An innovative multi-million pound fund to boost the quality
of education offered across the further education sector
has been launched by Skills Minister today (28 June).
Speaking at the Association of Colleges conference, the
Minister announced the main phase of the £15million
Strategic College Improvement Fund (SCIF), which will
partner strong colleges with those in need of improvement
–to share best practice and drive up standards.
Colleges that need support to improve will be able to apply
for a grant to work with a stronger ‘partnering’ college
and together they will create an action plan to tackle the
issues they face.
Apprenticeships and Skills Minister said:
We want to improve the quality of education for everyone.
It is vital that all further education and sixth form
colleges are able to give people the skills and knowledge
they need to get on in their life and succeed in the
workplace.
I’m really thrilled to announce the next phase of the
£15million Strategic College Improvement Fund. This fund
will enable colleges to work together to improve
standards across all colleges.
The launch of this fund follows a successful pilot phase,
which saw fourteen colleges receive grants totalling over
£2million. Outcomes from the pilot included colleges
reporting that the fund built awareness of good practice,
fostered mutual learning and enabled rapid action to
improve quality.
This move follows the launch of the National Leaders of
Further Education and National Leaders of Governance
programmes, which also aim to spread the expertise seen in
the top colleges across the country.
Association of Colleges Director of Education and Skills
Policy David Corke said:
Association of Colleges has long called for a peer
improvement scheme for further education to match the one
in schools.
It was great to see the Department for Education pilot
this and we are encouraged by the opening up of the
eligibility criteria to allow more colleges to apply.
Sixth Form Colleges Association Chief Executive Bill Watkin
said:
We are delighted that, after a successful pilot, from
which valuable lessons have been learned, the Strategic
College Improvement Fund is to be made available to more
colleges. The SCIF represents a real opportunity to
benefit from a well-structured and well-resourced quality
improvement programme, and we urge colleges to apply to
participate.
Sixth Form Colleges are a tight-knit and mutually
supportive family of providers and the SCIF means that
colleges that understand each other will have a framework
to help each other and learn from each other. The result
will mean an even better sixth form experience for even
more young people.
Further Education Commissioner Richard Atkins said:
I welcome today’s launch of the SCIF. The fund offers a
great opportunity to harness the capacity within the
sector.
Improvement through collaboration, as encouraged by the
SCIF, is a fantastic and viable approach to improving the
quality offer within the FE sector.
I encourage colleges to apply to the SCIF, either as
applicant colleges with a specific quality improvement
need or as partnering colleges to share best practice,
knowledge and expertise.
Available until March 2020, the SCIF is funded by the
Department for Education and will be administered by the
Education and Skills Funding Agency.
