The Further Education Professional Development Grants Pilot (FEPDG) are a national pilot of competitive grant funding for all provider types delivering further education that meet the eligibility criteria.
The FEPDG pilot aims to:
- Support education recovery within the sector
- Fulfil the skills for jobs white paper commitment to strengthen the professional development of the FE workforce
- Drive improvements in FE professional development provision and support in three priority areas of need:
- workforce capability and confidence to use technology effectively in education
- subject-specific professional development
- support for new and inexperienced teachers
- Stimulate improvements in workforce development and the standard of teaching in the sector by increasing opportunities for FE and providers and staff to collaborate and share effective practice
- Produce resources and approaches to workforce development that can be adopted by other FE providers
- Stimulate FE providers and the market to provide high-quality professional development and training for staff working in the sector.
Eligible applicants must be public and private sector FE providers with a direct relationship with the ESFA and in receipt of at least one of the following funding streams or programmes that have funding attached:
- 16 to 19 study programme
- Adult education budget
- Advanced learner loan facility
- European Social Fund
- 16 to 18 traineeships.
To lead a bid, applicants must also meet the following requirements:
- Applicants must have either Ofsted grade 1 (outstanding) or grade 2 (good) for overall effectiveness
- Applicants must have an ESFA financial health grade of good or outstanding – English universities financially monitored by the Office for Students and local authorities are exempt from this requirement
- Applicants must be in receipt of a minimum of £2.5m aggregate funding across the eligible funding streams in the 2021 to 2022 funding year.
Each application will need an eligible lead applicant provider and a minimum of one other partner provider.
The total fund available is £9.5 million.
Bids can apply for up to £500,000. The expected minimum application is for £100,000.
Applications must be submitted by the deadline of 16 July 2021 (11:59pm).
How To Apply
Applicants should complete the FEPDG pilot application form and return it by email to [email protected] using the subject line ‘FEPDG application’ by 11.59pm on 16 July 2021.
Useful documents & links
Useful Links
Addresses and contacts
For further information on how to obtain this grant locally, please contact the following:
- FEPDG Enquiries
Department for Education (DfE)
Email: [email protected]