ESFA Update further education: 29 September 2021
Published 29 September 2021
Applies to England
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1. Information: FE vaccinations and testing communications update
Thank you very much for your continued work to help keep your students and staff fully informed of the latest COVID-19 guidance as students have returned to colleges and providers this autumn. This article is intended to keep you informed of the latest communications work and share any new assets or information which may be useful for you to share with students and amongst your networks.
We appreciate any support you can provide to increase take up of the vaccine and testing. Please do continue to use the national campaign assets which are updated online, to share on your channels and speak to young people about the vaccine, using the hashtags #GoodtoGo and #GrabaJab to help keep life moving. A summary of key messages and links to live comms assets are included in the attached toolkit, which has recently been updated.
1.1 Booking Service now online for 16 and 17 year olds
The Department of Health and Social Care announced on Friday (24 September) that all 16 and 17 year olds can now book their first COVID-19 vaccination appointment online.
If you are aged 16 or over you can now:
- book your COVID-19 vaccination appointments online for an appointment at a vaccination centre or pharmacy
- find a walk-in COVID-19 vaccination site to get vaccinated without needing an appointment.
If you cannot book appointments online, you can call 119 free of charge. You can speak to a translator if you need to.
See the NHS website for more information.
Please do share this amongst your networks and with your eligible students. The Department of Health and Social Care have been tweeting on the announcement, if you wish to share and it is being promoted directly to 16 and 17 year olds through targeted media and social media.
A new online video featuring A&E doctor Dr Emeka Okorocha and Love Island star and medical student Priya Gopaldas have also gone live and is available for you to share on your social channels.
1.2 Return to college campaign work
Since our last update to you at the start of the new term, a targeted HE/FE campaign launched on 8 September designed to encourage students to take part in rapid COVID-19 testing and to get fully vaccinated where eligible, in order to ensure a safe return to college/ university. This includes social and digital advertising, PR partnerships (including ongoing radio partnerships with Rinse FM and Flex FM) and local promotion of vaccine walk-in centres. An article on JOE media on returning for a new term also went live last week.
The wider government campaign targeting 16 and 17 year olds continues, with press partnerships with national titles (due to go live 1 October), digital advertising and social media. Do keep an eye on the @NHSuk channel to see more and we will continue to share any assets which you may wish to post on your own channels.
If you have any questions, please email COMMSPOST16&SKILLS@education.gov.uk.
2. Action: apprenticeship funding pledges now live
All businesses, including training providers and intermediary bodies, can now review funding pledges from levy paying businesses – spread the word!
Our new service supports businesses to access important apprenticeship funding – helping them to create more apprenticeship opportunities so more people can get the jobs they want.
Since 13 September, levy paying employers have been able to create a pledge of up to 25% of their annual levy funds to support apprenticeships in other businesses.
Employers have already pledged over £1 million for the 2021 to 2022 financial year, with many more expected to pledge in the coming weeks.
All businesses can now browse these funding opportunities on a new webpage. Employers can apply for funding to pay for 100% of their apprenticeship training and assessment costs (up to the funding band maximum).
Check our guidance to find out more and share with employers:
- transferring your apprenticeship levy to another business
- receive a levy transfer from another business to fund an apprenticeship
- webinar recording: employers that pay the apprenticeship levy: a new service that supports levy transfers
3. Reminder: autumn schools census 2021, Thursday 7 October 2021
This is a reminder that the autumn schools census is due to take place shortly.
The census date for the 2021 autumn school census is Thursday, 7 October, with the deadline for approved submissions being Wednesday, 3 November. The database will be closed to amendments on Wednesday, 1 December.
A ‘beta’ release of the 2021 autumn school census live COLLECT blade will be available to you week commencing 20 September until 4pm on Friday, 1 October.
A guide for the 2021 to 2022 academic year is now available.
If you have any queries about COLLECT or the school census in general, please use the service request form.
4. Reminder: redundancy support for apprentices
If you’re aware of apprentices at risk of redundancy, or employers making apprentices redundant, share our guidance on redundancy support for apprentices to help them.
If you’re working with employers who are interested in recruiting apprentices who may have been made redundant, let them know they can advertise on ‘Find an apprenticeship’, the official government website for apprenticeship opportunities in England.
To do so, employers need to create an apprenticeship service account, or sign in if they already have one, and select ‘Your apprenticeship adverts’ under the ‘Apprenticeships’ section. Our support video guides employers through the recruitment process step-by-step.
As a provider, you can also advertise opportunities on behalf of employers, if you are granted permission when the employer sets up their account.
5. Information: qualification achievement rates 2020 to 2021 updates to supporting documents
We have now updated the traineeship qualification achievement rates technical specification 2020 to 2021 to include the table showing the breakdown of the fields we will include in your traineeship QAR data set.
Alongside this update, following feedback from providers, we have also provided clarification across the business rules and technical specifications including:
- update to the contact details in the event of any queries in relation to QAR
- correction to omission that pass and retention rates will not be calculated for traineeships
- correction to omission of T Level and T Level Transition Programme aims we exclude from QARs
These documents provide technical information about how we produce the QAR dataset and should be read alongside the business rules, which explain the methodology for calculating QARs for 2020 to 2021 and can be accessed on qualification achievement rates 2020 to 2021 on GOV.UK.
The next QAR data release will be provisional data based on your final R14 data return expected in January 2022. At that stage, provisional data cannot be amended as the R14 data return is final. We would therefore encourage providers to continue to review the in-year QAR dashboards based on R12 available now via the View Your Education Data portal. These provide indicative QARs for apprenticeships, education and training and traineeships and the opportunity to identify and resolve potential data issues prior to the ILR R14 hard close on 21 October 2021.
Please review your ILR data before you make your final R14 submission. You will not be able to amend your 2020 to 2021 data after the R14 hard close.
6. Information: 16 to 18 traineeship delivery market entry opportunity
ESFA are offering the opportunity for additional providers to apply to deliver 16 to 18 traineeships. The window is open from 29 September 2021 to 22 October 2021.
We are looking to increase the opportunities available to 16 to 18-year-olds who would benefit from a traineeship programme. We are therefore offering providers the opportunity to apply for a standalone traineeship contract to deliver traineeships to 16 to 18-year-olds. The new contracts are each worth up to £300,000 per provider and are on standard terms, subject to meeting the relevant eligibility criteria. Traineeships delivered under the new contracts are exclusively for 16 to 18-year-olds.
To apply for a new traineeship contract, you must meet the eligibility criteria, be an existing provider and must submit a full and complete application, by 5pm on 22 October 2021 to be considered for a contract.
The deadline of 5pm on 22 October 2021 is final and we will not accept any applications received after the deadline. We recommend you submit your application in advance to avoid any delay or failing to complete the application properly and in time.
If you’re eligible and would like to apply, please use this link ESFA Funding allocations to access the 16 to 18 Market Entry request form.
7. Your feedback: have your say on T Level data collections
ESFA user researchers are seeking T Level provider volunteers to take part in research to help us develop and improve the T Level 2022 to 2023 pulse survey.
The survey will collect information, between January and June of 2022, on how providers are progressing with recruitment T Levels and Transition Programmes and with sourcing industry placements for the 2022 to 2023 academic year. We would like to hear from providers who have completed the survey previously, along with those who will be completing it for the first time.
If you can spare up to one hour of your time during the next couple of months and would be interested in being involved, please register your interest.