The third and final round of the strategic college improvement fund (SCIF) opens for applications today.

The £15 million fund aims to support struggling colleges to improve. It was launched in June 2018, and it enables colleges in need of support to apply for funding to work with a stronger “partnering” college to tackle the issues they face and improve quality. 

To be eligible to apply, FE or sixth form colleges have to be graded requires improvement or inadequate in their most recent Ofsted inspection for any of these aspects of their provision:

• overall effectiveness
• 16 to 19 study programmes, adult learning programmes, apprenticeships, traineeships, provision for learners with high needs and 14 to 16 full-time provision
• leadership and management
• quality of teaching learning and assessment
• personal development behaviour or welfare
• outcomes for learners

The application process for the SCIF has 2 stages, and colleges will need to show they have identified a quality improvement need. The deadline for applications is 8 March.