09 August 2023

Annual Review of 2022

Championing the power of vocational technology to improve skills for work

As we look back on 2022, it gives me great satisfaction to see how Ufi’s work has made significant strides in supporting improvements in adult skills across the UK. These times of reflective pause are particularly important in a rapidly changing skills landscape as we seek to support people into and at work through the development of digital tools and pedagogies.

We know that technology can play a powerful role in enabling adults to develop the skills they need to succeed in the workplace, and we remain unrelentingly focused on ensuring that everyone has access to the tools and resources they need to succeed, regardless of their circumstance or background. I am pleased to report that 2022 was another year of impact; both immediate and longer term.

We invite you to delve deeper into this publication and take the opportunity to explore our work in greater depth.

Rebecca Garrod-Waters
CEO, Ufi VocTech Trust

Download our Annual Review of 2022

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Change for a better future

As part of our commitment to supporting the best technologies for adult vocational skills we look to enable organisations to develop and adopt innovative tech.

We offer grant funding and investment at early stages, as well as developing Strategic Partnerships to maximise our impact and accelerate the pace of change.

Find out more about what we do

Continuing our focus on supporting the development of new approaches to vocational technology, in 2022 we offered £1.2m in grant funding to 27 projects through our VocTech Seed grant fund (now called VocTech Activate)

Through Ufi Ventures we invested £3.4m into five new early-stage companies, Assemble you, Data Literacy Academy, Mobilise, Purlos and TaskHer.
To accelerate the pace of change we launched a series of ongoing reports sharing our insights and exploring VocTech market activity, in partnership with Tyton Partners.

Making change now

By aligning the tools in our strategy, we continue to leverage our combined knowledge and reach to catalyse change.

Our VocTech Challenge programmes have continued to develop, forming a dynamic ecosystem of activity uniting our grant funding, advocacy and partnership work streams to create new insights and solutions to tackle specific challenges to adult learning.

Explore our VocTech Challenge Programmes

One year on from the VocTech Challenge: Levelling up vocational learning for those most impacted by the digital divide we produced a report of our experiences and learnings, reflecting on the impact of our £2m programme of grant funding, strategic partnerships and advocacy work. Explore the report.

We celebrated the impact of previously grant-funded projects during what was a very significant year:
- CENTURY was used in 65% of Further Education colleges across the UK, helping approximately 170,000 young people achieve the standards required to continue their vocational studies.
- iDEA awarded their 10 millionth digital badge to learners building their functional digital skills.
- The National Numeracy Challenge platform supported half a million learners to build their confidence with numbers.

Supporting the market

Our work is so much more than funding. We help develop ideas, provide opportunities for enrichment, bring professionals together and share best practice.

The AmplifyFE Community Space, an online community delivered in partnership with the Association for Learning Technologies now connects more 2,200 practitioners.

Find out more

Our VocTech Ignite programme in now offered alongside every open grant call. In 2022 we supported ten organisations to take a deep-dive into their concept and develop its potential. Two previous “Ignite” organisations went on to successfully apply for Ufi funding. Their work during Ignite has helped them get off to a flying start.

During 2022 we spoke at more than a dozen events including the EdTech X Summit, London EdTech Week, and OEB in Berlin. Many sessions were delivered in collaboration with partners including the Association for Learning Technology (ALT), Tyton Partners, Resolution Foundation and the RSA, helping to increase our reach and amplify our joint messages.

Logos of the eight Ufi Strategic Partners.

Building the VocTech Community

Collaborating to increase our impact and catalyse change.

We know we can’t achieve our mission alone and so partnership is crucially important. From inspiring leadership-level engagement to commissioning research and supporting the sharing of knowledge, we have continued to develop Strategic Partnerships with organisations who share our mission.

Explore our Strategic Partnerships

As part of our Strategic Partnership with the RSA we launched new research "Rebalancing Adult Learning” at the Adult Education All-party Parliamentary Group (APPG), supported the continued expansion of the Cities of Learning programme, and shared our vision for the future of skills during the RSA President’s Lecture and Dinner.
Together with the Social Tech Trust, Ufi and Catch22 launched the Social Tech Amplifier to unlock opportunities in the public sector supply chain and prepare new ventures for scale through development activities and access to investment.

With the AELP we undertook a major piece of research on the use of technology in the FE sector and its future in work-based learning.
Our Public Affairs and advocacy work gathered pace, helping shape the future adoption and deployment of digital tools and pedagogies through consultation responses, research and stakeholder engagement

By the time we publish our annual review we have already begun delivering next year’s activities.

Highlights include:

Sharing the external evaluation of our 2015 – 2019 grant funding programmes
Enriching our financial support with networking, connections, and access to expertise, giving all Ufi-supported projects and ventures the best possible chance of success.
Launching the VocTech Activate grant call
Partnering with the Learning and Work Institute to deliver our next VocTech Challenge programme “Skills for an Economy in Transition”
Exploring the development and deployment barriers facing independent training providers with our Strategic Partners the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP)
Strengthening links across the four nations, including stakeholder events in Scotland and Northern Ireland.