Over 2400 bids for new Adult and Community Learning Fund Friday, June 17, 2011 - 12:02

There have been over 2400 bids for the new Adult and Community Learning Fund, which closed for bids earlier this week.

NIACE, who is administering the fund on behalf of the Skills Funding Agency, is now putting each of the bids through a rigorous shortlisting and selection process. All projects and providers will know the outcome of their bid on 22 July 2011, when £2.25 million will be distributed.

Carol Taylor, Director of Development and Research at NIACE, said:

"We have received an unprecedented number of bids, from a range of adult learning projects and providers from small voluntary organisations to Colleges, from care settings to local authorities. The fund will give people the chance to innovate, to develop new partnerships and to develop strategies to engage under-represented groups."

"The huge response suggests that the Government's recognition of adult learning as a first and essential step to engaging people in learning for work, for social and personal reasons is right and is a route towards participation in the Big Society." 

This extraordinary demand...proves that there is a real desire and need for adult learning

Carol Taylor

"This extraordinary demand for relatively small amounts of money - around a thousand more bids have been received for this fund than for the Transformation Fund, which offered almost ten times as much funding - proves that there is a real desire and need for adult learning."

"The challenge now is to complete the careful process of determining which bids are to receive grants, so that projects can start on time and deliver positive outcomes for some of the most disadvantaged people in society."

The Adult and Community Learning Fund is offered in two ways, small grants of between £10,000 and £25,000 and larger grants of between £25,000 and £75,000. All projects will start work by 1 September 2011 and all activity will be completed by 31 March 2012.