Costs, timescales, first steps and links to other schemes

Cost

Centre of Excellence Approval covers a 4 year period. The cost is dependent on which type of approval is required. Our current costs are:

Centre Approval for both Enterprise Development (ED) and Business Support (BS):

£5000 +VAT

Centre Approval for Enterprise Development as a single approval (to include up to three enterprise product/programme endorsements)

£5000 +VAT

Centre Approval for Business Support as a single approval (to include up to two business support product endorsements)

£5000 +VAT

Centre Approval Discounts - organisations who have already achieved one or more of the following qualify for a 10% discount:

• Matrix
• Customer First
• Awarding Body Centre Approval
  

A SFEDI pre-application visit will cost you £500 plus travel expenses.  The £500 visit cost will be taken off your application fee when you apply.

Timescales

The amount of time it takes is up to you.  Most centres find that it takes about three months from completing the application to achieving recognition as a SFEDI Centre of Excellence.  During those three months they spent about three days completing their application and a day for the assessor’s site visit.  These figures do depend on how much development your Centre needs before it meets the SFEDI Centre of Excellence criteria.

First Steps

The first step is to arrange for a SFEDI visit.  The visit will be informal, informative, interactive and focused on your needs.  You can invite other members of your organisation to attend.  At the end of the visit you will understand:

• how SFEDI Centre of Excellence status can really benefit your centre;

• what the SFEDI Centre of Excellence criteria mean in practice and how you might prove that you meet them;

• how close your centre is to meeting the SFEDI Centre of Excellence criteria and how much development you may need in order to meet them;

• how other standards and recognition processes can help you achieve SFEDI Centre of Excellence status;

• what is involved in the application and assessment process; and

• how much time it takes to become a SFEDI Centre of Excellence and how to use this most effectively.

At the end of the visit you will have:

• an action plan of the areas you need to concentrate on when putting your application together;

• a guidance booklet that includes: 

• good practice ways to meet the criteria and the documents you might use to prove it;

• a description of the application and assessment process and how much time it takes and what it involves;

• a cross reference of the SFEDI Centre of Excellence status and criteria from other relevant standards and schemes;

• the application form and guidance on how to complete it.