ESFA weekly round-up – Issue 388

Education & Skills Funding Agency’s weekly round-up of business-critical information to ESFA-funded colleges, other training organisations and direct grant employers. (24 Jan 2018). 

1. QAR 2016 to 2017 – re-release of provisional data for all providers

Action

From the feedback received during the Qualification Achievement Rates provisional window, we will be applying some minor changes to the calculations. We will re-publish provisional data for all providers in the coming days and will communicate through both the Hub and the QAR FE connect blog once complete.

Although the changes do not affect the majority of providers, we still advise that you check your data.

The BIRST dashboards will not be available while we update the data. We will communicate the outage through the HUB. Please ensure you check for these communications before raising an incident with the service desk.

You have until 5pm on Friday, 2 February to inform us of any further concerns about how we have implemented our published methodology; you cannot request fixes or adjustments to your 2016 to 2017 ILR data.

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

For specific data queries, please complete the data queries form and email the form to the service desk.

2. ‘Class of 2018’ – graduation ceremonies during National Apprenticeship Week

Action

We are working with our Ambassador networks, across our 9 regions, to organise graduation ceremonies on Monday 5 March and Friday 9 March, during National Apprenticeship Week.

Venues will include: The Chamber, City Hall (London) and BT Tower (London), Imperial War Museum (Duxford/ East of England), The Amex Stadium, Brighton (South East), Durham Cathedral (North East), Royal Armouries Museum Leeds (Yorkshire & Humber), Birmingham University Great Hall (West Midlands), Derby Roundhouse (East Midlands) and Weston Pier (South West).

We will include a link in next week’s update to the registration site, in the meantime please encourage all employers and colleges to get their graduating apprentices to sign up for their region.

If you have an queries in the interim, please contact [email protected].

3. Apprenticeship framework withdrawals

Information

Over the course of 2017, we sought feedback on a 4th and 5th batch of apprenticeship pathways and frameworks which our analysis suggested would be well covered by new apprenticeship standards. As a result of that feedback exercise, we are confident that there are a number of frameworks that are covered by standards that have been approved for delivery and are being taken up by employers. Those frameworks can be found on the removal of apprenticeship frameworks page.

However, recognising this is a time of significant change for the sector, we will not withdraw any further frameworks until 2020.

For further information, refer to the removal of apprenticeship frameworks page on GOV.UK or contact the service desk.

4. Funding claims guidance

Information

The 2017 to 2018 funding claims guidance is now available. This is relevant to you if you have any of the following contract types:

• a grant for your Adult Education Budget (non-procured only)
• a grant with an Advanced Learner Loans Bursary contract
• a Discretionary Learner Support contract
• a Community Learning contract

If you have any queries about this please contact the service desk or your Provider Manager.