Industry placements: capacity and delivery fund (CDF) for providers delivering in 2020 to 2021 academic year
Information for 16 to 19 providers delivering CDF industry placement(s) for academic year 2020 to 2021.
Purpose
The purpose of this information is to detail the arrangements for delivering industry placements through the CDF for those providers in receipt of a CDF allocation in 2020 to 2021 academic year.
This guidance replaces that published on the 17 July 2020 and responds to the continuing challenges providers are experiencing in light of COVID-19 restrictions.
Key updates
Industry placements need to include genuine and meaningful on-the-job experience where the student is able to experience the full range of realities of working, such as time keeping, commuting and interacting with colleagues face to face. Industry placements must be undertaken in a physical workplace environment and therefore placements are not currently permitted to be done remotely or virtually.
We recognise however, that industry placement delivery continues to be impacted by COVID-19. In view of this continuing challenge, we will apply the same flexibility for the 2020 to 2021 academic year as we did in the 2019 to 2020 academic year. In the 2020 to 2021 academic year, funding for CDF will not be clawed back if you are unable to meet your previously agreed target for the completion of industry placements.
We anticipate that you will continue to work to secure as many industry placements as possible for the remainder of the 2020 to 2021 academic year. The relaxation of the targets is on the assumption that you can demonstrate CDF has, and is continuing to support future delivery of quality industry placements. Activity to support delivery of industry placements should include:
- the continued engagement with employers across different industries and develop engagement strategies for different industries
- preparation for students for placements (such as through virtual training for work programmes)
- alignment between curriculum planning and industry placement provision
- development of matching processes for appropriate student placements
We will ask for evidence of these activities through the usual CDF monitoring process. We will continue to monitor the impact of COVID-19 on the ability of providers to deliver placements throughout the remainder of the 2020 to 2021 academic year.
We will still look to claw back funding under the usual arrangements should providers fail to demonstrate that they have continued to support the delivery of quality industry placements and have not used the funding for the purpose intended. Providers must avoid the risk of double funding through the CDF and the furlough scheme, we will seek to claw back funding should providers furlough staff involved in these activities.
However, you can be assured that funding for the 2020 to 2021 academic year will not be clawed back if you are unable to meet your 25% delivery target for the completion of industry placements in the 2020 to 2021 academic year, so long as you can demonstrate that the CDF has and is continuing to support future delivery of quality industry placements
New delivery models for industry placements
For delivery in 2020 to 2021 academic year, we have updated some of the core principles that apply to T Level industry placements and introduced new models for the way industry placements can be delivered in the Construction and Engineering & Manufacturing routes, to reflect modern practices. These changes also apply to CDF industry placements and more information can be found in the industry placements delivery guidance on GOV.UK. Providers are expected to comply with this guidance for placements delivered in the 2020 to 2021 academic year onwards.
Delivering CDF industry placements over 2 academic years
From the 2020 to 2021 academic year, providers are able to deliver industry placements across 2 academic years where the student is on a 2-year programme. All industry placements must commence in the first year of a student’s study programme (and during the CDF year funded), with the expectation that a minimum of 50% of a provider’s placements being successfully completed by the end of the 2020 to 2021 academic year. The remainder of industry placements would need to be successfully completed by the end of 2021 to 2022 academic year, but they still form part of the 2020 to 2021 academic year target and cannot count towards delivery targets set for the 2021 to 2022 academic year.
Background
CDF is now in its third year of delivery. CDF is provided to facilitate the build-up of capacity and capability to deliver substantial industry placements. The number of industry placements successfully delivered in the previous 2 academic years is encouraging. Following on from this, we do expect that the number of successful industry placements will increase year on year in readiness for T Level roll out.
Funding for CDF was included in allocation statements for 2020 to 2021 academic year, as were the number of funded students and the minimum number of placements to be delivered.
2020 to 2021 academic year monitoring requirements
During the 2020 to 2021 academic year, monitoring returns are required to be submitted as a condition of funding, these are required by the 1 December 2020 and 11 June 2021. These provide us with information on the progress being made in building capacity and capability to deliver high quality, substantial industry placements as we scale up the delivery of T Levels. They also provide assurance that the funding is being used for the purpose intended and they also support the planning of future CDF funding allocations.
Where information supplied in the December return is not sufficient, providers may need to submit a further return asking for more information on how funds have been utilised. This will be required by 1 March 2021.
We will claw back funding under the usual arrangements should providers fail to demonstrate they have continued to support the development of industry placements and used the funding for the purpose intended in their monitoring returns.
The monitoring returns are compulsory, should you fail to submit a monitoring return, you may be in breach of your funding agreement and your CDF allocation may be at risk.
DfE Sign-in account and access to the monitoring form
To access the monitoring form, you must sign into your DfE Sign-in account. We strongly advise you to check that your DfE Sign-in details are valid and that you have the appropriate permissions to access DfE Sign-in in advance of the deadline of the first monitoring form due by 1 December 2020.
If you do not currently have an account, then you will need to create a DfE Sign-in account. Once you have an account, then the service ‘Online Collection Service’ and role ‘Industry Placements CDF Monitoring’ will need to be added to your account by a DfE Sign-in Approver at your organisation. Once you have access to the monitoring form, then on the DfE Sign-in page, enter your email address and password. This will take you to the Services page where you will need to choose ‘Industry Placements CDF Monitoring’.
Once you have access to the DfE Sign-in account, you will then be directed to the relevant monitoring form. Open the monitoring form and complete the relevant sections. There is a save and return function if you would like to revisit your responses before you submit. Once you have answered the questions in the monitoring form, please submit your responses. You will then be sent an email confirmation with a pdf attachment containing your monitoring form responses. You can also sign back in at any time to view your responses by logging on to your DfE Sign-in account.
Qualifying providers
Providers funded by the ESFA for 16 to 19 study programmes with qualifying students as defined below were eligible to apply for CDF. This inclusive approach allows almost all providers currently offering vocational programmes that could evolve into one of the technical education routes to receive an allocation. CDF allocations made for 2020 to 2021 academic year were based on the number of qualifying students enrolled with each provider in 2018 to 2019 academic year.
To qualify for funding providers needed to have an Ofsted overall effectiveness grading of “Requires Improvement” or better. We based 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.
Providers should be clear that access to the CDF in the current year 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 the monitoring forms.
Qualifying students
To calculate CDF allocations for 2020 to 2021 academic year we used actual year-end 2018 to 2019 academic year data to calculate qualifying student numbers and delivery targets.
A list of qualification types used to identify qualifying students is set out below. It should be noted that general vocational qualifications were included in calculating eligible student numbers but applied general qualifications (AGQs) were not. However, some AGQs will be regarded as counting towards the minimum delivery target in 2020 to 2021 academic year, they were excluded for the purpose of allocations.
Further information on qualifications that count towards your 2020 to 2021 academic year target including the selected AGQs can be found in the section titled qualifications that count towards the CDF target for the 2020 to 2021 academic year onwards
A list of AGQs excluded for the purpose of allocations can be found below:
The above criteria in no way indicates which qualifications will be subject to defunding in the future.
We expect to calculate the 2021 to 2022 academic year eligible students using the latest general vocational qualifications list and excluding AGQs, applied to 2020 to 2021 academic year end year data, but will keep this under review. We will also continue to prioritise Level 3 industry placements and decrease the proportion of Level 2 industry placements that will count towards the target in 2021 to 2022 academic year as we move towards focusing on the development of placements for T Levels. We are likely to fund Level 2 placements at a lower rate in 2021 to 2022 academic year.
General vocational 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
Qualifications that count towards the CDF target for the 2020 to 2021 academic year onwards
For 2020 to 2021 academic year, the proportion of qualifying students for whom we are expecting an industry placement to be completed is 25%.
From 2020 to 2021 academic year onwards, we are keen to ensure that CDF facilitates capacity building in the right areas as we roll out T Levels. Therefore, providers will be expected to arrange industry placements for students studying relevant qualifications only (see Qualifying students’ section above) to count towards the 25% delivery target.
Sector subject areas for general vocational qualifications
Qualifying students on qualifications that count towards the delivery target from the Sector Subject Areas below will count towards the minimum delivery target:
| 01.1 | Medicine and Dentistry |
| 01.2 | Nursing and subjects and vocations allied to medicine |
| 01.3 | Health and social care |
| 01.5 | Child development and well-being |
| 02.1 | Science |
| 03.1 | Agriculture |
| 03.2 | Horticulture and forestry |
| 03.3 | Animal care and veterinary science |
| 03.4 | Environmental conservation |
| 04.1 | Engineering |
| 04.2 | Manufacturing technologies |
| 05.2 | Building and construction |
| 06.1 | ICT practitioners |
| 07.3 | Service enterprises |
| 07.4 | Hospitality and catering |
| 09.2 | Crafts, creative arts and design |
| 09.3 | Media and communication |
| 09.4 | Publishing and information services |
| 15.1 | Accounting and finance |
| 15.2 | Administration |
| 15.3 | Business management |
| 15.5 | Law and legal services |
These are the applied general qualifications (AGQs) that fall within the sector subject areas which are excluded for the purposes of identifying qualifying students but can be counted towards the 25% delivery target. These are all at level 3.
How to determine if a qualification counts towards the delivery target
In order to determine if a learning aim or qualification undertaken counts towards the 25% delivery target, providers can refer to the Learning Aims Reference Service (LARS). By searching for the learning aim or qualification within LARS a provider will be able to confirm the sector subject area (SSA) the learning aim or qualification is attributed to. A provider can then reference this to the list of SSAs included within the CDF guidance to ensure the learning aim or qualification can be counted towards the CDF target.
The SSAs listed in the guidance include all the general vocational qualifications at both level 2 and level 3 and the AGQs at level 3 that count towards the CDF delivery targets.
As T Levels are confirmed as being Level 3 programmes, we are prioritising Level 3 students in 2020 to 2021 academic year. Therefore, for delivery in 2020 to 2021 academic year, 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.
By prioritising Level 3 students, the calculation increases the number of placements that need to be delivered for students on a Level 3 programme, however the overall delivery target set for the 2020 to 2021 academic year will remain at 25%.
For example, where a provider has 1,093 qualifying students (number of Level 2 students is 616 and the number of Level 3 students is 477).
- they will need to deliver placements to 25% of their qualifying students, so 274 placements*
- without the 20% uplift the minimum number of placements for Level 3 students would be 477 x 25% = 120
- the minimum number of placements for Level 3 students including the 20% uplift is 120 x 1.2 = 144
- the overall target remains at 274, so the Level 2 students’ placements maximum is (274- 144 (Level 3 students minimum) = 130
*Figures for the above example have been rounded up
Providers were sent a letter on 17 July 2020 detailing the number of industry placements that confirmed the split between Level 2 and Level 3 placements to be delivered in the 2020 to 2021 academic year. This was calculated by looking at the proportion of qualifying students that were on Level 3 study programmes in 2019 to 2020 academic year, applying the proportion to the minimum number of placements required in 2020 to 2021 academic year and increasing the Level 3 delivery by 20%.
We will continue to prioritise Level 3 placements in the 2021 to 2022 academic year as T Levels are rolled out and this is likely to include increasing the proportion of Level 3 delivery required compared to Level 2 delivery, alongside reducing the funding rate for the Level 2 placements. This will support the building of T Level-appropriate placements.
We will be monitoring delivery of industry placements in the 2020 to 2021 academic year via the ILR and school census return. Therefore, it is imperative that the recording of industry placements is accurate. Further information on how to record industry placements in the ILR and school census can be found in the recording substantial industry placements and how this data will be used section.
Opting in for an allocation in 2021 to 2022
We expect that providers that received a CDF allocation in 2020 to 2021 academic year will also take advantage of CDF funding for 2021 to 2022 academic year (confirmation of funding subject to the Autumn Spending Review). The monitoring forms will be designed to let the DfE know your intention to deliver industry placements in 2021 to 2022 academic year by choosing whether to opt in or out of CDF in 2021 to 2022 academic year.
By “opting in” for CDF in 2021 to 2022 academic year providers will be agreeing to:
- utilise the funding available to build capability and capacity for delivery of high-quality industry placements
- deliver high quality industry placements from the 2021 to 2022 academic year, as set out in the industry placements delivery guidance on GOV.UK
- deliver and complete a set number of high-quality industry placements in 2021 to 2022 academic year. The delivery target for 2021 to 2022 academic year has yet to be confirmed, but once we are clear on the full impact of COVID-19, we will update this guidance
- continue to prioritise the delivery of industry placements for Level 3 students as we move towards T Levels and increase the proportion of Level 3 delivery compared to Level 2
- complete 2 monitoring returns on 1 December 2021, and 10 June 2022, with an additional financial monitoring form return on 1 March 2022 if requested to do so.
- conduct student satisfaction surveys
- record all high-quality substantial industry placements fully in the Individualised Learner Record (ILR) or school census at each data return point
By “opting out” through the monitoring forms, providers will be indicating to the ESFA that providers do not wish to receive funding for 2021 to 2022 academic year.
Supporting students financially
Information relating to supporting students financially can be found on GOV.UK.
Recording substantial industry placements and how this data will be used
A requirement for receiving a CDF allocation is that you record all industry placements fully in the individualised learner record (ILR) or school census at each data return point. Providers have been notified of the minimum number of industry placement they must deliver for students on either a Level 2 or a Level 3 programme for delivery in the 2020 to 2021 academic year. Only qualifications in the relevant SSAs or from the eligible AGQ list will count towards the target. We will be reviewing the data to cross refer the number of placements providers have recorded in the ILR or school census against the data provided in monitoring forms. Providers must ensure that each industry placement is recorded correctly, showing the 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 CDF industry placements is ZWRKX002.
CDF industry placements must take place on top of the existing study programme hours and CDF funding is allocated 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 the qualification hours in a study programme, these work experience hours cannot be counted towards the industry placement hours delivered through CDF because providers are already being funded for these through mainstream funding. For the placement to be counted, students would need to do the required industry placement hours (minimum of 315) on top of any hours for the existing work experience that are recorded as planned ‘qualification hours’ on the ILR and school census.
Those students that were on an industry placement in the 2019 to 2020 academic year that are yet to be completed can continue the aims recorded in 2019 to 2020 academic year into 2020 to 2021 academic year, however providers are not able to record any new students on the old aim.
Providers that have been selected to deliver T Levels from 2020 to 2021 must undertake a substantial industry placement, but these cannot be counted in the CDF target.
T Level industry placements must be recorded using the learning aim reference number ZWRKX003.
This learning aim reference is specifically for T Level industry placement activity and that code must not be used for CDF industry placements. The guidance for how T Levels will be funded in 2020 to 2021 academic year is currently being updated and we expect to upload the revised guidance towards the end of August 2020. Further information about this guidance can be found on GOV.UK.
A recorded webinar will be available from September 2020 on how to complete the ILR or school census return. We will notify providers via the ESFA update when the webinar is available to view.
Annual funding agreements/contracts for services with providers
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. [Please note that, due to the continuing COVID-19 restrictions, for the 2020 to 2021 academic year, we will not penalise providers for not meeting the delivery targets originally set]
- 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.
Please contact the Education and Skills Funding Agency for all enquiries.
Key dates for 2020 to 2021 monitoring and 2021 to 2022 allocations for providers with a CDF allocation for 2020 to 2021
| Activity | Date |
|---|---|
| Deadline for first monitoring form December 2020 | 1 December 2020 |
| Feedback to providers regarding their first monitoring form for December 2020 | February 2021 |
| Deadline for the financial monitoring return in March 2021 (if applicable) | 1 March 2021 |
| Issue CDF allocation statements for 2021 to 2022 AY (as part of main 16-19 funding allocation) | March 2021 |
| Feedback to providers regarding the financial monitoring return 2021 (if applicable) | April 2021 |
| Deadline for monitoring form for June 2021 submitted | 11 June 2021 |
| Feedback to providers on their June 2020 monitoring form | July 2021 |
Last updated 14 January 2021 + show all updates
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This guidance has been updated to reflect the changes to the delivery of industry placements in the 2020 to 2021 academic year in light of the challenges providers are experiencing regarding COVID-19 restrictions.
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Further information provided on qualifications that count towards the CDF target for the 2020 to 2021 academic year.
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Guidance on the completion of the December monitoring form added to page.
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First published.