About the VocTech Activate Grant Fund

Ufi believes that vocational technology has the power to transform lives and build a better future where everyone is included, skilled and empowered. Yet much of this potential remains untapped, especially for those in sectors or locations furthest from opportunity. VocTech Activate supports our ambition to demonstrate the art of the practically possible, to support innovators and innovation, to inspire action and to grow impact and evidence.

VocTech Activate is our test bed, where the first spark of an idea can be developed and tested in the supportive environment that Ufi funding provides. This grant call supports early-stage projects that use technology to address real-world problems in UK adult vocational learning.

We encourage ideas which have the potential to transform how vocational learning happens, rooted in a real-world understanding of the problems, issues and opportunities in the vocational sector. Projects will need to show us how the idea is novel – show us that you understand the market you are looking at and why this is better than anything that has been thought of before.

Ufi’s focus is on learners aged 16+. We are especially interested in supporting learners or users in sectors and locations that have not been well served by mainstream provision. Projects will need to show why the learners or users being targeted have been overlooked.

VocTech Activate funding supports the development of early-stage ideas through testing, proof of concept and MVP work, and strategy planning for future growth beyond Ufi’s support. This grant aligns with Ufi’s mission to scale the adoption of VocTech by enabling new ideas to reach a stage where they can demonstrate impact, value, and a clear path to market. By proving the concept and its benefits for learners and other stakeholders, VocTech Activate fosters accessible, affordable digital learning tools that equip UK adults with the skills needed to succeed.

Grants of between £30,000 to £60,000 are available for projects of between three and 12 months duration.

The funding offered for any individual project depends on the problem being addressed, and the nature and scale of the proposed solution. Each is considered on its merits and the costs assessed against the proposed work plan and timetable.

We want to see innovative digital vocational learning ideas which are:

• Genuinely innovative in their overall approach, their technology, or the sector or community of learners to which they will be applied.
• Clear in their understanding of and access to a defined learner group/test group of users, with a clear evidenced understanding of their challenges.
• Projects that are aware of their learners/users’ barriers to learning, and any barriers to adoption of technology-based approaches.
• Tackling specific vocational skills gaps, with good connections to sectors, employers and potential employment.
• Ideas where people are really thinking differently about how to use technology to deliver effective vocational learning at scale.
• Projects that look at any and every aspect of vocational learning, including (but not limited to) deployment, design and development of learning tools, new delivery models, evaluation and assessment, accreditation and recording evidence of achievement.
• Projects targeted at extending learning provision to sectors, industries and communities of learners that currently lack good access to vocational learning due to factors including market/sectoral structures, cost, time, distance or language.

We are keen to draw upon the insights we have gathered from market intelligence work and engagement with stakeholders. These have highlighted areas where we feel there is a both a need for innovation in adult vocational skills and opportunity for scale. Issues, for example, include:

• Innovation in assessment, enabling learners to access feedback and content tailored to them, when they need it.
• Innovative use of data, including AI and big data to improve outcomes for learners.
• Making it easier and cheaper for trainers and teachers to develop their own high quality, interactive e-learning content for vocational learners.
• Working with relevant employers and learning organisations to create new ways for people to validate their skills and create pathways to work, or to allow people in work to transition to new opportunities.

VocTech Activate will grant fund the design, development and early stage testing and adoption of new approaches to digital vocational learning; helping to take those ideas through basic prototyping to the next stage of 'seeding the market' by delivering a first proof of concept prototype and planning a route to market. This could include:

• Design, development, and prototyping with learners.
• Refining learning design.
• Testing with users.
• Planning a route from MVP to a sustainable, scalable product.
• Planning a route to market & strategies for scaling.
• Project Management.
• Evidencing impact, demonstrating value and what works.

Projects must:

• Focus on adult vocational learning in the UK (be aimed at adults 16+).
• Offer new learning tools, not just new learning content.
• Show real innovation and risk to justify Ufi funding.
• Show a clear understanding of the vocational learning market, have evidence of a defined learning need and describe how they expect the tech will improve outcomes for learners, in addition to the technical advances.
• Show real innovation and risk to achieve a step change beyond normal business development to justify Ufi funding.
• Have a strong evidenced connection to a clearly defined learner group, and a clear understanding of their challenges, barriers to learning and barriers to adoption of technology-based approaches.
• Have plans for testing with relevant learners/trainers/employers and for incorporating feedback from testing into product development.
• Show ambition and vision for how the project could get to market and be eventually scaled up to reach a large number of learners, if the proof of concept proves successful.

• Training places for individuals.
• Projects for schools. Sometimes there are spill over benefits for 14 -16 year olds, but this must not be the focus of the project.
• Degrees, degree level studies, or projects focussing on qualifications above level 3 or equivalent.
• Research projects, where the only output is a document/paper.
• Standard ‘content’ projects, where offline learning is just being put online with no innovation.
• Course or curriculum development alone.
• Generic employability skills such as CV building or time management.
• Basic digital skills and life management skills, such as using Microsoft Office or getting online.
• Enterprise or entrepreneurship skills.
• Routine business development or product development where there is no public benefit case for charitable funding.
• Core costs / general overheads of non-charities.

Ufi funds projects involving charities, private companies, community interest companies and other not for profit organisations. As a charity itself, Ufi must ensure that any grant given to any organisation that is not also a charity demonstrates public benefit.

This means being able to see evidence of how the proposed approach will benefit learners, how the community of learners has been defined and the total size of the group the project could reach. Projects must always explain clearly why they need Ufi funding to support their project and how Ufi’s charitable funding will make a difference. Finally, we need to make sure that our funding is not more than is necessary to deliver the project and is not replacing private funding. The questions we ask in our application forms help us understand how your proposal can have a beneficial public outcome, both immediately and in the longer term.