Thirty six colleges across England will receive funding
totalling £5.5 million to help drive up standards,
Apprenticeship and Skills Minister announced today.
Successful colleges from the first round of
the Strategic College
Improvement Fund (SCIF) will receive a total of
£5.5m between them from the overall £15m fund.
The colleges will work with a high performing ‘partnering’
college to share their knowledge expertise to help tackle
issues – such as raising the standard of teaching or
improving learner recruitment and retention.
Today’s announcement follows a successful £2m pilot phase,
which showed strong support for the partnership model and
led to colleges reporting how the fund enabled rapid
improvements in quality.
Minister for Skills and Apprenticeships said:
Colleges play a vital role in our education system and we
want that to continue. The Strategic College Improvement
Fund is designed to help support colleges to improve so
that their students get the best possible education and
training.
I’m thrilled to announce the first round of colleges to
receive funding from the scheme. I wish them all the best
for the future and look forward to hearing how they are
all progressing.
The SCIF was introduced following calls from the sector for
a peer-to-peer support programme. It is playing a vital
role alongside the Government’s National Leaders of Further
Education (NLFEs) programme helping to share best practice
and boost standards throughout the further education
sector, so more people can access high quality education
and training.
Funding will help pay for training and services to improve
best practice and with it the quality of education on offer
to students.
