A further 17 colleges been awarded funding totalling £2.5
million from the third and final round of the Strategic
College Improvement Fund (SCIF), Apprenticeships and Skills
Minister announced today (Thursday
6 June).
Colleges including Northampton College and Cheshire College
South & West have been successful in their bid for
funding from the final application round. They will now
partner up with a high performing college to share their
knowledge and expertise to help tackle issues – such as
raising the standard of teaching or boosting learner
attendance
The results of the final application round come as
a new
report is published today reveals that the SCIF
has been widely welcomed by the sector. Colleges reported a
number of positive benefits including how the programme has
helped boost attendance rates, as well as the quality of
teaching and learning and supported college-wide
improvements in culture and leadership. The report also
underlines the strong support for the collaborative working
approaches, with many college partnerships pledging to
continue this work even though the programme has come to an
end.
, Apprenticeships and
Skills Minister said:
I’m pleased to announce the colleges that have been
successful in securing funding from the third and final
round of the Strategic College Improvement Fund.
The fund will have supported 80 colleges in total to
drive up standards and help to make sure all students get
the best education and training possible.
We’ve seen some great success stories as a result of the
programme. It’s excellent news that colleges are making
progress. Many colleges are intending to continue working
together beyond the programme’s end, which can only be
for the good of students.
The SCIF was first launched in October 2017. In total 80
colleges across England have been successful in securing
funding totalling £12.3 million. This includes Macclesfield
College and Sir George Monoux Sixth Form College in London
have been successful in securing funding from the fund.
Andrea Murphy, Vice Principal, Macclesfield College said:
We originally applied for the SCIF bid in November 2017
as although we had made significant progress in English
and mathematics provision over a three year period, with
the introduction of the new grading system we saw an
opportunity to continue this trajectory by working with
other providers to share and implement good practice from
the sector.
Our first application was supported by a visit from the
SCIF team who advised us as to how we could make
improvements to the bid. Unfortunately, in that round we
were unsuccessful. However we decided to apply again, as
although by this time we had been through a successful
Ofsted inspection, we felt that a resubmission could
still support us. We reapplied in July 2018, again we
were supported well by the SCIF team with the stage 2
application.
Our SCIF bid will focus on ‘Raising the Bar through a
Coaching and Growth Mindset - Engagement and Appropriate
Intervention for English & Maths and Access to HE
Learners’. We are now delighted to be embarking upon a
journey towards becoming outstanding and feel that this
bid will support us in this aim.’’
David Vasse, Principal, Sir George Monoux Sixth Form
College said:
Our application for Strategic College Improvement Funding
has enabled us to construct a cohesive set of projects
that will extend the scope of what we were already doing
but also allow some new initiatives to take shape which
we simply did not have the resources to start.
All of the projects will be delivered over a 10 month
period but are designed to have a lasting impact on the
social and academic norms of the college. From a
student’s perspective this will include significantly
extended opening hours for study, an increase in academic
mentoring, the opportunity to visit and network with
students in outstanding settings else in the country and
the chance to work towards status as a Monoux “leader of
learning”. From a staff perspective this will include the
chance for us to access our Monoux Teacher training suite
online, more expert-led training and increased
opportunities for co-teaching.
Bill Watkin, Chief Executive, Sixth Form Colleges
Association:
The SCIF has been a welcome and important opportunity for
colleges to work together to raise standards in the
sector. I am sure that many of the relationships
established through SCIF activities will be sustained for
years to come and students will benefit well beyond the
end of this programme. We hope that the government will
soon be launching SCIF 2!
Deputy Further Education Commissioner, SCIF Lead, Teresa
Kelly:
The SCIF programme has been very well received by the
sector and in particular colleges like that the focus of
the programme is about improving quality with the support
of another college
The SCIF has been the first of its kind across the sector
with a real emphasis on quality improvement. Many
colleges involved have reported that through the SCIF
they have been able to tackle key issues such as
improving attendance, improving their provision for
apprenticeships or working on getting consistency in
teaching standards across all curriculum areas. Having
the resources available to drill down and concentrate on
very practical issues has been of great value to teachers
and curriculum managers.
SCIF programme funding has transformed the way that many
colleges have delivered their CPD [continuous
professional development] programmes. In particular there
has been much direct link up with between teachers and
colleges that they have identified as their improvement
partner. Experiences of how others go about tackling
practical teaching challenges have been identified as of
the greatest value to those working with students in the
classroom.
Almost three quarters of eligible colleges applied for the
fund and 91% of applicants were successful in securing
funding ranging from £60,000 to £500,000.
The fund has played an important role alongside the
Government’s National Leaders of Further Education (NLFEs)
programme which also aims to share best practice and boost
standards throughout the further education sector, giving
more people the opportunity to access high quality
education and training.
For more information on the SCIF, visit here
