A new free app, Funding Advantage, has been developed by Capita’s further and higher education business and Barking & Dagenham College which will enable funding for courses and apprenticeships to be calculated instantly, on a mobile phone or tablet.
The app will allow anyone working in the FE skills and education space to simply tap in the details of a potential course and instantly see how much funding it would generate. This will help both individual staff and providers to decide quickly if a course would be financially viable, and make it easier for them to navigate the often complex world of FE funding.
Nigel Rayner, head of Capita’s further and higher education business, said: “Calculating the complex funding streams attached to further education provision is often regarded as something of a fine art – a task that has traditionally been the sole responsibility of a few specialist staff within a college.
“This means it can take too long for staff such as curriculum planners, apprenticeship co-ordinators and sales teams within institutions to get the funding information they need to make important decisions on what courses and opportunities to offer students. Now, with the FundingAdvantage app, they can be discussing a possible new apprenticeship scheme with an employer or talking about a new course in a curriculum planning meeting and have a ready reckoner as to its funding viability.”
