LSECT - updates

All have places available unless stated

16-06-11 : London
Summer College Data Conference : Book early
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What previous Lsect delegates said

“Very useful event and would recommend other
staff to attend any future events”
Joe Keegan, Director of College Services, Tribal Education

“Fantastic event! Thoroughly worthwhile”
Jo Brannen, Programme Manager, City College

“Highly informative, very insightful and delivered at
pace with enthusiasm. Ice cream was great!”
Brenda Cook, WBL, Northbrook College

“The event was very empowering and informative”
Ashok Ramanathan, MIS Analyst, Redbridge College

Click here more for comments from past attendees.

UPDATE 18-11-10 (click here for MS Word version)

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Government's strategy for skills launched

On Tuesday at the AoC of Colleges Annual Conference Vince Cable and John Hayes announced the publication of the latest strategy for skills, which can be read in full here: http://tinyurl.com/3x8dz2h

As is so often the case in FE there has been little media interest nor commentary, although a selection of what has been published can be read here: http://tinyurl.com/2w9lhmm

However, contrary to a widely held belief that it would not contain much detail that was not already known, it did contain a number of very significant funding rate and eligibility decisions, which are being applied to both adult employer (ER) and learner-responsive (LR) provision. These new announcements included:

For 2011/12

~ A 4.3% national rate reduction for all provision (you may recall it was a 3% reduction for 2010/11)

~ A further reduction to the programme weighting for literacy, ESOL and numeracy (excl. Entry Level numeracy) down to 1 (so no uplift). Again, you may recall it was reduced from 1.4 to 1.2 in 2010/11. When combined with the 4.3% national rate reduction this 17% programme weighing reduction becomes a 21% reduction compared to this year (and more than 35% less than in 2009/10)

~ ESOL delivered in the workplace will no longer be funded

~ Non-apprenticeship Level 2 provision in the workplace will only be fundable, and only at the 50% co-funded rate, for employers with less than 250 staff (SMEs)

~ Non-apprenticeships provision in the workplace at Level 3 and above will not be funded at all

~ Only job ready income related benefits (e.g. JSA) will be eligible for fee remission. So, for example, those on incapacity benefit will be no longer eligible for fee remission.

~ A single ER and LR budget to allow virement, as long as it not away from Apprenticeships

~ Minimum Contract Levels (MCL) of £500k

~ £80m for ‘pilot’ of Job Outcome Payments paid in-year via the ILR return (but no detail on how nor with whom this will operate).

Note: many of these changes in 2011/12 ‘will apply for all new and existing learners’.

You can also download the SFA presentation which includes many of these changes from here: http://tinyurl.com/2ws426j

Kind regards,

Nick

P.S. You can see my pic of the Minsters taking questions here (http://twitpic.com/37diq1), and may find it a surprise that the highlight was Vince Cable admitting to Kirsty Wark that he was practicing for an appearance on the Christmas edition of Strictly Come Dancing (which did get media interest)!!