Flexible learning fund: ESFA weekly round-up – Issue 385

Education & Skills Funding Agency’s weekly round-up of business-critical information to ESFA-funded colleges, other training organisations and direct grant employers. (3 Jan 2018). 

Flexible learning fund – regional workshops

The Education and Training Foundation (ETF) are hosting 9 free regional workshops for adult education providers and employers interested in applying to the flexible learning fund.

The £10m flexible learning fund, part of the government’s commitment to explore new approaches to lifelong learning for adults, is open until midnight 31 January 2018 for applications.

The workshops will focus on how to put together a successful application, including opportunities for partnerships between providers and employers. You can find details of the workshops on the ETF website.

Information: leadership equality and diversity fund

The leadership equality and diversity fund supports schools to develop local solutions that help teachers from under-represented groups to progress into leadership.

DfE is looking to appoint 8 lead schools to coordinate delivery of multiple school-led projects across each region. Applications for grant funding are invited from schools wishing to coordinate the delivery of leadership equality and diversity programmes in each region.

As the regional leads for the E&D fund, lead schools will have a supporting role in shaping the delivery of the E&D fund in their localities and contribute to the career progression of teachers with protected characteristics.

Information: new threshold levels for procurement

Providers should note new threshold levels for procurement that came into force on 1 January 2018 for all public bodies.