Latest news

Happy New Year and welcome back to the latest edition of Ufi's Community Newsletter.

This week's newsletter includes:

🎉 Ufi's £900k VocTech Activate grant fund is now open for applications;

📣 Catch-up on our CEO's end of year message, reflecting on Ufi's achievements and our strategy for 2025 - 2030;

📅 Join GoodTech Ventures for their upcoming showcase event; and much more...

Now open:
Ufi's £900k VocTech Activate grant fund for early-stage projects

Our VocTech Activate grant fund is now open for applications until 4th February 2025.

We're offering grants of £30k - £60k to support the design, development, testing and adoption of new digital tools and approaches that could reach learners furthest from opportunity and have the potential to transform learning for work.

Interested in applying? Try our eligibility checker first to see if this grant fund is right for your project. 

Once you've tried the eligibility checker and think your project could be a good fit, we recommend booking one of our pre-application online workshops. There are three workshops left to attend so make sure to book your spot now. 

Upcoming event: Ufi at Bett 2025

We're looking forward to this year's Bett show from 22-24 January, sharing insights and connecting with colleagues in the EdTech sector.

We're delighted to see that Aftab Hussain, Learning Technology Manager at Bolton College, will be joining the panel on 'Supercharging assessment literacy and formative assessment'. We supported Aftab on Bolton College's Formative Assessment project, using AI to reduce the burden of marking open ended formative assessments. Aftab will be sharing the ways in which technologies such as AI, can help deliver timely, personalised formative assessment insights. 

Members of the Ufi team will be heading down to ExCeL London to make connections, share insights and explore the conference including our Head of Public Affairs, Josh Smith and Alex Bishop and Toby Palmer from Ufi Ventures. Make sure to follow Ufi on LinkedIn to hear the latest updates on Ufi at Bett 2025.

Catch-up: Reflections on 2024 from Ufi's CEO

In an end of year message, Rebecca Garrod-Waters, CEO of Ufi, reflects on our achievements as an organisation and emphasises the transformative role of technology in vocational education.

"As the close of 2024, Ufi has supported over 250 organisations with more than £31m in grant funding to develop and adopt Vocational Technology. We have invested more than £6m into early-stage businesses through Ufi Ventures and developed strategic partnerships with nine organisations across the UK skills landscape to accelerate the pace of change.

By keeping our focus on learner needs and ensuring that the human is always at the heart of vocational technology, we can ensure that technology is used to its full potential."

Have your say: Issuing and receiving digital badges

The Digital Badging Commission are inviting people to share their views on issuing and receiving digital badges. 

The Digital Badging Commission, launched by Ufi and RSA, aims to build a new consensus around the development and deployment of digital badges to recognise and reward learning and skills development, transforming the discussion about how we recognise and reward lifelong learning in the UK.

The commission have created a short survey aimed at issuers of digital badges, and recipients who have earned them. If it's relevant to you, we'd really appreciate you taking five minutes to complete the survey. 

Listen: Case studies of AI use in the FE sector

Our strategic partners at the Association for Learning Technologies (ALT) released a short AmplifyFE podcast introducing some successful uses of artificial intelligence (AI) in the Further Education sector. 

The latest AmplifyFE podcast is a little different than their usual episodes - it is hosted by AI. We were delighted to hear Ufi-supported organisation TeacherMatic mentioned as a useful tool in FE. TeacherMatic use a wide range of AI generators that create a variety of learning materials, lightening the load and sparking creativity for practitioners. 

Hull College's AI Translate project also features in the podcast for their effective use of AI for English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) students. Ufi supported Hull College as part of our VocTech Activate grant fund which is currently open for applications.

Feel inspired by TeacherMatic and Hull College? Find out more and apply for VocTech Activate funding here. 

Event: GoodTech Ventures host showcase for cohort 3

Our strategic partners at GoodTech Ventures are hosting a showcase for the third cohort of their accelerator programme on 23rd January in London.

The event marks the culmination of the GoodTech accelerator programme, an initiative supporting impact-led startups that are designing digital solutions to drive social change. The programme is delivered by Catch22 in partnership with Social Tech Trust and Unity Ventures with funding and support from Ufi, Microsoft and the UK Government.

The event provides an opportunity to hear pitches from the 11 organisations in the accelerator programme and network with colleagues from across the sector. 

Keep in touch!

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