JISC Advance is pleased to announce that Sixth Form Colleges will continue to benefit from JISC services for the 2012/13 and 2013/14 financial years.

The funding, confirmed yesterday by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), will apply to Sixth Form Colleges in England. It will include cover for all JISC Advance services including Regional Support Centres and Advisory Services as well as JANET and other JISC services.

The announcement follows discussions between BIS and the Department for Education (DfE) which now has responsibility for Sixth Form Colleges.

JISC Advance welcomes the news which reflects that our services are recognised by both departments as representing good value to the sector.

Guy Lambert, Managing Director for JISC Advance said:

“The continuation of this provision will ensure that Sixth Form Colleges can benefit from the free advice and guidance provided by JISC Advance services and the other JISC services which are so vital to the sector.”

~via LSIS~

Funding for Peer Review and Development Groups: Developing the curriculum to meet the needs of the community

LSIS has announced an opportunity for Peer Review and Development (PRD) groups to access funding for peer reviews and/or collaborative development activity relating to the development and delivery of the curriculum to meet local community and employer needs. Funding, up to a maximum of £5000, is available to a limited number of PRD groups. Guidance and application form available from: http://www.lsis.org.uk/workingwithlsis/opportunities/funding-opportunities/Pages/default.aspx

Deadline:  midnight 14^th December 2011

~via LSIS~

Developing Social Enterprise Ambassadors programme

LSIS is offering grants of up to £10,000 to learning and skills providers to develop a programme to identify and develop social enterprise ambassadors, and to cascade this learning to other providers by hosting delivery of the programme to a cohort of people drawn from the learning and skills sector.

Applications should be submitted to teresa.carroll@lsis.org.uk by Monday 5 December 2011.

Supporting documents:

• Social Enterprise Ambassadors Application Guidance (PDF, 63KB)
• Social Enterprise Ambassadors Application Form (.doc, 192KB)

JISC grant funding

JISC invites eligible institutions to submit bids to participate in the JISC Transformations Programme.

The objective of the Transformations Programme is to help institutions move towards organisational change through the application of existing JISC and other resources in order to:

£1 million is available for this Programme in the 2011/12 Academic Year and this is the first of two rounds of calls. The second is due to be published in early 2012 depending upon the level of funds remaining. £15,000 per project is available to bidding institutions that are already committed to business change.

The closing date for bids is 12 noon UK time on 15 September 2011. 12-18 month projects are expected to start by 7 November 2011 and complete no later than 31 July 2013. Bidders will be required to complete a short structure bid form.

Further information and eligibility details from:

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/fundingopportunities/funding_calls/2011/07/grant11_11.aspx

~on behalf of LSIS~
The Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) is pleased to invite bids from eligible providers across the learning and skills sector for a new fund aimed at improving the effectiveness of teaching and learning through effective practice transfer.

For the purposes of these funds, this can be either within an organisation or between collaborating institutions, but must be through Teaching and Learning Practice (TLP) change agents.

LSIS is inviting providers to apply for funding of between £1,000 and £5,000 to undertake projects that will meet this aim. Bidding documentation and the application form can be accessed from the LSIS funding opportunities webpage.

Deadline for receipt of application is 11.59pm on Sunday 24 July.

Organisations that attend the LSIS Annual Learning fair on 11 July 2011 may be prioritised, although all SFA funded providers are welcome to apply. To book places at the event for you and your change agent, visit the LSIS website.

The Adult and Community Learning Fund is a new fund from the Skills Funding Agency, administered by NIACE. The Adult and Community Learning Fund will help make the Big Society a reality and will contribute to the Government’s aspirations for Informal Adult and Community Learning (IACL).

The fund is open for applications until 12 noon, Friday 10 June 2011. Organisations from across England can bid for their share of the £2.25 million fund for new and imaginative adult and community learning opportunities that engage and motivate, in particular, disadvantaged adults.

The maximum amount for any bid is £75,000 and the minimum is £10,000.

Please note that this fund is open to organisations in England only. Projects should be designed to support informal adult and community learning for people aged 19 and over. The application process is online and only online submissions will be accepted. Applications submitted in hard copy or by email will not be accepted.

You can access the online application form here.

Your application must be submitted by noon on Friday June 10, 2011 or earlier if possible. Please read the Prospectus before submitting your application.

If you have any queries, please email them to aclf@niace.org.uk.

For further information visit
http://www.niace.org.uk/current-work/adult-and-community-learning-fund-aclf

The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) invites institutions to submit funding proposals for projects to support the development and implementation of institutional approaches to digital literacies across the entire workforce and including students.

News release from Informs and the Virtual Training Suite

JISC funding for Informs and the Virtual Training Suite will come to an end at the end of July 2011.

As part of the removal of central funding for Intute in July 2010, we conducted a full review and market research to help us investigate the possibility of introducing a subscription model for the Virtual Training Suite and Informs.  We regret to inform our users and contributors that no realistic alternative funding model for either service has been identified.
Our investigations told us that institutions would be willing to pay for Informs and the Virtual Training Suite in principle, but given the current economic climate and the reduction in library budgets these services are unlikely to be regarded as a priority.  As a result, the number of subscribers would not provide enough income to continue in their current form.  Therefore, in consultation with the Informs Advisory Group and JISC, the following ways forward have been agreed.

- We will investigate releasing Informs as open source software so that it can be installed and run locally in your own institutions.  This work is in its early stages, but we will provide more information throughout the next few months, and full documentation will be made available to make the transition as easy as possible
- We will keep Informs running at Mimas until December 2011 to allow users to move to the open source version or find other alternatives.  Until this time all tutorials will work as normal, and helpdesk support will be available.
- The Virtual Training Suite site will be available until July 2012, but the tutorials will not be updated beyond July 2011.
- All Virtual Training Suite tutorials will be individually available to download and reuse from August 2011.

We would like to thank all Informs and Virtual Training Suite users and contributors for their support during this difficult year.  We would particularly like to thank those of you that took the time to speak to us, offer feedback and complete our survey.

For more information, please see the FAQs on the Informs and Virtual Training Suite websites, and please contact us if you have any concerns.  We have also made the market research report and the Informs Technical Review available on our website.

Congratulations to the successful projects that have been awarded grants from the new Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) Regional Response Fund. These new projects aim to support providers to deal collectively with the operational, funding and planning implications of the changes to funding mechanisms. In addition, they will help providers to respond rapidly to the challenges of reduced funding and new priorities.

Successful London learning providers:

London Work Based Learning Alliance on behalf of the LWBLA Leadership Group Greater London
Developing Deal Makers: The New World of Employer Responsive Delivery/ Learning with the Best – Providers working with SME’s to meet the apprenticeship challenge

Hackney Community College
Greater London
London’s Colleges working collectively to address key issues for London learners and employers in the new policy and funding context

Tower Hamlets College
Greater London
Adapt and Survive

Sutton College of Learning for Adults
Greater London
BLOSSOM (Building Learner Outcomes through Smarter Services, Ownership and Mutual benefits)

The full list of successful projects available here as a PDF:

http://www.lsis.org.uk/AboutLSIS/MediaCentre/NewsArticles/Documents/RRF_Successful%20ProjectsKK.pdf