Development of a web based online grant application, processing and management system that allows unions to submit funding bids and the Union Learning Fund to manage these through to successful contracts and during the term of the contract.

https://www.unionlearningfund.org.uk/secure/
The external front end system is open to any person to make applications

		Home page	Application form	Contract outcomes

The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) (1) and Trade Unions Congress (TUC) Unionlearn (2) jointly manage the Union Learning Fund (ULF) (3), which is funded by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) (4).

The Union Learning Fund (ULF) was created in 1998 by the Government to provide training in the work place to increase people's basic skills. Each year a new application round opens so that unions can apply for funding to run projects / courses for their members in conjunction with their employers.

An allocation of £15m per year is provided to the ULF to fund new union learning projects.

The ULF was originally managed using a range of electronic documents and paper files. The LSC and TUC unionlearn commissioned the development of a secure web enabled application and fund management system to provide enhanced functionality and improve access to the data.

BOCC successfully demonstrated to the ULF team our ability to provide web-browser based services and existing online secure systems. In particular, BOCC's comprehensive knowledge of working with similar organisations such as The Royal Society (5) to develop and implement a similar online funding system (eGAP) (6) was a definate advantage.

The ULF system is an Internet based grant application and management system. The need for an online system came about so that the ULF team, who are located in three different locations around the country, could centrally manage the information for each application and awarded contract.

The system provides the following overall functionality:

• Bid creation, submission, review and update
• Bid management
• Contract management
• Communications through email broadcasts and extranet facility
• Online reporting

In addition, bidders can optionally prepare the majority of their application in a specially designed Microsoft® Word template and upload it, instead of completing the web page forms online. The Word document's contents are dynamically extracted and imported into the Microsoft® SQL Server database using a special module developed by BOCC. This was considered an important new feature since it provides users with alternative ways to submit their bids.

One feature of the extensive functions available to ULF contract administrators is the outputs and outcomes data extraction and reporting facility.

ULF reporting provides reports in a number of formats:

• Browser web page (HTML)
• Dynamically generated charts
• Portable Document Format (PDF)
• Formatted data exports (XLS, XML and TXT)

A summary report provides a list of outcomes for a specified date range and can be further filtered to show only one round or bid. The detail report also matches the outcome references across all bids for a given date range.

Our creative design team developed an innovative look and feel for the online application interface.

The ULF system was launched on time and to budget in 2004 and subsequent updates are carried out each year.

The ULF system was developed in 2004 for the roll out of Round 8 and integration of projects from Round 7. The system was developed with scalability in mind so that new rounds can be added in future years. Testimony to this has already been the additions of Rounds 9 and 10, with Round 11 due to go live in September 2007.

The ULF team have certainly seen huge benefits in developing their own online administration system.

The main is that they have been able to streamline the administration of the projects. The team members are located in three separate locations around the UK and they can now centrally manage the information for each application and awarded contract.

No paper application forms are now accepted, making the process almost completely paperless.

The ULF system is hosted by BOCC on dedicated secure server. Data is stored in a Microsoft® SQL Server database. The system utilises Microsoft® SQL Server 2003, Adobe® ColdFusion MX 7.0 (7), ActivePDF Server (7) and Microsoft® Internet Information Server as key technologies.

The ULF system has been developed to the following coding standards:

• XHMTL 1.0 (9) standard - compliant to CSS 2 (10)
• XHTML 1.0 style sheets - validated to W3C
• WAI accessibility standards (11) AA
• W3C (12) industry standard guidelines

The application uses SSL technology (13) to encrypt data passed between the user's web browser and the server for privacy. All user access and data validation activity is undertaken on the server, minimising the requirements for the user's browser and computer and thus making the ability to apply for awards available to as wide a cross-section of users as possible. The ULF application and database is hosted (14) securely at BOCC.

Back to the top of this page