Project Updates

Sustaining CoVEs

Consultation meetings held in June for the Sustaining CoVEs project were well attended.  CoVEs, LSC and Sector Skills Councils had the opportunity to hear and discuss the preliminary findings providing further information for the final report.  The final report should be available by the end of September and will be posted on the website.

Provisional information emerging from the research and consultation events includes the following:

73 forms were returned from a range of pathfinder, round 1, 2 and 3 CoVEs followed up with 30 visits to discuss the findings in more detail.  CoVEs were asked to identify what strategies they have put in place to sustain their CoVE activity.  A number of responses were given covering things such as: income generation via full cost courses, bidding and subsuming CoVE costs into centre budgets.  A number of CoVEs identified issues relating to their sector in terms of sustainability such as employers unwilling / not able to pay for provision, alternative funding for the same programmes and geographical issues.

When asked about sustaining employer engagement 89% of CoVEs said they had expanded their employer training. However, 8% suggested there would be a reduction in employer training once CoVE funding ends.  Some of the strategies to sustain employer engagement included focusing on compulsory / legislative requirements, running the CoVE as a commercial centre with financial targets and identifying other funding sources.

In discussing growth and performance a number of CoVEs were concerned over the reduction in 19+ funding and 22% indicated they would reduce the number of 19+ learners in training.  A number of CoVEs have strategies in place to continue growing numbers through bespoke courses, developing learning in local centres, redesigning delivery to attract more adults and growing full cost courses.

CoVEs responded positively to meeting skills needs suggesting they will maintain and expand their contribution to local and national skills needs after the end of funding.  Again a number of CoVEs have plans in place to continue this through maintaining close relations with the Sector Skills Councils.

Nearly half of the CoVEs questioned plan to maintain their dissemination activities although a third suggested they will reduce their activity.  In discussing resources CoVEs identified issues around maintaining high cost equipment and the need to upgrade technology to keep up-to-date with industry.  Again many of the CoVEs questioned have strategies in place to maintain their physical and human resources whether through collaborating with other CoVEs or trialling equipment for employers.

A checklist for sustainability was proposed and discussed at the events based around identifying costs, looking for bidding opportunities and preparing a sustainability plan that senior management support.

Costing and charging commercial provision in CoVEs

A consultation event for the costing and charging of commercial provision was held in July and will be repeated in September for those who were not able to attend due to the unforeseen circumstances.

Provisional information emerging from the research and consultation event includes the following:

79 CoVEs responded to the questionnaire and of these 33 agreed to provide information on income relating to commercial provision.  Of the 30 who did supply information 22 said they had a policy on costing and charging with 16 suggesting this was standard across the institution.  When asked about the nature of the costing regime responses ranged from having a fixed formula where charges are made for staff time, consumables, catering and overheads, to one with a framework allowing adjustments up and down depending on such things as customer ability to pay and one of an ad hoc approach depending on costs involved.  The majority of CoVEs answered ‘yes’ to whether approval of costings was required suggesting a range of people would be involved in this approval process. 

When asked about the development of commercial provision 26 CoVEs suggested that their structure did encourage development.  However, when questioned further this identified issues around staffing.  In trying to determine what happens to the disposal of commercial income a range of responses were given from: all college income is used at the discretion of the senior management team, to all income is retained by the department delivering the training.

In looking at the non-financial benefits the majority of CoVEs suggested that commercial provision brings benefits other than income.  This led on to questions around marketing, again with a range of responses around whose responsibility this is.

14 CoVEs provided information on commercial income totalling £4.5m with an average of around £322,000.