How to diversify across funding streams to drive business growth

No matter what type of business you’re in, diversification is a key tactic in increasing your revenue. As an apprenticeship training provider, this is especially true when it comes to funding streams.

Diversifying across different funding streams is a great way to drive business growth and improve your resilience as a training provider.

To do this, you’ll need to develop a model that’s repeatable and scalable across the different streams, so you can access more funding without substantially increasing your overheads.

Of course, that’s easy to say but often harder to do in practice. Which is where Bud’s single joined-up platform comes in.

In this article, we look at how Bud simplifies the enrolment process across funding streams. Bud’s unique workflows are built to drive compliance for each funding stream, to help scale your training effectively.

Overview of funding streams

Funding streams in the skills and apprenticeship training sector are funded by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA).

Funding streams include:

• Apprenticeships – Usually the mainstay of funding for training providers who provide off-the-job training alongside learning in the workplace. Find out about apprenticeship funding rules.
• Skills Bootcamps – These free, flexible courses are for adults aged 19 or over and last up to 16 weeks. Training providers work with employers to develop and deliver Skills Bootcamps in areas like digital marketing, tech, construction, engineering and green skills like solar energy. Find out about Skills Bootcamps funding rules.
• Adult Education Budget (AEB) – This funding is to provide training opportunities for adults. As a training provider, it means you can target and support the most disadvantaged learners. Find out about AEB funding rules.

There’s a considerable amount of evidence needed in order for learners to qualify for these funding streams. It’s important that the evidence is captured compliantly at exactly the right stage in the process, and stored securely for every learner enrolling on your programmes.

Read our article on what data should be captured at enrolment for AEB learners

Scaling your offering to boost funding

If you focus solely on delivering apprenticeships, you could be missing an opportunity to scale your business. Think about how you can diversify your areas of expertise across all funded training.

Start by looking at the areas that you specialise in. For example, if you offer apprenticeship training in hospitality, how could you diversify and offer hospitality across other funding streams?

We work with many providers who are specialists within a sector and use Bud’s platform to deliver training across funding streams. This makes the prospect of offering new courses far more cost effective.

And by using Bud’s platform, many of the mundane administrative tasks that take up a trainer's valuable time can be completed by the learner. With learners able to complete most of their enrolment remotely, you’ll get them onto programme and into learning quicker. As a result, you will free up time for your trainers to develop and deliver high quality course content.

Driving efficiency through compliance

Bud’s workflows have been designed with compliance in mind. Here are three key areas where Bud helps you improve efficiency and follow the correct process to meet funding rules:

1. Single platform for all your data and reporting – Our data warehouse collects thousands of pieces of data in real time and presents it in an easy-to-understand dashboard that’s always up to date.
2. Automated onboarding and offboarding – This can be a time-consuming process, but in Bud, learners upload everything needed for compliance before they start. This includes supporting documentation, commitment statements and training agreements. Bud also gathers digital signatures and proof of identity documentation so everything you need is in one place.
3. Eliminate the risk of human error – Using Bud’s workflows to drive your processes ensures that data is always accurate and up to date. Your trainers won’t need to understand the details of how evidence varies across funding streams because Bud will drive them to capture the right evidence at the right time, every time.

How can Bud help?

Your organisation can’t go wrong with Bud. The platform ensures learners and trainers enter all the evidence required to enrol and remain compliant for the chosen funding stream before they can start on programme.

This means that when it comes to putting together the evidence packs for each learner, you can be confident that all required enrolment data is accurate and ready to go.

What’s more, Bud’s Operations Dashboard provides management teams with a clear view of performance across all the training they provide, from real-time data. Enabling early identification of potential issues and timely interventions to be made.

Want to learn more about how Bud can help you to better manage your learning provision and grow your business? Book a demo or get in touch with one of our experts.