ESFA Update further education: 23 June 2021
Published 23 June 2021
Applies to England
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/esfa-update-23-june-2021/esfa-update-further-education-23-june-2021
1. Latest information on coronavirus (COVID-19)
The Department for Education has published guidance about COVID-19 in educational settings for staff, parents and carers, pupils and students on GOV.UK.
Please check GOV.UK regularly for updates.
2. Information: Further Education Professional Development Grants pilot 2021 to 2022
DfE recently announced a new £9.5 million FE Professional Development Grants pilot that will support the commitment made in the government’s Skills for Jobs White Paper to strengthen the professional development on offer to the workforce and boost teaching practices.
Eligible further education providers are being invited to partner up and submit bids for funding to develop approaches to professional development and training that improve teaching practices and enable career progression in three priority areas:
- training and supporting staff to strengthen skills and confidence to use technology effectively to deliver education
- subject specific professional development to improve the quality of curriculum design and teaching, learning and assessment
- tailored support for new or inexperienced teachers in the sector to help career progression and keep talent in the profession.
Applications must be submitted to fepdg.pilot@education.gov.uk no later than 11.59pm on 16 July 2021. If you have any questions after reading the full guidance about completing your application, contact the FEPDG team on fepdg.pilot@education.gov.uk.
3. Information: Feconnect to be switched off from Thursday 29 July
In September 2020, ESFA communities replaced feconnect as our online discussion forum for further education and training providers to give each other advice. Now that ESFA communities is well-established, with over 1,000 registered users and around 500 topics/replies per month, we will switch off feconnect on from 29 July 2021. Content on feconnect will not be visible after that date.
What do you need to do?
You will need to register on ESFA communities to post topics, replies or subscribe for alerts. If you think that date will cause any issues or want to know more about ESFA communities, please contact customer.experience@education.gov.uk.
4. Information: Submit Learner Data is moving to a new URL
Submit Learner Data is moving to a new website address (https://submit-learner-data.service.gov.uk) from 8 July, users trying to access the old website after the move will be redirected to the new website automatically. The redirect will be in place for a minimum of three months to allow users time to update any bookmarks.
If you have questions about this change, please complete an online ESFA contact form.
5. Information: financial health methodology consultation
We are seeking views on approaches to improve financial oversight, reflecting the market in which colleges now operate.
We want to capture views from across further education and would like to hear from college finance directors interested in participating in a small focus group or one to one interviews on proposals to update the college financial health methodology during July and August. In addition, the agency would also like to user-test a financial dashboard for college governors during August.
Please email Anthony.Haines@education.gov.uk expressing your interest with financial health methodology or Governor Dashboard in the subject.
As part of the consultation, the college financial forecasting return: user guide (section 17) invites feedback in the self-assessment box. The college financial planning handbook sets out potential changes.
6. Information: introducing the provider guide to delivering high quality apprenticeships webinar recording
Last week, ESFA were joined by over 600 training providers for a webinar introducing the provider guide to delivering high quality apprenticeships. The guide sets out the essential steps for every stage of the apprenticeship journey.
You can watch a recording of the event on our YouTube channel.
You can watch a recording of the event on our YouTube channel.
As well as colleagues from ESFA, we were joined by representatives from the IfATE Apprentice Panel and Ofsted. Topics covered included End Point Assessment, maintaining the employer, provider, apprentice and End Point Assessment Organisation (EPAO) relationship, and Ofsted inspection. We also talked about the Apprenticeships Workforce Development Programme training, which you can access for free on the Education and Training Foundation website.
You can read the provider guide on GOV.UK, and access a similar one for employers on the Apprenticeships website.