How Raise The Bar achieved 0% error rate in their ESFA audit

We often hear from apprenticeship training providers who have experienced difficult ESFA audits because they are not using Bud. That’s why we’ve put everything we’ve learnt from these conversations into a series of articles that we hope will help.

In this case study, Laura Moore, Head of Data, Funding and Compliance at Raise the Bar, discusses her recent experience of ESFA audit and how Bud’s reporting facilities helped her feel well prepared, leading to a 0% error rate.

You can read more in the series here:

• An insider’s guide to an ESFA audit
• Checklist: Common ESFA errors and how to prevent them
• How Bud can drive compliance for your next ESFA audit

Case study: How MTD Training are ensuring ESFA compliance with Bud

Introduction

At the start of November 2021, we received our audit notification and were provided a list of 30 learners, a 10% random sample from our last academic year, that would form part of the audit. We then had one week to collate the relevant data and documentation and load it to the auditor’s portal.

Reviewing the data

Using this data, the auditor then conducted a review of DSAT’s and selected 8 reports with queries to ensure we had the correct processes in place. This required us to submit evidence for our response. The selection of information that was required included: start dates, enrolment paperwork, apprenticeship agreements, commitment statements, evidence of prior knowledge, skills scans, on-learning evidence i.e. progress reviews, Off-the-Job (OTJ) logs, and bksb results.

The importance of accurate data

For our audit some of our learner data was split between our historic platform and Bud. When we moved to Bud we put plans in place for this, manually downloading and saving all the data from our old platform, then formatting and saving it as pdfs.

Laura said “I’ve completed audits before in previous roles and it has been very stressful. At Raise the Bar, because we used Bud, I knew that the data I needed would be accurate and I knew exactly how to easily access the evidence.”

Driving compliance with Bud

Bud drives compliance which meant I could be confident that I would automatically have everything I needed for audit – I felt well prepared. The reporting facilities in Bud show us that learners are having regular reviews, we can track their off the job hours, we know where they are and where their evidence is stored, all in preparation for audit.

We’ve been using Bud for just over two years now and during this time our learner numbers have grown significantly. Bud has helped us to reduce our admin time, so that our trainers can focus on their teaching instead. It seamlessly accommodates our growth and helps us to ensure that we can focus on providing consistent, high-quality learning for all of our learners.

Find out more about Bud

As pioneers of technology, Bud can support with many aspects of training delivery.

For example:

• Create a consistent, easy-to-use digital learning environment that learners, employers and trainers will love.
• Capture real-time business intelligence giving training providers a complete overview of every aspect of an organisation’s performance.
• Quality check programme delivery, identifying areas for improvement in real time.
• Automatically collate evidence needed to demonstrate learner outcomes and hit compliance targets to release funding.

Get in touch with the team to learn more about how Bud removes the hassle of ESFA audits or book a demo now.