Skills Funding Agency

We are an agency of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and our job is to fund and regulate adult further education and skills training in England.

Our mission is to ensure that people and businesses can access the skills training they need to succeed in playing their part in society and in growing England's economy. We do this in the context of policy set by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and informed by the needs of businesses, communities and sector and industry bodies.

What we do

We invest £4 billion per year of public spending in colleges and training organisations, to fund training for adults in England. The skills training we fund enables people to do their jobs better, get new jobs, or progress in their careers.

We work to an annual budget, targets and priorities set by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. We work at a 'short arm's length' from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, allowing a fast and effective response to policy, while reinforcing the autonomy of the Further Education sector.

We allocate funding to colleges and other skills and training organisations who have discretion over expenditure to meet the needs of local businesses and communities.

We house the National Apprenticeship Service, with a field force located across the country, working to develop the relationship with business to drive forward the government's ambition for increasing apprenticeships.

The Skills Funding Agency has now published its Delivery Plan for 2010/11. The Delivery Plan sets out the way in which the Skills Funding Agency has responded to the priorities set out in the Skills Investment Strategy and Skills for Growth, as well as policy commitments outlined in The Coalition: Our Programme for Government (May 2010).

Success for us is when...

Further Education efficiently meets the current and future needs of learners and employers; we offer comprehensive advice to learners, enabling them to make more informed choices; we improve access for employers to skills ensuring it is simplified, efficient and effective; we ensure that more people have the right skills that England needs to stay globally competitive.