Catalyst in the West Midlands

About Catalyst

Catalyst is a consortium of four organisations working with the Department for Education (DfE) as the strategic partner for young people, as part of the Department’s wider transition programme for the sector. The consortium is co-ordinated by NCVYS.

Catalyst will work to deliver three key objectives over a 2 year period. It will strengthen the youth sector market, equip the sector to work in partnership with government and coordinate a skills development strategy for the youth sector’s workforce.

Within this, NCVYS announced 2 tender opportunities nationally, G:up applied for both opportunities and was successful in obtaining these, which we hope will enable G:up to increase its role as a regional training hub. 

On behalf of the Catalyst consortium, NCVYS has published the 5th edition of the Funding Guide for Workforce Development. It is aimed at employers, training providers and learners who work with children, young people and families in the VCS.  A new addition this year is a section devoted to funding schemes for training providers. 

http://bit.ly/fundguidewfd (Guide pdf)
http://www.ncvys.org.uk/Funding.html (web page - guide location)

West Midlands Latest

Training Partnership Programme

NCVYS sought to work with a small number of voluntary sector-led training partnerships working across a number of local authority areas, to increase their ability to bid/tender for skills funding from a range of sources and develop a more sustainable business model.  G:up applied for this tender an in the process coordinated the setting up of Learn: WM the West Midlands CYPF VCS training consortium, we are currently working with NCVYS to develop an outcomes-focused individual support package to include financial aid and access to specialist advice and guidance.  Initial activity to support the partnerships started in October 2011 and will run until March 2012, although the support would extend into 2012/13.

A budget of £11,700 was made available to support this work and G:up is now coordinating the activities of Learn: WM for more information please see attached business plan, memoradum of understanding and the list of partners signed up to the Learn: WM partnership 

Learn: WM 2012 Meeting Dates

• Thur 12^th Jan 2012 10 - 12pm at bayc
• Thur 5^th April 2012 10 - 12pm at bayc
• Thur 28^th June 2012 10 – 12pm at bayc
• Thur 20^th Sept 2012 10 - 12pm at bayc

Skills Development Programme

Was an opportunity to deliver an session/event to trainers and training organisations across the West Midlands, covering elements such as teaching practice, assessment and verification training, which will enable trainers to deliver a range of courses at all levels and fulfil the accreditation requirements of awarding organisations. 

A flexible budget of £1000 per region was made available to support this work and G:up delivered the Knowledge into Action Training Summit on the 14^th December 2011.  26 people representing 24 organisations took part on the day, 100% of those who have completed evaluaitons forms so far have all stated that both the structure of the programme and quality of the content for the event was either good or excellent.  Please see attached all of the paperwork from the event, including presentations and handouts.