Correspondence

Update: issue 346 (15 February 2017)

Updated 22 February 2017

This correspondence was withdrawn on 17 February 2020

This has been withdrawn as it’s out of date. SFA Update has been replaced by ESFA Update.

Applies to England

1. Employers encouraged to register for the apprenticeship service

Action

We are encouraging large employers to sign up and register for the apprenticeship service, in readiness for the launch of the apprenticeship levy on 6 April 2017.

The service allows levy-paying employers to financially manage their apprenticeship programme, estimate their financial spend, and recruit apprentices through their training providers.

The register to manage your apprenticeship funds page provides more guidance.Please share this information with your employers and encourage those that will be levy-payers (with a wage bill of over £3 million a year) to register.

2. National Apprenticeship Week 2017 – get involved

Action

We have developed toolkits and resources to help you promote the great work of your apprentices during National Apprenticeship Week 2017. These include ideas for PR, social media and events, along with logos that you can use in your promotional activities.

Please share this with your communications and marketing teams, to ensure you get the most of your apprentice stories during NAW2017.

The toolkits are available on GOV.UK.

3. Employer satisfaction survey 2016 to 2017

Action

The employer satisfaction survey for 2016 to 2017 will run from 27 March to 21 July 2017.

We have sent a letter to training providers and colleges with more information about how to take part. Please encourage the employers you work with to complete the survey, to ensure your organisation achieves a valid score.

Further guidance on how to take part is available on GOV.UK.

We will publish the final data on GOV.UK and the National Careers Service website. It will also be used in the find apprenticeship training service to give employers information about apprenticeship training providers.

For further information, please email the service desk.

4. Adult education budget (AEB) procurement 2017 to 2018

Information

We have posted replies to your questions on the e-tendering portal Bravo about the AEB invitation to tender (ITT). You may wish to use these replies as a useful source of information as you submit your own application.

You can post questions up to 5pm on 23 February 2017. This will allow us to answer your questions in time for you to use the information in your application, before the e-tendering portal closes at 5pm on Monday, 27 February 2017.

For an overview of the process for adult education budget procurement, watch this video.

5. Qualification achievement rates (QAR) 2015 to 2016 – final data

Information

The national qualification achievement rate (QAR) for 2015 to 2016 will be published in the statistical first release (SFR) on Thursday 16 February 2017.

Following this publication, the comparison data will be added to your QAR dashboards. Final QAR dashboards will be available on the Hub by 5pm on the same day.

If you have any queries, please contact the service desk.

6. SFA complaints procedure

Information

We are in the process of updating the SFA complaints procedure. In the meantime, we would like to remind providers that all complaints should be made in writing, either:

• by email to complaintsteam@sfa.bis.gov.uk or
• by mail to The Skills Adjudicator, The Skills Funding Agency, Cheylesmore House, Quinton Road, Coventry CV1 2WT

We cannot respond to telephone calls or requests to telephone.

The SFA complaints procedure is available on GOV.UK.

Please also ensure that the complaints procedure you share with learners has the correct SFA address.