ESFA weekly round-up – Issue 353

Education & Skills Funding Agency’s weekly round-up of business-critical information to ESFA-funded colleges, other training organisations and direct grant employers. (05 April 2017)

1. RoATP to close on 7th April

The Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers (RoATP) is currently open. It will close for applications on Friday 7th April at 5pm.

Organisations wishing to apply should ensure they submit their application before the deadline.

2. Employer Satisfaction Survey 2016 to 2017

The provider-led phase of the Employer Satisfaction Survey is now underway.

To download a list of in-scope employers please log onto the Provider Extranet (Employer List) that you can review and update by following the steps outlined in the Provider Guidance.

You can survey the employers on this list by sending them a link to the online survey. Please ensure that you give each employer their unique ID to allow them to access the survey – this can be found on your Employer List.

It is important that your employers complete the online survey or send their survey response directly back to Ipsos MORI using the printed questionnaire.

Your organisation has until 28 April 2017 to survey your employers and achieve sufficient responses to be awarded a score during this phase.

For further information please see the Provider Guidance or contact the Service Desk.

3. 2017 to 2018 legal entitlements offer

The qualifications that will be available as part of the 2017 to 2018 legal entitlements offer have been published today:

• English and maths legal entitlement
• level 2 and level 3 legal entitlements for 19 to 23 year olds undertaking their first full level 2 and full level 3

In anticipation of future changes due to technical education reform and the functional skills reform, we have not made any new changes to these offers other than those already announced during 2016 to 2017.

Qualifications already confirmed as part of the legal entitlements will continue to be available in 2017 to 2018 unless:

• they are legacy GCSES and international GCSEs in English and maths that will not be available for new starts or continuing learners from 1 August 2017
• at level 2 and level 3 they are not part of the single offer for 16 to 23 year olds

The single offer contains GCSES, AS and A Levels, Access to HE and 2018 and 2019 16 to 19 performance table qualifications. In addition to this, to provide stability we have retained for one further year the 2017 performance table qualifications where they are currently part of the 2016 to 2017 level 2 and level 3 legal entitlement offer.

The Hub will be updated shortly to reflect the legal entitlements offer.

If you have any further queries, please contact the service desk.

4. 2017 to 2018 local flexibility offer

We will be shortly updating the Hub with the regulated qualifications that will be available for delivery as part of 2017 to 2018 local flexibility offer. We will update the unit offer in May.

In anticipation of future changes such as devolution and technical education reforms there will be no changes to the local flexibility offer or the criteria that we apply to determine if the qualification is eligible for funding in 2017 to 2018.

Qualifications that are currently eligible for funding will continue to be so in 2017 to 2018 unless the qualification is no longer on Ofqual’s Register of Regulated Qualifications or has been withdrawn by the awarding organisation.

If you have any further queries, please contact the service desk.

5. Advanced Learner Loans – Launch of 2017 to 2018 application service

The 2017 to 2018 application service will be available from 15 May. This is for learners who wish to start eligible qualifications from 1 August 2017 funded with a loan.

We have updated the learning and funding information letters. You must issue these to learners, including for offenders in custody, who are considering funding their qualification with a loan. We have also published guidance on how to complete the letter.

Registration has now opened for the Student Loans Company provider events in April/May 2017.

These events are an opportunity to share knowledge and gain an insight into the operational policy, systems and resources of the programme. More details can be found on their website.