If you’re looking to get Adult Skills Fund (ASF) funding, which replaced the Adult Education Budget (AEB) in August 2024, you need to start collecting data and evidence during enrolment.
There’s quite a bit of evidence needed in order to qualify for ASF funding, so it’s important to make sure you capture everything from your learners when enrolling them on your programmes.
Here we’ll cover the main requirements and explain what should be collected at enrolment for ASF learners. We’ll also share some information on how Bud can help to streamline and automate the enrolment process, using our intuitive joined-up system.
In order to qualify for ASF funding, learners and training providers must complete and submit the evidence pack to support their application. This pack proves to the ESFA that the learner exists and that they are eligible for funding.
The ASF learner is also required to confirm that all evidence provided to the ESFA is correct at the time it’s collected from them. You can find out more about the evidence pack, what type of evidence is required and what exactly should be included in our guide to the ASF evidence pack.
There are four key areas to consider when working through the enrolment process, to make sure you have all the information needed for the evidence pack.
The ESFA requires all information reported to them in the Individualised Learner Record (ILR) and Earnings Adjustment Statement (EAS) to be included in the evidence pack. You’ll also need to include any supporting evidence to corroborate the data you’ve reported.
You have to include an assessment and evidence of eligibility for funding as part of the pack, as well as a counter-signed record of the evidence provided by the learner.
You must also submit copies of any assessments or diagnostics undertaken to determine your learner’s requirements. This will be an important part of the enrolment process.
Finally, you need to include information relating to any prior learning that might affect the learning or funding of the programme or its aims. You must ensure this is part of the enrolment process and that you collect this information ready for the evidence pack.
You’ll need to create an enrolment form (sometimes known as a learner agreement) to collect all the information you need about your learners. It’s best to offer digital enrolment where possible, to create a faster and more seamless experience for both learners and trainers.
Based on the requirements in the evidence pack detailed above, we know that learning providers will need to complete the following tasks as part of the enrolment process:
Assessment of eligibility for funding
Counter-signing of any evidence provided
Assessment and diagnosis of learner’s requirements
Obtain information on any prior learning
Other information that should be collected at the enrolment stage includes:
Learner’s personal information (e.g. date of birth and address)
Prior qualification information
Employment status
Ethnicity
Any disabilities or learning difficulties
Details of the individualised learning plan
Planned start and end dates for learning
This list is not exhaustive and each provider will have their own template for the enrolment process.
However, it’s important to note that regardless of your template, all data captured during enrolment must be compliant with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). You are also required to provide the ESFA privacy notice as part of the enrolment process.
There’s a lot of data and evidence to collect and store. When done manually, it can be time consuming and you may find you’re left with inconsistent or insufficient data when you need to submit evidence to the ESFA.
A training management platform, such as Bud, offers a more efficient way to manage your learners and track their progress.
Bud’s intuitive, all-in-one system makes delivering your training programme easier, less time consuming and more cost effective. It provides online portfolios, digital enrolment and paperwork, as well as ILR management.
Bud’s platform is designed to drive compliance, from enrolment to endpoint assessment. Your users can’t go wrong, because trainers and learners must enter all the information required to meet compliance regulations before they can complete a stage.
This means that when it comes to putting together the evidence packs for your ASF learners, you can be confident that all the enrolment data you need is accurate and ready to go.
Want to learn more about how Bud can help you to better manage your learning provision from the enrolment stage? Book a demo or get in touch with one of our experts.