It’s been a while since I updated this site, but a lot has happened and a new (academic) year has begun, so an update seemed in order!
Firstly, you may have noticed that the front page now offers different sections for different nations, and this is further broken down by type of training provider - this is to address the longstanding emphasis on Further Education in England, despite the website aspiring to provide resources for all education across all of the UK. More work will be done in the future on rounding out our support for Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.
Secondly, we’re taking our funding assessment tool (again, aimed at those in FE in England) to the next level by incorporating residence eligibility, devolved postcodes, and more. But this will take time and development, so we’re looking for users to roadtest early previews - if you work in FE, particularly if you’re involved in enrolments or MIS, this will be of interest.
Imagine a clean, simple interface that asks all the complicated questions, trawls through pages of funding rules, and comes back with a reliable assessment that you can save or export for later reference. That’s where we’re heading in 2024. Got contracts with devolved authorities? No problem, supply a learner postcode to benefit from any applicable funding rules in their region. Need to check that a chosen qualification can be used with Free Courses for Jobs? Plug in the learning aim reference - no fuss no muss. Nervous about international learners? Don’t be, we can walk you through every step of the way.
If you think you, or your enrolling staff, would benefit from having this sort of a tool in their back pocket, pop your details into the registration form below and join the early testers.
Another point of interest comes from our (privacy-focused and cookie-free) analytics, which shows that most users come here looking for the ILR specification and the Provider Support Manual - these will now be pinned to a more prominent position so that it’s easier to launch them without having to search.
The analytics also show a very rhythmic pattern of usage, spiking on Mondays, with a clear decline on Thursdays and Fridays, and practically no visits during the weekend. This isn’t particularly surprising, but still interesting to see happening from the data!
All the best
Luke