If you have any questions about Make a Difference we hope that we can answer them here - use the list to the right hand side to select a question and read the answer.
But if we haven’t answered your question, please go to the "Contact us" section of the site and we will respond to your query as quickly as possible.
Select a question from the list below to view the answer.
Only if they have been newly appointed to a vacancy that is registered with, and fits the criteria for, Make a Difference. As the leadership development programme is an integral part of a wider programme it can only be accessed as such.
The aim of Make a Difference is to bring experienced, graduate calibre individuals in to further education management. This applies primarily to candidates from outside the sector but also to high fliers already working inside provided they’ve been appointed to a vacancy that was registered as part of Make a Difference (and so met the programme’s criteria).
Unfortunately not. It is an integral part of Make a Difference and is funded by the funder of the wider programme (the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills) – therefore it isn’t commercially available.
No, Make a Difference offers a world-class leadership development programme, specifically designed to support exceptional managers from outside and within the sector to develop as future leaders in FE. To access funding for leadership development you must recruit in accordance with the programme criteria and register your new manager on to one of the programme cohorts as soon as they are appointed.
No, you can only put a new manager, recruited under the terms of the Make a Difference programme, on to the leadership development programme.
You can only put your new manager on to the leadership development programme if they were recruited under the terms of the Make a Difference programme. If this is the case and you haven’t heard from us, get in touch immediately and register your new manager on to the next available cohort.
The start date for each cohort is shown below. The programme is delivered across 3 modules and takes a calendar year to complete.
C1 24-28 August 09
C2 21-25 Sept 09
C3 9-13 Nov 09
C4 7-11th Dec 09
C5 11-15 Jan 10
The leadership development programme is delivered by the Learning and Skills Network, an organisation that forms an integral part of the Make a Difference team. The Learning and Skills Network will continue to run the programme and to support both providers and candidates until all cohorts come to an end in November next year.
You can continue to register with the programme until 20th October and following that you can register vacancies until the end of November. After then you won’t be able to access the funded leadership development programme but you may still be able to benefit from recruiting a high-calibre manager from outside the sector and we hope that providers like you will continue to take this forward as a model of best practice. Make a Difference closes at the end of this year. There may be new support available after April 2010, but at present we can’t speculate as to what this may involve.
You can continue to register vacancies with the programme until the end of November. However, as we don’t currently know whether any future leadership development programme cohorts will be taking place we can’t offer any assurances about cohorts beyond January.
No, because of the limited availability it is most unlikely that places on later cohorts would be available. If you don’t attend the booked cohort then you may lose the benefits of this £10,000 fully funded programme. We recommend that you plan early so that you can release managers for this programme – if you need reminding of all the dates then please contact us.
At the moment we don’t know what offer will be available after funding is fully allocated – currently the only places available are the limited number that are fully funded.
As places are filling fast it’s important that you register your new employee for the leadership development programme as soon as possible. We have a set number of cohorts and January will be the last planned fully funded cohort. At the moment there are no plans to run future cohorts.
Demand for Make a Difference has been high and funded support is limited. The programme will be available until all of the funding has been taken, so contact us quickly and we will advise you on availability. After January 2010 the programme in its current form will not be available, but we hope that it will still provide support in some form as a best practice model.
So that you can participate in Make a Difference and access all of the available benefits we ask you to sign a simple partnership agreement. The agreement sets out what responsibilities each party will have during the course of your involvement with the programme and it will form a contract between you and Lifelong Learning UK.
Our team will talk this through with you personally as soon as you have made your initial registration and ensure that you are comfortable with the programme and are happy to take part.
The criteria for candidates is that they will have the following professional/functional experience:
• Degree level qualification or equivalent
• Experience that demonstrates they are ready to take on a first tier management role
• High performance ratings, likely to be underscored by regular promotion
• Experience in leading formal or informal teams or leading across organisational boundaries
They will also have a range of orientations and motives:
• Demonstrate passion for results and impact
• Hunger for continued learning, personal improvement and self-directed development
• Ownership of /responsibility for own contribution to situations and outcomes
• Strong desire to address social challenges and improve opportunities for those from disadvantaged background
• Willingness and tenacity in the face of adversity
• Comfort with change and uncertainty
• Demonstrable qualities of humility, respect and empathy
The job roles that you offer for these candidates must be:
• Management roles except those with ‘Principal’ or ‘Chief Executive’ in the title
• Offered for a minimum of 12 months or a permanent contract
• Open to candidates not currently working in further education as well as those working in further education
Our team will work with you to judge the eligibility of the role by analysing the person and job specification and the level in the organisation where the role appears.
Make a Difference is open to post 16 learning providers in England, including all institutions covered by the 1992 Act:
• all FE colleges
• work based learning providers (including Job Centre Plus procured)
• personal and community development learning providers
• sixth form and specialist colleges
• consortia of the above types of providers.
We currently have over 200 providers registered with us and supplying vacancies for their management roles.
You'll be responsible for paying the candidate's salary and all other usual responsibilities once they are employed by your organisation. We don't offer any salary subsidies - the programme offers support to attract, recruit and assess applicants but does not subsidise the salary offer.
A key objective for Make a Difference is to improve the diversity profile of managers and leaders in further education (FE), by attracting candidates that are underrepresented in management and leadership in FE.
We check all advertising for impact on equalities groups, and adverts are placed where they will reach diverse communities. This has meant that the candidates and applicants we've received so far have allowed us to achieve our aims for equality and diversity representation and we hope to continue this throughout the life of the programme..
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