Deadline: 8 February 2019

Ufi Charitable Trust has announced its VocTech Seed 2019 to support projects with innovative ideas for solving real, practical problems in UKvocational learning.

Ufi believes that digital technology should play a greater role in enabling adults to get the skills needed for work in the 21st century. Their aim is to see digital tech being used to significantly improve how UK vocational learning is developed and delivered; and to ‘scale up’ this effect to make learning for work better, more accessible and more affordable.

Their funding supports projects that show potential to have real impact in the world of vocational learning by making a difference to how people learn, to the number of people gaining new skills and to business efficiency. To achieve this, projects need to offer high quality, innovative solutions that are flexible and adaptable to future change and are cost effective. Projects must aim to improve outcomes for learners and improve the quality of vocational teaching and training.

Funding Information

Up to £50,000 is available for projects of up to 12 months duration.

Eligible Projects

Projects must:

• Focus on vocational learning
• Provide an innovative digital solution to a defined learning issue
• Offer new learning tools, not just new learning content
• Understand who the users and the customers will be and the likely route to market
• Have ambition for the future growth of the project and a vision for how it could be scaled up to impact on a large number of learners
• Have a plan for business sustainability beyond the period of Ufi funding
• Be realistic and deliverable within the timeframe

What is VocTech Seed looking for?

• Projects that solve clearly identifiable, practical learning problems. Project proposals must describe the problem they aim to address, explain who the customers and users will be, why the project approach provides the best solution to the problem and how it will produce tangible benefits to learners and employers.
• Projects where the applicants are thinking differently about how to use technology to deliver effective vocational learning at scale. Projects must be genuinely innovative in their overall approach, their technology, or the sector or community of learners to which they will be applied.
• Projects aimed at any and every aspect of vocational learning, including (but not limited to) design and development of learning tools, new delivery models, evaluation and assessment, accreditation and recording evidence of achievement.
• VocTech Seed funding is aimed at projects at an earlier stage and smaller in scope than other Ufi funding rounds. They expect them still to show ambition and vision for how the project can subsequently get to market and scale up to reach large numbers of learners.
• They are particular keen to see projects with innovative solutions to improving provision for sectors, industries and communities of learners that currently lack good access to vocational learning due to issues such as market or industry conditions, cost, time, distance, language or other factors.

Eligibility Criteria

• The VocTech Seed funding is particularly suitable for early stage businesses, smaller digital innovators and other organisations looking to test new digital approaches on a small scale. It is also suitable for digital innovators currently working in other markets who can see opportunities to adapt their approach to vocational learning. It may be particularly useful to edtech businesses looking to expand their products and series to delivery to the voctech market.
• However, it is open to all organisations, including charities, trade bodies, existing learning providers and employers who would like to test new approaches to using digital technology for vocational learning. Applications can be strengthened by demonstrating a collaborative approach, especially where employers and digital learning specialists are working together.
• The majority of organisations they fund are UK-based. They will consider applications from outside the UK if they can clearly demonstrate how they will address vocational learning challenges faced in the UK. They only fund projects that can demonstrate their impact in the UK.

How to Apply

Applicants can apply via given website.

For more information, please visit https://www.ufi.co.uk/voctech-seed-guidelines