Lsect - update

UPDATE 24-07-11 (click here for MS Word version)

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FE Week ~ subscribe before 1st August for 30% off
I am delighted with the response to the two pilot editions of the FE Week newspaper, and I will be publishing it weekly from September 2011. Find out more and read the paper at www.feweek.co.uk and subscribe at https://www.eventsforce.net/lsect/34/register

Already 33 comments on FE Week articles
You can make a comment at the end of every article on FE Week, and there have already been 33 comments, particularly relating to the late announcement on ESOL funding (http://tinyurl.com/3hwybts). Take a look around to see what others have said, and please join the conversation by posting a comment of your own (there will be a prize draw in September 2011 for the most insightful comments so far - and prizes include an exclusive FE Week coffee mug!).

Seven new Lsect resources in July 2011 for Gold members
Subscribers to FE Week (see above) will immediately receive an email containing the link to all seven of the latest Lsect resources: http://www.feweek.co.uk/resources/

YPLA funding guidance and presentations published
With just a week to go before the 2011/12 academic year the YPLA have this week published the last few booklets that make up their funding guidance. This includes a document with a link to all the individual booklets, which can be downloaded from: http://tinyurl.com/3fbwur3

There are also a series of PowerPoint presentations to help explain:
~ Funding regulations, rates and formula: http://tinyurl.com/3sfeq8r
~ ILR Funding returns: http://tinyurl.com/3s9frrc
~ Learner eligibility: http://tinyurl.com/3kcsjy6

SFA funding guidance still not published
Whilst we have Guidance Note 6, 7 and 8 for 2011/12 (http://tinyurl.com/639m74h), the SFA have yet to publish the Adult Learner Responsive Funding Requirements or Apprenticeship Funding Requirements documents for 2011/12. With just a week left until the 2011/12 academic year starts, this does seem rather overdue (the LSC used to publish these documents in March). It would be a little embarrassing for the year to start without published funding guidance, not least as funding auditors have been instructed by the SFA to crack down on providers starting sub-contracting delivery without contracts in place.

Potential data/policy changes for 2012/13
The information authority (IA) has this week published the list of data change requests for the 2012/13 ILR (click here: http://tinyurl.com/3b3gq8m). There have been 34 change requests, some of which the IA are recommending to their board that they ‘reject’. It can be worth reading these rather technical documents, to find out what policy changes are planned for the sector. For example, on page 7 it says: “2011/12 funding guidance suggested there should be no more than one level of sub-contracting. The Skills Funding Agency has clarified that, in 2012/13, there is likely to be further levels of sub-contracting allowed”.

More on this at the Autumn College Data Conference (book your place now via https://www.eventsforce.net/lsect/33/home).

And finally, Large Employer list for 11/12 published ~ sort of…
The Data Service have this week published the annual 1000+ employee list which will determine whether the 25% large employer funding discount would be applied to 19+ apprenticeship and train to gain provision in 2011/12 (http://tinyurl.com/3tazofm). There are 328,173 employers on the list, only trouble is that the list is just a text file of Employer Reference Numbers (ERNs). The Data Service can’t publish the actual name of the employers because “we are not allowed under the commercial arrangements we have with our list provider to publish names”. Well that’s useful then!

Kind regards,

Nick
www.twitter.com/nicklinford

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