How to get funding for social media training in England: three public routes

What to take away

Public money for social media training in England runs through three doors: the Adult Education Budget, apprenticeship funding, and local business support.
Devolved combined authorities and the Mayor of London plan their own Adult Education Budget, so the same course can be fully funded in one region and chargeable in the next.
Apprenticeship funding pays for training inside a job role, and only where the course maps to a published standard.
Business support grants cover part of an invoice, arrive after payment and carry a deadline.
Ask for the funding rules for the current academic year before you book, because rates and eligibility move.

Where England's training money sits

Public funding for social media training rarely arrives as a voucher. It attaches to a provider, a qualification or an employer's payroll, and each route has its own gatekeeper.

Three funding routes compared

Adult Education Budget

Who controls it: Combined authorities
What it pays for: Courses for adults 19+
Check before applying: Your postcode

Apprenticeship funding

Who controls it: Employers and providers
What it pays for: Training matching a standard
Check before applying: Live standard fit

Local business support

Who controls it: Growth hubs and councils
What it pays for: Part-funding tied to growth
Check before applying: Deadlines and caps

The Department for Education publishes the current skills and further education position, which is the fastest way to see which route is open if you are unsure where to start: further and higher education, skills and vocational training.

Funding rules are reissued each academic year. A route that paid in September can be closed by the following August, and providers do not always update their pages to match.

Who controls it

Adult Education Budget: Combined authorities, the Mayor of London or national skills funding
Apprenticeship funding: Employers, providers and the funding body
Local business support: Growth hubs, councils and combined authorities

What it pays for

Adult Education Budget: Courses for adults aged 19 and over
Apprenticeship funding: Training that matches a published apprenticeship standard
Local business support: Part-funding of training tied to a growth plan

Check before you apply

Adult Education Budget: Whether your postcode sits in a devolved area
Apprenticeship funding: Whether a social media role fits a live standard
Local business support: Deadlines, caps and the evidence you must keep

Adult Education Budget, now the adult skills fund

The AEB is the route most likely to fund a short social media course, because it pays for adult learning rather than for a job. The Department for Education now runs it as the adult skills fund (ASF), and its 2025 to 2026 adult skills fund funding rules refer back to providers that delivered "adult education budget (AEB) learning aims" in 2023 to 2024. The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA), which used to issue these rules, closed on 31 March 2025.

Eligibility turns on age, residency, prior qualifications and sometimes earnings. The 2025 to 2026 rules set the main tests:

Age:a learner must be aged 19 or older on 31 August within the funding year to be DfE funded.
Where you live:DfE funds individuals resident in areas of England outside devolved authority areas. Residents of devolved areas are funded by their own authority.
Full or co-funding:for learning up to and including level 2, learners who meet the earnings threshold or unemployed criteria are fully funded; those who do not are co-funded. A first full level 3 qualification under the legal entitlement is fully funded.
Approved courses:providers can only claim for qualifications on the DfE list of qualifications approved for funding, so ask whether the social media unit you want is on it.

Is the AEB route open to you?

Does your postcode sit in a devolved area?

Yes

ask that combined authority for its course list

ask national skills funding for eligibility

Devolved combined authorities set their own course lists and co-funding rates. The ASF rules say nine combined authorities have responsibility for adult education functions in their areas, and a delegation of adult education functions was made to the Mayor of London under section 39A of the Greater London Authority Act 1999. Since 1 August 2019 those authorities have published their own funding rules for the providers they fund. Your postcode decides which authority answers, so ask a local college which budget it draws on before comparing prices.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run separate adult skills budgets under separate rules. An AEB-funded course in Manchester tells you nothing about funding in Cardiff or Glasgow.

Co-funding rates vary, so it helps to see what no public budget covers, such as learner time. Our guide to building a social media training budget keeps those units separate from the fee.

Apprenticeship funding for social media roles

Apprenticeship funding is the largest pot, but it buys a job rather than a course. The money follows an apprentice in a role that matches a published standard, so a marketing assistant who schedules posts can be the learner.

How apprenticeship money follows a role

Employer identifies a live apprenticeship standard
Apprentice works in a role matching that standard
Levy-paying employer draws on apprenticeship service account
Smaller employer co-invests with state share
Ask for the funding split in writing

The Technical and Further Education Act 2017 put technical education and apprenticeship standards on a statutory footing, which is why funded training maps to a standard rather than a course title.

For marketing roles that include social media, check the standard's status before you plan. Skills England's page for the Digital Marketer standard (ST0122) says it has been retired, and points employers starting new apprentices to ST1031 Multi-channel Marketer instead.

Levy-paying employers draw on their apprenticeship service account. The employer agreement for the Apprenticeship Service describes it as the digital service used to manage and fund apprenticeship training delivered by providers on the Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers, so check that your chosen provider is on that register. Smaller employers normally co-invest: the same agreement defines employer co-investment as a financial contribution towards the cost of training, payable by the employer to the provider in line with the funding rules. The share is set out in that year's funding rules, so ask for the split in writing.

Local growth hubs and grant funding

Local enterprise partnerships have been folded into combined authorities and growth hubs, but the shape of the money has not changed. Support is part-funded, competitive and tied to a growth plan.

GOV.UK's coronavirus business grant data by local authority records grant payments by local authority and parliamentary constituency as at 31 March 2022. It shows how earlier grant money reached businesses through councils, not which schemes are open today. For a current scheme, ask your council's business team or growth hub what is open, the cap, the deadline and the evidence it audits.

Illustrative figures: a course priced at £1,200 with a 50% grant still leaves £600 to find. The grant usually lands after the invoice clears, so treat it as a discount rather than a budget.

Five steps from funding route to booked course

Name the task the training must change, such as planning a content calendar, before you look at funding.
Check whether your postcode sits in a devolved AEB area, then ask that authority for its course list.
Ask each provider which budget it draws on, because one that cannot name the route rarely draws on it.
Match the training to a published standard if you want apprenticeship funding, as many standalone courses will not qualify.
Keep the invoice, attendance record and assessed work, because grant claims are audited after payment.

Common questions

Does the Adult Education Budget cover social media courses?

It can fund adult courses in England, including social media and digital marketing units, if the course is on the provider's funded list and you meet that year's eligibility rules.

Can a small business claim a grant for social media training?

Sometimes. Grants are usually part-funding routed through a growth hub or council, so weigh the terms against courses for small business owners that fit your task.

Can I use the apprenticeship levy for a social media course?

Only through an apprentice in a role that matches a published standard. A standalone course bought for existing staff is not apprenticeship training, whatever the provider's page says.

Are there grants for social media training in Scotland or Wales?

No English scheme applies there. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run their own skills budgets, so start with the devolved administration.