Turing Scheme
Government funding to support travel for school groups.
Blue Stamp Travel work with schools and colleges to deliver a variety of trips delivered as part of Turing Scheme projects. We offer Work Experience Abroad, Intensive Language Courses and Tailor-made Tours globally. We also offer VET work placements for development of key skills and work place skills for non-linguists. These can be delivered under the Turing Scheme grants to enable these trips to be undertaken at no cost to schools, colleges or young people. We are particularly proud of the role we play in enabling disadvantaged students to participate in these life changing opportunities.
What is The Turing Scheme?
The Turing Scheme was introduced in 2021 as a replacement for the Erasmus+ programme after the UK’s departure from the EU. Named after Alan Turing, founding father of modern computing, the scheme is available to organisations to apply to on behalf of learners, to deliver educational aims made possible through travelling abroad.
Delivered by British Council and Capita in the past, the scheme is currently operated by the Department for Education. You can find out more about the scheme on the Turing Scheme website.
Funding is available for schools, sixth form colleges, VET / FE institutions and universities. A ‘readiness to travel’ element of funding is additional support is available for disadvantaged young people to enable them to pay for suitable clothing, suitcase, passport, visa etc. Similarly, SEND funding is available as an addition and can support students with specific additional needs.
The Process
- Schools apply in their own name. You can register for the scheme early but applications open in March. They may choose to name Blue Stamp Travel in their application as an approved, and experienced delivery partner – this can help with several sections of the application as you can state that we will take care of a lot of the safeguarding, risk assessment and practical arrangements! The application deadline is around the mid March to early April each year.
- Blue Stamp grant advisors are happy to provide feedback on applications.
- You will find out if you have been successful in your grant application by the end of June.
- ‘Organisational Support’ funding of £315 per student can be released early in the project to fund deposits to secure your project.
- When you have the outcome of your application, you can contact Blue Stamp to start planning. We will provide you with a link for students to enrol to the trip that we plan collaboratively.
- Turing will provide 80% of the trip funding about 3 months before the trip and 20% after the trip returns. Payments from the school to Blue Stamp Travel are made in advance of travelling.
- Students are provided information about their trip via their Babel accounts. Schools are kept informed throughout the process.
- Students and accompanying adults travel.
- End of Project report submitted to Turing.
- Final 20% of award released.
Tailor-made Packages to your Requirements
Each project is tailor-made to suit the requirements of each applying organisation. You may know exactly what you want or you may like some suggestions from one of our knowledgeable travel planners. We have partnered with a number of schools who want projects delivered on their behalf. Blue Stamp are creative thinkers and are happy to explore your ideas with you. Collaboration is key for these projects and we love to work with motivated teachers and school administrators to deliver life-changing experiences for young people.
My daughter has just come back from Hamburg on the Turing Scheme. The organisation and quality of accommodation, language school, and work placement was exceptional. A very valuable experience for teenagers interested in languages, but also for gaining general confidence and independence. The staff at Blue Stamp travel were fantastic with their pre-trip organisation, and the staff in Hamburg very friendly and approachable (but still managed to herd a gang of teenagers effectively). Thanks all!
Hamburg, Germany.
Turing Scheme
We can arrange host accommodation to provide students a fully immersive experience giving the opportunity to learn more about local culture and give you further opportunities to develop language skills. Alternatively, we can arrange hotel or hostel accommodation.
We provide a fully inclusive package including flights, coach & ferry or Eurostar. If your group need UK transfers we can arrange these on request.
For linguists, we provide projects for French, German and Spanish students aimed at developing language skills and workplace skills. We also work in Italy, Spain and elsewhere, providing placements aimed at developing key-skills and vocational courses; catering, hospitality, business, tourism, public services, IT etc.
We can provide other tailor-made packages across the world to suit your requirements.
Usually, when funded by students personally, it is uneconomical to provide a trip for less than about 10 students (particularly as the costs associated with staff have to be shared between students). However, the Turing Scheme funding allocates funding to accompanying participants and is more than sufficient to enable even small groups of 4 or 5 students to travel with a teacher and Group Leader. Contact us for more details.
Funding is available for ‘accompanying participants’. If you would like a group leader we request that you include a Blue Stamp Group Leader in your application for funding and any teachers that will travel with the group. This increases the funding available for the project meaning that students benefit from the full grant allocated to them personally.
Please enquire for further details. Blue Stamp Travel are able to provide a comprehensive package within the budgets allocated by the Turing Scheme grant. There is no cost to the school to arrange a project if funding is granted in full. The cost to students is minimal and may include snacks, souvenirs and some social activities.
Blue Stamp Travel do not charge for any advice or support offered for Turing applications – you have nothing to lose in submitting an application for your students!
Work Placements
Students select from our list of business categories and we aim to provide a placement to match their highest preference.
Work placements are not paid. Placements are designed to provide students with opportunities to experience the world of work and develop skills that they may not be able to in a school, college or university environment; customer service, working as part of a team, time-keeping, independence, work-place specific skills… In addition, students will have the opportunity to practise language skills in a unique way.
The majority of placements are arranged for students to be on their own. This reduces the temptation to speak English during the placement. There are some work places that can accommodate multiple students in different areas (eg front of house and kitchen at restaurant or different rooms at a nursery).
Students will normally spend 5 days at their work placement. Occasionally, due to Bank Holidays, weekday closures or other constraints, some students may work less than five days. In these instances additional opportunities to discover the local area and use your language skills are usually provided.
We aim to provide in the region of 25 hours work over the week. This may vary depending on the nature of the work placement and this will not be the same for every student on the trip as workplace opening hours vary.
