Securing Funding and ensuring quality for an FE College is the South West

1. Securing funding for work-based learning
“We’re very glad we made the decision to go with Destiny”
Sue Alvey, Head of Operational Support, Cornwall College Business
The challenge: staying audit compliant with pressure on time
As well as being one of the largest further education colleges in the UK, with 45,000 students
able to choose from over 3,000 different courses across seven main campus sites,
Cornwall College is also the leading provider of training and education for business in the
South West. Working in partnership with client organisations to design customised training
to improve business performance, Cornwall College Business provides professional
qualifications through courses and workshops for individuals, departments or entire
companies. Apprenticeships and “Train to Gain” are two of the College’s main business
programmes, with more than 4,000 students involved in these programmes at any one time.
Gaining access to funding to help subsidise the cost of skills development is an important
part of the College’s service to employers. But to be able to draw down this funding, the
College faces the same challenge as every other provider of work-based learning – the task
of completing records for each individual learner in an accurate, timely and controlled way
that provides the evidence for full and auditable compliance. With fewer contracts to go
round, higher minimum contract values, outcome-based payments and the general demand
to deliver more for less, the pressure on all work-based learning providers has increased.
But according to Sue Alvey, Head of Operational Support for Cornwall College Business, the
real spur came when the Skills Funding Agency restricted to two months the deadline for
reporting new signups.
“Two months might sound like a long time,” says Sue. “But in practice it can be a lot less,
and it gets eaten away very quickly. Historically we’ve had to key large volumes of information
into our Pellcomp PICS management information system manually. It became very obvious
that we needed a much less time-consuming and more efficient way of inputting our data to
secure the funding that’s critical for our clients.”
To start the process of designing and providing the right business training, Liaison Officers or
Business Development Advisors from the College go out to visit employers and learners to
build up a full picture of what they need. After carrying out an assessment and giving advice,
they write out an individual learning plan which also acts as the signup paperwork. They then
drop this paperwork off at the office some days later, where it’s manually checked. If there’s
a problem, they may need to return to the client to update the form and get a new signature.
Only then can the data be manually entered into PICS and the application made for funding.

2. The solution: digital pen technology for quick and accurate recording
The College had previously looked at laptops as a possible way of recording and transmit-
ting information from the field, but reliable 3G network coverage proved to be a big stumbling
block. Another major issue was the audit requirement for an original “wet ink” signature –
effectively ruling out other forms of data capture technology like laptops or PDAs.
But then, Destiny digital pen technology was recommended to the College by Edexcel. As
experts in work-based learning and the largest awarding body in the UK, Edexcel provide
accreditation for many of the College’s courses.
The decision was made to pilot the use of the digital pen for the College’s Train to Gain
provision with ten Liaison Officers and Business Development Advisors. One of Destiny’s
first steps was to work with Sue Alvey to review the existing paperwork and create a new
design in digital form for the individual learning plan. Part of this process was to make the
form more intuitive and easier to complete using a combination of text and tick boxes. The
digital pen technology also enabled more comprehensive information to be recorded on
PICS than had been attempted before using manual input.
The pilot was implemented, starting off with a day’s training provided by Destiny. “Everything
was explained really well,” says Sue Alvey. “Even though the pens are very easy to use it
helped us to have trial forms to test out and see how they’re completed, how the information
is sent and what it looks like when it is accessed by the admin team for quality checking.”
The new process using Destiny technology is that the College’s business development
advisors and liaison officers write out the individual learning plans in the field as before, but
now using digital pens and forms. Then, simply by ticking a send box on the form, the
electronic data from the pen is transmitted via their Bluetooth mobile device to Destiny’s
secure servers, where it’s converted from handwriting into text. Less than a minute later it’s
available on Destiny’s hosted online Manage service, where the College’s admin support
team can review the converted text against a pdf of the original handwritten form.
If anything is missing, unclear or seems wrong,
the admin team can call the advisor straightaway
while they’re still with the client – quickly sorting
out any problem and avoiding the need for a
return trip. If for any reason the form still can’t be
validated immediately, it sits in abeyance in a “work
in progress” file. Otherwise, if all the data is verified
and accurate, it then transfers to the College’s own
servers where it can then to automatically create
the new learner record within the PICS management information system, and trigger the
application for funding.

3. The results: no more manual entry, and a more disciplined approach
Destiny digital pen technology has reduced the time it takes to collect learner information
and transfer it to PICS from two or three weeks during peak periods down to just a few hours
– cutting out unnecessary admin and hugely accelerating the funding application process.
With very little change to their previous work practices, advisors can make better use of their
time and reduce travel costs with no need to return to the office to drop off paperwork. Data
quality and management information are both greatly improved.
“It’s early days,” says Sue Alvey, “but we’re very glad we made the decision to go with
Destiny. Where we’re really gaining and saving time is that there’s little manual input into the
management information system because the data is transferred automatically. It also helps
to encourage a more disciplined approach to planning, and getting all the information we
need from employers in an efficient way. Employers and learners also like it as they see that
we are using up-to-date technology in support of our work with them.
“One of the main technical advantages of digital pens is that the information they capture is
completely safe. If an advisor happens to be in an area where there’s no network coverage,
the data stays on the pen until it can be transmitted. And if all else fails, we’ve always got the
original handwritten form.
“As a company, Destiny have been very responsive. They understand the environment we
work in and the pressures we face. They’ve always gone as quickly as we’ve wanted –
answering our questions, being open to suggestions and coming up with good ways of
resolving any issues together. They’ve also been good at working with Pellcomp to ensure
that the pens work with PICS in the most efficient way. And most importantly, they’ve helped
us to stay audit compliant and do what we need to do to secure our funding.”
Based on the success of the pilot, the College is now rolling out the new system to thirty
Liaison Officers supporting our apprenticeship programmes, with the possibility of extending
it further to other sites in the future.
Ron Champion, Director of Cornwall College Business, said:” I’m looking forward to
realising the benefits of efficiency and more timely management information, but I also have
high expectations that this technology will help us give a better service to our most important
customers, our employers and learners”.

4. About destiny
destiny® is the registered trademark for Destiny Wireless plc, a world leader in the business
market for the delivery of mobile workforce solutions. destiny is a global Platinum Partner of
Anoto Group AB, one of seven in the world. destiny owns the IP rights of the Logitech io2
digital pen, making them one of two digital pen manufacturers in the world.
destiny® enables organisations with mobile workforces to get fast returns from high
technology at low cost, with little or no training or change to working practices and upfront
capital. The destiny digital pen is based on Anoto Digital Pen and Paper technology and
replaces paperwork delays and expensive journeys back to the office with an easy-to-use
and energy efficient way of collecting accurate, reliable data from the field and transmitting it
back to base in seconds.
destiny’s® services include digital pens; digitised forms, mobile devices and web-based tools
for the efficient collection and management of data from the field, effective job push and
allocation, resource management, intelligent scheduling and asset tracking. For more
information please visit www.destinyplc.com
destiny’s® award accolades includes: Environmental Product of the Year 2010 with the
destiny io2 digital pen; 2009 Outstanding development in information technology award with
client DSV Road; Docuware wins Best Private Sector Project of the Year award 2009 with the
destiny digital pen; 2007 Growing Business Awards Technology in Business ; Microsoft’s
People Moving Business, Quality in Construction for Excellence in ICT and the Information
Age Effective IT Award. Edward Belgeonne, CEO and founder of destiny, is the national
winner of Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of The Year Award for the Science and Technology,
2007. destiny was also nominated a finalist in the BCS IT Industry awards for the Best Use of
Green Technology Project Award in conjunction with Advanced Peripheral Systems (APS).
About Anoto Group
Anoto Group is the company behind and world leading in the unique technology for digital
pen and paper, which enables fast and reliable transmission of handwritten text into a digital
format. Anoto operates through a global partner network that focuses on user-friendly form
solutions for efficient capture, transmission and storage of data within different business
segments, e.g. healthcare, bank and finance, transport and logistics and education.
The Anoto Group has around 110 employees, offices in Lund (head office), Boston and
Tokyo. The Anoto share is listed on NASDAQ OMX Nordic small cap list under the ticket
ANOT. For more information: www.anoto.com