Funding Partners
The major funding to equip and staff WCRT has come from bodies like the City Council, NOF, DFES, ERDF and more recently Ufi. Smaller amounts came from The Staffordshire Building Society (Portman), the Birmingham Midshires Building Society and Lloyds TSB Bank. Most sources require a bid to be written and success cannot be presumed.The many enthusiastic individuals who participate in the on-site training and the broadcast output plus the Board of WCRT, all provide essential volunteer support. In purely financial terms this would match the value of any external funding received if calculated at £10 per hour - the standard figure used.
Here are details of our main funding partners:
Wolverhampton City Council
WCRT has a 3-Year Service level Agreement negotiated with the City Council. Mainline Funding covers the cost of two staff posts and contributes to basic consumable overheads, insurance and cost of materials for broadcasting. Output requirements relate to the coverage of community issues on the weekly Wolverhampton magazine programme on BBC WM and numbers of persons annually trained in broadcast skills.Website: wolverhampton.gov.uk
University of Wolverhampton
WCRT runs various modules for the University of Wolverhampton's media related Foundation Degree courses. The University has also hosted a number of political debate programmes live from the main lecture halls, offering students the opportunity to work on large scale outside broadcasts.Website: wlv.ac.uk/
Eurpoean Regional Development Fund
The ERDF has provided funding to develop WCRT’s Training programme and has been sourced via bids to Wolverhampton Network Consortium with the full support of the WRiP (Whitmore Reans in Partnership) local Forum. This supports two further staff posts and the provision of up to date equipment for training. Outputs relating to the upskilling of members of the local community and accreditation via the Open College Network.Website: communities.gov.uk/regeneration/regenerationfunding/europeanregionaldevelopment/
Department For Education and Skills
The Government’s Capital Modernisation Fund and a contribution from the New Opportunities Fund enabled WCRT to set up the UKOnline training facility.
Website: dfes.gov.uk/
UFI
UK Online ICT equipment upgrades, refurbishment and a training promotion event have been funded via a Ufi grant. This was a time-limited bid and related solely to the UK Online function.
From the UFI Website:"Ufi Ltd is the organisation responsible for learndirect, the largest government-backed supported e-learning initiative in the world, learndirect advice and UK online. Ufi was established in 1998 by the current government to take forward the concept of a "university for industry". Its mission is to use e-learning to boost the employability of individuals and the productivity and competitiveness of organisations."
Website: ufi.com
City of Wolverhampton College
The City of Wolverhampton College Considerable “in kind support”, i.e. not cash but service support, comes from the City of Wolverhampton College, for example: ICT and related technical help. This is, however, part of a Service Level Agreement based on the provision of College related output and specifically the provision of the Campus Radio Station WCR1350. The College (via Mediacove) also support the on-line audio provision of WCR.Website: wolverhamptoncollege.ac.uk/
