Grants of up to £25K available for trainers of vocational learning

With COVID -19 rapidly transforming the way millions of people across the UK work and learn, Ufi VocTech Trust today announces a new funding call for 2020.

The VocTech Now call is announced by Ufi and has been prompted by the unprecedented situation vocational trainers and their learners face in 2020.

With grants available of up to £25K for projects that will last no longer than three months, Ufi wants to hear from vocational learning providers who have an idea for how they can use technology to deliver fast results for its learners online, but who need support to get their idea up and running.

How to apply: VocTech Now will open for applications on March 30^th and close on April 6^th

Aware of the need to quickly offer support to businesses, the application process has been simplified to aid efficient processing and decisions on funding will be made by the middle of April. 

Ufi uses an online application process. Once you have registered via the Ufi website and created a MyUfi account, you can log-in, access the application form, save your draft and return to it at any time while the funding round is open. There is information and guidance on our website. Please look at our funding strategy (Learning Without Walls: Beyond 2020), the specific criteria for the funding round and our detailed FAQs to understand what we are looking for and to guide your application.

Rebecca Garrod-Waters said: “Many small businesses and organisations who deliver vocational learning will have had their services – and businesses – devastated by the current situation. While many will have delivered their services in face to face environments all will now be required to make a wholesale shift to an online service. That’s a daunting task for many small businesses and organisations on a number of levels.

“What Ufi is focused on doing, through VocTech Now, is to support vocational training and learning organisations through this transition.”

Rebecca Garrod-Waters added: “If you are, or know of, a vocational learning provider with an idea for how technology can be used to deliver fast results for its learners through online means, we want to hear from you.”

Rebecca explained that in light of the situation in the UK, previously planned calls for this year, namely VocTech Impact, will be postponed until next year.

Rebecca said: “We want to support the vocational training and learning community through this these difficult times and we hope that VocTech Now offers organisations a practical solution to their immediate challenges.”

Supporting you and your move to online training with grants of up to £25,000.#VocTech Now is our latest grant funding call prompted by the unprecedented situation vocational trainers and their learners face in 2020.#Covid19#Covid19uk#OnlineLearninghttps://t.co/yVhytvtWMb pic.twitter.com/wJ7LNo4Y2f

— Ufi VocTech Trust (@UfiTrust) March 25, 2020

Ufi wants to support the use of technology to deliver training and learning in these unprecedented times. And it wants to do so quickly, so we’ve changed our strategy in 2020 to support the work and ideas of organisations that can help make this happen.

VocTech Now is a targeted grant call to accelerate the use of VocTech that can enable those in work or training to continue with their vocational learning programmes during this period of disruption.

These will be small grants of between £10k to £25k for projects of up to 3 months durations that can be quickly deployed to support organisational transition to remote teaching and training.

We are looking for projects that can implement their ideas immediately and show real results for their learners quickly. We are looking to support vocational training providers who need to move to digital delivery methods in order to keep their learners engaged, as existing face to face delivery models are restricted as a result of Covid-19.

We recognise these are particularly challenging time for key workers and sectors, so where appropriate, we will look to prioritise applications to support delivery of vocational learning in health and social care, food production, logistics etc.   

Please remember that Ufi’s mission is in vocational learning, particularly ensuring that the most disadvantaged in our society have access to learning.  Applicants that propose non-vocational ideas (for example well-being, general support for mental or physical health) are unlikely to be successful. Find out if VocTech Now is for you by visiting the VocTech Now Guidelines page here.