Group - EKC Group successful in latest funding application
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EKC Group successful in latest funding application

EKC Group has been successful in securing funding as part of the national ‘Taking Teaching Further’ initiative, enabling the Group to build on its teaching services.

The funding was awarded after the Group made a number of successful bids through the Taking Teaching Further programme which is run by The Education and Training Foundation in partnership with the Department for Education.

Simon Bigrigg, EKC Group’s Head of Teaching Academy, said: “The process involved achieving success in the bids for both rounds one and two of the scheme. We were funded to run three current projects across the Group; ‘Financial Support for Initial Teacher Education’ and ‘Industry and Provider Innovations’ projects for both Construction and Digital Futures.”

When asked how he felt about securing the bid, Simon said: “Very happy indeed. It was great to achieve success in securing the funding following what was a highly competitive bidding process, with the EKC Group being one of a select number of Colleges to be funded for both rounds of the programme cycle.”

“In being selected we have received recognition for the innovative and dynamic project ideas that we will be running, providing EKC Group with an exciting chance to test out new innovations and approaches to the support of staff who are new to teaching, and to develop our collaborative working with industry partners.”  

Simon is intending to share the funding across a range of areas within the Group.

He said: “For the Initial Teacher Education project the funding will be used to support 5 new teachers in traditionally ‘hard to fill’ areas, ranging from Plumbing, Carpentry and Electrical to Early Years and Digital.”

“This will take the form of supporting the tuition costs for their Level 5 Diploma in Education and Training programmes, peer shadowing, reduced timetables with support for planning and training and close individual coaching.”

“For the Industry and provider Innovations projects it will fund ‘knowledge share’ events and activities, industry masterclasses, team delivery with industry experts and shared CPD exchanges.”

EKC Group is excited to be able to utilise the funding in order to further increase the excellent services we already offer and would like to thank both The Education and Training Foundation and The Department for Education for awarding this funding.