It will be a tremendous honour to address the AELP annual conference at the end of this month.
The two-day event runs on Monday 24 and Tuesday 25 June and is held at the Park Plaza Hotel, Westminster Bridge, London.
It is a real focal point for the sector and I’ll be doing my presentation on the Tuesday morning. It is something that I am really looking forward to.
It will be an exciting opportunity too. The AELP annual conference is probably the biggest conference of education providers in the UK. AELP have over 2500 members and there is likely to be 2,000 to 3,000 people there over the two-day period.
Being asked to speak at the AELP conference is also fantastic in terms of the credibility of SCLO.
To be approached by the biggest membership organisation within the independent training provider sector is a real feather in SCLO’s cap. I like to think I have built a good relationship with the people at AELP and to be able to look forward to a long-term working partnership with them is wonderful.
Delegates
This is my first time presenting at the annual conference and hopefully, we can attract a full room of delegates when it is my turn on the podium.
I’ll be talking about the RoATP – a topic that I have done a lot of work with AELP on over the past nine months in presentations up and down the country.
Although the RoATP has obviously been on the agenda for quote some time now, there are still over 1,000 organisations who have not re-applied yet. That’s a huge percentage of the market that hasn’t been given their opportunity.
Meanwhile, plenty of results from those who have applied have been coming through and while I am pleased to say that SCLO have enjoyed a lot of success, there are a lot of lessons to be learned in terms of how to approach it.
Organisations also need to bear in mind that the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) updated their guidance document at the end of May, which has changed the complexion of what is needed to complete the application.
New guidance
I can help those organisations, who are yet to apply, understand the new guidance and help them put that advice into their applications when the time is right. There are a fair few changes and nuances in there.
The last RoATP applications will go in at the end of September so the final round will be done then.
The first ones were done at the start of December last year and SCLO were helping organisations to prep for that from October onwards so it will be a near 12-month cycle when it is all done and dusted.
As well as those who have applied again after many years of success at getting on the register, there will be those organisations looking at diversifying and getting on to the register for the first time and those who were not successful first time around and will be hoping to apply again in the future.
It is a complicated subject but one that I am really looking forward to discussing with delegates on such a big stage as the annual conference.
Hope to see you there.