Ufi offers £225,000 of funding to FE Colleges as part of Covid 19 response

Ufi #VocTech Trust has offered grants totally more than £225,000 to FE college as part of its VocTech Now funding call.

A direct response to Covid 19 and the challenges facing the vocational education sector and its learners, the call prompted hundreds of applications, with many of these coming from the FE sector.

Such was the need being demonstrated by FE for voctech support (voctech – the name for technology that is being used to delivery vocational learning and training) Ufi decided to increase funds available under the programme to offer a FE Colleges-only component to the VocTech Now funding call.

As a result, VocTech Now has been able to make 10 offers to the FE colleges across the country.

Projects include those to develop online teaching delivery where there currently isn’t any and the development of virtual learning environments, for example. Some projects will specifically benefit key workers including those from within the Health and Social Care sector.

Rebecca Garrod-Waters, CEO for Ufi VocTech Trust said:

“It was clear from the applications we were receiving to the VocTech Now call that there was a very specific, urgent need for support within FE colleges.

“The Ufi team and board reacted swiftly to this by increasing the funding available and dedicating this additional money to a call that was solely for applications from FE colleges.

“We were very impressed by the quality of the applications we received under this arm of the VocTech Now call and we are delighted to have been able to support colleges and their students across the country.

Rebecca said: “However, and while we are very pleased to have been able to support so many colleges up and down the country, it is clear from the applications that we received that there is still much to do and clear the sector as a whole still requires considerable support in its efforts to deliver vocational learning and training digitally. We will continue in our work to make sure our insight into the challenges being faced is understood as widely as possible.”

Rebecca added: “We took the insight we had from the immediate response to inform and step up other activities in our Covid 19 response plan. This included extended the scope of our response to include more offers of funding through VocTech Now, a specific funding call for further education colleges, development of a Partnership programme and a range of practical tools and resources, many of which were and are free to access via our website.”

“As a small organisation, it has been a huge privilege to see this work and I am very proud that Ufi, through its support to some of these projects, can have a positive impact on the lives of so many organisations and vocational learners.”

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