Detailed guide: Industry placements: capacity and delivery fund (CDF) for academic year 2020 to 2021 for providers not in receipt of CDF in 2019 to 2020 academic year

Information for 16 to 19 providers applying to deliver industry placement(s) capacity and delivery funding (CDF) from 2020 to 2021 academic year who do not have an allocation in 2019 to 2020 academic year.

Purpose

The purpose of this information is to detail the arrangements for applying to deliver industry placements through the CDF in 2020 to 2021 academic year, for those providers that did not receive an allocation of CDF in 2019 to 2020 academic year.

Background

The CDF is to facilitate the build-up of capacity and capability to deliver substantial industry placements in the 2020 to 2021 academic year. The placements are for students on vocational and technical study programmes at level 2 and level 3. It is recognised that the delivery of significant industry placements as part of T Levels will be a significant step change for the sector. This is why funding is being provided now to help build capacity ahead of the roll out of T Levels, from 2020, which industry placements will be a compulsory part of.

The CDF funding is additional to the mainstream allocation, which is based on planned hours for qualifications and employability, enrichment and pastoral (EEP) hours. The industry placement must be delivered on top of the usual planned hours.

This is the third round of funding; the first was for delivery in 2018 to 2019 academic year. The approach to further application rounds for CDF funding for industry placements beyond the 2020 to 2021 academic year has not yet been decided. We strongly advise that providers wishing to deliver T Levels at any time in the future apply for CDF in this round. This will enable them to invest in the capacity and capability to deliver Industry placements as part of T Levels in future.

Funding for CDF in 2020 to 2021 academic year will be dependent on the outcome of the Spending Review, therefore we are unable to commit to CDF funding in 2020 to 2021 academic year at this stage.

Links to T Levels

CDF is not linked directly to T Levels, and funding will allow for the development of students on a vocational programme to undertake a substantial industry placement. In future years as T Level development progresses the allocation of funding may be more closely aligned to programmes with a more direct link to T Levels. How industry placements as part of a T Level will be funded is included on GOV.UK. One of the key principles of an industry placement is that it should be occupationally specific and focused on developing the practical and technical skills required for the profession or trade the student is studying for.

As T Levels are rolled out, we will investigate making future funding conditional on placements being completed. Details for how this could work are included in the government response to the T Level funding consultation. Over time, the delivery of industry placements will become a requirement of the T Level programme completion and at that point will be monitored via accountability measures through ILR/school census and HESA data. Additional funding will be available to support delivery of T Level programmes in future.

Industry placement delivery

Providers who are opting in for CDF will be required to deliver an industry placement for 30% of their qualifying funded students. If, for example, you have 1,000 qualifying students, then we would expect you to deliver at least 300 industry placements in 2020 to 2021 academic year.

The 30% target is based on the number of students that meet the eligibility criteria detailed in the paragraph below, qualifying students, from 2017 to 2018 academic year data.

The qualifications that count towards the 30% target can include L2 and L3 qualification included in the SSA below.

Qualifying students on qualifications, including AGQs from the Sector Subject Areas will count towards the minimum delivery target

PDF, 374KB, 1 page

Though AGQs are excluded from the calculation for the allocation, relevant AGQs will be regarded as counting towards the minimum delivery target in 2020 to 2021 academic year. The list of relevant AGQs are below.

Applied General Qualifications mapped to SSA included as counting for delivery

PDF, 366KB, 3 pages

Students on study programmes with a qualification that includes mandatory work placement to achieve the qualification cannot count towards the minimum delivery target, unless 315 hours of industry placement are delivered in addition to those required by the qualification.

The students that will count towards this target are those that are studying L2 or L3 qualifications in those Sector Subject Areas (SSA) relevant to T Levels. This includes those on an Applied General Qualification (AGQ).

Now T Levels are confirmed as level 3 programmes we are increasing our emphasis on level 3 students. Therefore, for delivery in 2020 to 2021 academic year providers are requested to prioritise level 3 placements. Providers will be required to deliver at least 20% more level 3 placements compared to their baseline split between level 2 and level 3 qualifying students.

For example – a provider with 1,000 qualifying students, split equally between L2 to L3 (500 students at L2 and 500 at L3):

• they will need to deliver a placement for 30% of their qualifying students, so 300 placements
• this is a baseline of 150 level 3 students in a placement
• the minimum number of placements for level 3 students would be to increase the 150 by 20%
• therefore, a minimum of 150 x 1.2 = 180 level 3 placements during 2020 to 2021 academic year

To calculate this we will look at the proportion of qualifying students that were on level 3 study programmes in 2017 to 2018 academic year, apply that proportion to the minimum number of placements required in 2020 to 2021 academic year, increase the level 3 delivery by 20% and then calculate the minimum number of level 3 students we expect to be on a placement in the year. 2020 to 2021 academic year allocations will be based on 2018 to 2019 academic year data, we will update the calculation based on that data.

Giving priority to Level 3 Students for CDF Industry Placements examples

Giving priority to Level 3 Students for CDF Industry Placements

PDF, 527KB, 2 pages

Further guidance documents

This guidance provides an overview of the requirements for funding, recording and delivering industry placements. In addition links are provided to the following supporting documentation on principles for delivering high quality placements and useful resources from the Association of Colleges (AoC) based on learning from the industry placement pilot that was run by The Challenge. In May 2019, we published a policy update to advise providers how we are developing industry placements for post 16 students that you may also find of use.

Guide for 16 to 19 providers completing the industry placement capacity and delivery fund (CDF) implementation plan for 2020 to 2021 academic year.

Principles of a substantial industry placement

The industry placements delivered with this funding must be:

• delivered to the published standards and principles
• a minimum of 315 hours in length, with an expected average within each provider of 350 hours (this excludes 1 hour per day for lunch). Whilst a typical working day on a placement is between 7 to 7.5 hours, the total 315 hours can be delivered at the discretion of the provider in accordance with the needs of the employer and the student (for example, if shorter days are required, or to accommodate different industries’ working patterns)
• occupationally specific and focused on developing the practical and technical skills required for the profession or trade that the student is studying for (Digital placements may be industry-specific where students develop general Digital knowledge and skills, as opposed to being occupationally specific)
• taking place normally with a single employer but in all cases with a maximum of 2 external employers that is; on a site external to the student’s learning environment independent of their fellow students and teaching staff, with the exceptions of
  • students in Young Offender Institutes who may spend the full duration of placement within on-site facilities; and
  • students with Special Educational Needs or Disabilities may spend a maximum of 105 hours of the placement within a providers’ on-site facilities
  • Construction: Students who can complete a Commercial, Charitable or Community Project for a maximum of 105 hours of their placement, with the remaining hours spent with an external employer
  • Construction and Engineering & Manufacturing: Students who can spend a maximum of 105 hours of their total hours within an already established Skills Hub or Training Centre: in such a case, students will then need to complete the remainder of their placement with this same employer
• arranged with set learning objectives that are agreed between the employer, student and provider (note: the same objectives are to be worked towards even if a placement is conducted with more than one employer)
• adequately supervised by a named member of the employer’s staff
• monitored by actual site visits from the provider, with review meetings at the start, middle and end, with each employer, at a minimum to review the student’s progress, and supplemented by more informal engagement and communication throughout

And should also:

• be delivered within the academic timetable as far as possible but we recognise in some occupations, peak times will either be seasonal or fall outside the providers’ normal working hours, such as catering, hospitality or events management
• deliver a real life job role
• have learning aims agreed at the start of the industry placement between the provider/employer(s)/student and progress must be monitored throughout
• Digital: Students studying a Digital course can now undertake a placement at route level so that it develops their general Digital knowledge and skills as opposed to those only relevant to their specific specialism
• a student’s part-time working hours can be counted towards the required hours of placement, as long as the job is occupationally related to the students’ chosen specialism at Level 3, appropriate learning objectives are set and worked towards, and it takes place at an environment away from the provider setting and the student’s normal learning environment

Providers should ensure that students with Special Educational Needs will (as far as possible) be able to access the same quality of industry placement provision as their peers.

Qualifying students

To confirm eligibility for 2020 to 2021 academic year we will initially use 2017 to 2018 student data to calculate provisional qualifying student numbers. For the final allocation for 2020 to 2021 academic year we will use actual year-end 2018 to 2019 student data.

Students that meet all the following criteria will be treated as qualifying students for CDF in 2020 to 2021:

• students that are full time, that is those with total planned hours recorded as above 540 if aged 16 or 17 and 450 hours for an 18-year-old. This includes High Needs Students (HNS) that have met the qualifying start period for their study programme
• students aged 16, 17 and 18
• students aged 19 to 25 with an educational health care plan (EHCP) are included. (students who are 19 to 25 years old without an EHCP, at the beginning of their 2-year programme are not included)
• students who are enrolled on a level 2 or level 3 programme, with a vocational core aim, which might be included in the technical education routes planned for introduction from 2020 to 2021 academic year. A list of qualification types included is set out below
• it should be noted that General Vocational Qualifications are included but Applied General Qualifications (AGQs) are not

Providers can request the number of eligible students from the ESFA using the on line form.

A list of excluded AGQs is available below. The list of excluded AGQs applied to the 2018 to 2019 academic year data used for the purpose of allocations will be updated in autumn 2019.

List of Excluded Applied General Qualifications for allocations

List of excluded Applied General Qualifications for allocations

PDF, 576KB, 2 pages

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The above criteria in no way indicates which qualifications will be subject to defunding in the future.

Qualification types at levels 2 and 3 included in identification of qualifying students

The qualification types included in identifying qualifying students are listed below:

• Advanced Diploma
• Associate Diploma
• Award
• Certificate
• Certificate of Competence
• Diploma
• Diploma (14 to 19)
• Edexcel First Diploma (new syllabus)
• Edexcel First Extended Certificate (2012 onwards)
• Edexcel National Award
• Edexcel National Certificate (new syllabus)
• Edexcel National Diploma (new syllabus)
• First Certificate
• Introductory Certificate
• National Certificate
• National Diploma
• National Extended Diploma
• National Vocational Qualifications
• Principal Learning within Diploma (14 to 19)
• Professional Diploma

Providers with T Level delivery and qualifying CDF student numbers

Where a provider also has an allocation for the delivery of T Levels in 2020 to 2021 academic year, we will make a corresponding reduction in the funded students for CDF. For example, a provider with 100 places funded through the CDF and an allocation of 40 T Level students will be allocated placement funding for the 40 T Level students in their mainstream allocation and 60 places through CDF.

Qualifying providers

We will offer an allocation of funds to all providers funded by ESFA for 16 to 19 study programmes with a minimum of 10 qualifying students as defined above. This approach allows most providers currently offering vocational programmes that could evolve into one of the Technical Education Routes to receive an allocation. Allocations will be based on the number of qualifying students enrolled with each provider in the 2018 to 2019 academic year.

Providers selected to deliver T Levels in 2020 to 2021 or 2021 to 2022 academic year automatically qualify for a CDF allocation in 2020 to 2021 academic year.

To qualify for funding providers will need to have an Ofsted overall effectiveness grading of “Requires Improvement” or better. In addition, the Department for Education reserves the right not to make an allocation where a Notice to Improve is in place, where a provider is at risk of financial difficulty or where there are any other known issues that could prevent or affect quality delivery.

Implementation plans

For 2020 to 2021 academic year, our approach is to fund capacity building activity and to require a minimum level of placement delivery. This activity must be documented in a complete Implementation Plan.To receive CDF funding, providers that did not receive CDF in 2019 to 2020 academic year will be required to submit an implementation plan to ESFA via a survey mechanism. The questions covered by the plan and guidance for completing the implementation plan are published on GOV.UK. Providers should note that without a completed implementation plan, ESFA will not make an allocation.

Guide for 16 to 19 providers completing the industry placement capacity and delivery fund (CDF) implementation plan for the 2020 to 2021 academic year

PDF, 645KB, 22 pages

Implementation plans will fulfil a number of functions. Firstly, they will demonstrate a commitment from the provider to building capacity and capability within their organisation to deliver high quality, substantial industry placements. Secondly, to outline how that commitment will be implemented and finally to provide information on how a provider plans to utilise the allocation.

The implementation plan will ask for a description of the short and medium term actions that the provider will take to deliver placements and for a description of how this additional funding will be used, to lead to high quality industry placements for qualifying students. It will ask how you will collaborate locally with other providers and colleges. Providers will want to take a wide, whole organisation approach to planning the introduction of industry placements, ensuring integration with other developments and programmes.

The implementation plan must be completed by any eligible provider who wishes to be considered for this funding. Providers with an Ofsted rating of Requires Improvement must answer additional questions so ESFA can be assured that quality improvement activity, which might affect the quality of delivery, is being addressed.Providers can contact the ESFA enquiry service if they would like to see a copy of the data we hold for them regarding the number of eligible students for CDF in 2020 to 2021 academic year.

ESFA will review all implementation plans for completeness. If the level of detail is not considered sufficient, feedback will be provided, the provider will be asked to submit a revised plan 18 November. ESFA will not provide an allocation where the revised implementation plan is still considered incomplete.

Allocation of funding for 2020 to 2021 academic year

The funding methodology is designed to reflect current delivery and to distribute the funds widely to providers that currently meet the criteria and deliver full time Technical Education at levels 2 and 3.We base the level of funding for each provider on the number of qualifying full time students, at a rate of £250 per student enrolled on eligible programmes.

To qualify for funding providers will need to have an Ofsted overall effectiveness grading of “Requires Improvement” or better. In addition, the Department for Education reserves the right not to make an allocation where a Notice to Improve is in place, where a provider is at risk of financial difficulty or where there are any other known issues that could prevent or affect quality delivery.

Providers should be clear that access to the CDF does not imply future eligibility to deliver or receive funding for the development or delivery of T Levels. We will monitor delivery of industry placements in 2020 to 2021 academic year via monitoring forms.

Monitoring and progress reports

We will require providers to provide us with an update on the progress they are making on their implementation plan from autumn 2020. We will expect an update on progress for all areas described in the Implementation Plan. For evaluation purposes, we will be particularly interested in the details of the method of delivery chosen. From spring 2021, we will require further progress reports, setting out the level of industry placement provision that has occurred in 2020 to 2021 academic year. The monitoring return dates are:

• 1 December 2020
• 1 March 2021
• 11 June 2021

Opting in for an allocation

It is expected that most eligible providers with a large number of eligible students, such as General Further Education establishments and University Technology Colleges will want to take full advantage of this opportunity, to provide their students with high quality industry placements. We strongly advise that providers wishing to deliver T Levels presently or at any time in the future apply for CDF in this round. This will enable them to invest in the capacity and capability to deliver Industry placements as part of T Levels in future.

However, this funding is not compulsory and therefore each provider will be required to “opt in” and complete an implementation plan to be considered for an allocation. They will do this by submitting an implementation plan to ESFA via a survey mechanism, by 27 September 2019.

Funding for CDF in 2020 to 2021 academic year will be dependent on the outcome of the Spending Review, therefore we are unable to commit to CDF funding in 2020 to 2021 academic year at this stage.

By “opting in” providers will be agreeing to:

• provide a completed implementation plan template to ESFA by the 27 September 2019 for review, that clearly outlines what the short and medium term actions are that will be taken to prepare for delivery from 2020 to 2021 academic year
• utilise the funding to build capability and capacity for delivery of high quality substantial industry placements
• the delivery and completion of high quality substantial industry placements from the 2020 to 2021 academic year following the published principles set out on GOV.UK
• deliver and complete a set number of high quality substantial industry placements in 2020 to 2021 academic year, based on no fewer than 30% of the number of funded qualifying students
• prioritise the delivery of placements for level 3 students, examples for how this should be calculated are included above
• provide monitoring reports termly by midnight on 1 December 2020, 1 March 2021 and 11 June 2021
• conduct student satisfaction surveys
• record all high quality substantial industry placements fully in the Individualised Learner Record (ILR), school census or Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) at each data return point

By not submitting a completed implementation plan by the deadline of 27 September 2019 providers will be indicating to ESFA they do not wish to receive this funding for 2020 to 2021 academic year.

If you do not wish to be considered for a CDF allocation in 2020 to 2021 academic year then you are not required to complete the implementation plan and you do not need to contact us to tell us that you do not wish to be considered.
Providers who do wish to be considered for a CDF allocation in 2020 to 2021 academic year must complete and submit a full implementation plan by the deadline. Further information is available on the Implementation Plan and guidance.

Future increases in delivery

The main purpose of this funding is to build capacity at an individual provider level in order to deliver high quality substantial industry placements for vocational and technical students. A provider’s CDF allocation for 2020 to 2021 academic year will be based on the number of students on eligible programmes in 2018 to 2019 academic year. For the 2020 to 2021 academic year, we expect providers to deliver industry placements for at least 30% of the qualifying student number used in the CDF allocation. We will set each provider a numerical target based on this percentage. We then expect the figure to be delivered to increase year on year.

Payments

Profile payments will be made from September 2020 for academies and August 2020 for all other providers.

Use of the funding

The number of qualifying students in 2018 to 2019 academic year forms the basis for the allocation for the CDF allocation. Some of the funding is for capacity building activity to improve the infrastructure to deliver high quality substantial industry placements, in 2020 to 2021 and in future when T Levels are rolled out. We also expect the minimum 30% delivery requirement for industry placements to be achieved.

We will not be prescriptive on how the funding is used, as long as it supports the intention of building capacity to deliver substantial industry placements within T Levels and represents good value for money (for example does not constitute double funding or displacement of other funding).

Supporting students financially

Information relating to supporting students financially can be found on GOV.UK.

Recording substantial industry placements

A requirement for receiving a CDF allocation is that you record all industry placements fully in the ILR, school census or HESA data at each data return point. We will be reviewing this data to cross refer the number of placements delivered to the delivery you record in your monitoring form. Therefore, you must ensure that each industry placement is recorded correctly, showing start and end date, and the number of planned hours.The learning aim reference number on the ILR and the school census specifically for recording industry placements is ZWRKX002 and must be used for monitoring and funding purposes which will help to differentiate between CDF industry placements and external work experience that forms part of the students’ Employability, Enrichment and Pastoral (EEP) study programme hours.

CDF industry placements are to take place on top of the existing study programme hours and providers have been allocated CDF funding in addition to mainstream funding for qualifying students. Therefore, industry placement hours must not be included in the planned hours recorded for the study programme.It is also important to note that where hours are currently spent on work experience that is an existing and compulsory part of a study programme, these cannot be counted towards the industry placement hours delivered through CDF because providers are already being government funded for these through mainstream funding. This is unless students are able to do the required industry placement hours (minimum of 315) on top of those hours for the existing work experience that are recorded as planned ‘qualification hours’ on the ILR and school census.

Update to funding agreements

Clauses in our annual funding agreements/contracts for services with providers, include conditions relating to CDF funding:

• where a provider does not meet the minimum number of placements, the ESFA may seek to recover funds, and/or may take this into consideration when considering future CDF allocations
• where a provider is assessed to be financial health inadequate, or the provider / education and training provided is judged by Ofsted to be inadequate, the ESFA may withhold any remaining profiled allocations, and may take such assessments into consideration when considering future CDF allocations
• where the provider does not submit the monitoring returns by the dates published the ESFA may withdraw the 2020 to 2021 academic year CDF allocation and recover funding paid

These clauses may vary by provider type therefore it is advisable that providers become familiar with these new clauses in their Funding Agreements.

Employer support fund

For the 2019 to 2020 academic year, we have selected CDF providers within the South West and West Midlands regions to pilot the employer support fund. The pilot will trial the limited provision of financial support to employers, in order to help us to better understand the financial barriers faced by employers to offering placements, and how these differ across industries. This will inform future thinking on the support needed by employers to deliver industry placements ahead of T Levels.

ESFA enquiries

For all enquiries for the Education and Skills Funding Agency on this guidance, please use our contact form

Timescales for funding industry placement capacity and delivery fund

Published 17 July 2019 Contents