indicate on the form that you are care-experienced.
Visit the SAAS website for more information about the Care-Experienced Bursary.
If you would like to find out more about the support available to you as a student at Edinburgh College please email us at guidanceteam@edinburghcollege.ac.uk
