Group's Pounds 250,000 grant brings CAT nearer

The establishment of a credit accumulation and transfer system for London has moved a step nearer with the successful bid for Pounds 250,000 from the Government's Single Regeneration Budget.

Matched funding from training and enterprise councils and private sector sources means that a kitty of Pounds 500,000 has been set up for developing a credit-awarding body.

The bid was put together by a partnership of the nine London TECs and a group of education and training providers, local authorities, private sector companies, and public sector agencies. The finance will be available from April for three years, and the system set up is ultimately expected to be self-financing. The credit-awarding body will provide the quality assurance and professional support for credit-based learning programmes. The London Open College Federation is expected to be invited to provide the services of this new body.

A Task Group, which has overseen the London CAT developments since formal proposals were launched last July, will be working on the contractual arangements by which the relationship between the CAB and the LOCF will managed. A consultation document setting out the Task Group's proposals has been sent out to likley members of the London CAT consortium this week. The inaugural meeting will be in March.