From September 2011 an enhanced discretionary learner support fund will be available. It will be managed by schools, colleges and training providers. The government says that this will enable closer targeting of resource to individual young people who have a real financial barrier to participation.
Young people who are currently receiving the EMA will continue to receive it to the end of this academic year. Those who are continuing their education next September and need financial help with learning costs may be eligible for support from the enhanced discretionary learner support fund.

Although ST19 is mainly a website about learning choices and your journey to the world of work it may be that you need other help first before you can make these important decisions. This could be immediate help because of a problem you are experiencing either at school or at home, or perhaps something else? Young people often experience the same issues as adults such as those around money, sex, health and relationships. It is usually a good idea to try to work through these things with support rather than deal with them on your own.

There are many people who can help you depending on who works in your area both in and out of school. It is also important that you talk to someone you trust, so even if they don't specialise in the issue you want to talk to them about they would still be able to refer you to the right person whilst supporting you along the way. Every school has Connexions Personal Advisers and the Youth Service has Youth Workers who work both in and out of school.

If you are in school there will be pastoral staff who can help you and other specialist staff such as the School Nurse. There is also support available from Teenage Pregnancy Team for drug and alcohol misuse and a teenage pregnancy team. Your Connexions PA or Youth Worker could provide more information on these or other services available locally, as well as support you if you are not in school. Connexions Direct can be contacted 20 hours a day and will be able to point you in the right direction whatever your question might be.

Once someone has decided on the learning route that suits them and gone through all the important things like qualifications, skills and qualities needed to go for that route, two of the most important issues tend to be about money and transport; can you afford to continue learning and what about the cost and method of travel? It may be that you are leaving school to go to college or into training, or maybe you are moving to another school for 6th form. In these cases you may need financial support and you may have to consider a lengthy journey.

Some people prefer to help themselves and, given the right information they can quite happily make their own decisions. ST19 is mainly there to help you work out what, where and how you want to learn so if you want to start thinking about these things why not read the [START] section for your age group?