§ Mr. RooneyTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if his Department will accept an average of the annual amount of hours' study undertaken, calculated over the number of weeks of the course, as a weekly figure when deciding whether students are part time for the purposes of the jobseeker's allowance. [24811]
§ Mr. ForthThe jobseeker's allowance regulations provide that a person who undertakes a course funded or part-funded by the Further Education Funding Council for Wales will be considered to be a part-time student if a document signed on behalf of the establishment which is funded by the FEFC for Wales for the delivery of the course says that the course involves 16 guided learning hours, or less, a week.
In the case of courses funded by the Secretary of State for Scotland at a college of further education, a student will be considered to be part time if a document signed on behalf of the college says that the course involves 16 hours or less a week of classroom or workshop-based programmed learning under the direct guidance of teaching staff; or 21 hours or less a week, made up of 16 hours or less of classroom or workshop-based programme learning under the direct guidance of teaching staff and additional hours using structured learning packages with the support of teaching staff.
In both cases, the Employment Service will accept these documents as evidence of whether or not a person is a part-time student. In the case of courses funded by the FEFC for Wales, the number of hours per week will be calculated on the basis of a weekly average of the number of guided learning hours for the course. In the case of courses funded by the Secretary of State for Scotland at a college of further education, the number of hours of study per week will be calculated in the same way.