Honorary president: Judith Butcher Honorary vice-president: David Crystal OBE

Training funds

• SfEP Training Support Fund
• Whitcombe Training Fund
• Dorothy Mitchell Smith Memorial Fund
• Unwin Charitable Trust Grant Scheme

SfEP Training Support Fund

The new SfEP Training Support Fund provides grants to SfEP associates, made possible by funding kindly provided by the Sue Thomson Foundation. Each award will cover the cost of up to 75% of the fee for an SfEP training course for an SfEP associate close to upgrading to ordinary membership.

Applicants must have belonged to the Society for at least one year and, before applying for a grant from the SfEP Training Support Fund, must have already successfully completed at least one of the following approved basic editing and proofreading courses:

• SfEP copy-editing and proofreading courses
• Publishing Training Centre courses: Basic Proofreading by Distance Learning, Copy-editing by Distance Learning, Copy-editing Skills.

Taking a grant-aided SfEP course will then assist associates in completing the requirements for ordinary membership. Remember: the grants from this fund are for SfEP courses only.

When applying for a grant, please provide:

• your contact details
• the name of the SfEP course for which you want a grant
• a short statement of why you want to take the SfEP course
• details of other qualifications towards ordinary membership that you have already attained.

All this should be emailed to the SfEP Office with the subject line 'SfEP Training Support Fund', or posted in an envelope labelled in the same way.

Successful applicants will be asked to provide a short feedback report after they have taken their chosen SfEP course. When this is received, the grant will be paid. Applicants should also be prepared for their progress towards membership to be monitored by the SfEP after they have taken this course.

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Whitcombe Training Fund (WTF)

This fund was set up in memory of Norma Whitcombe, the SfEP's founder, with the aim of providing money to establish training courses and work experience and mentoring schemes. An appeal leaflet was sent to various publishing organisations and we were fortunate to receive sufficient donations to enable us to set up our first courses.

The money raised has been used since then to develop further courses and to run them in Edinburgh, York and Bristol as well as in London, to pay the mentors and to help develop the accreditation and registration schemes – all of which enhance members' skills and employability.

An appeal for donations to the Whitcombe Training Fund is made each year when subscription renewal forms are sent out.

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Dorothy Mitchell Smith Memorial Fund (DMS Fund)

Set up in memory of Dorothy Mitchell Smith, the Edinburgh/York training administrator who died in 2001, the DMS Fund is intended to help beginners in the profession to fund training. All new associates are given two dated vouchers – worth £20 each – to be used within the first two years of their Society membership. Each voucher can be employed to help defray the costs of one training course in each of these two years.

An appeal for donations to the DMS Fund is made each year when subscription renewal forms are sent out.

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Unwin Charitable Trust Grant Scheme for Freelances and Small Publishers

The Unwin Charitable Trust (UCT) has set up a grant scheme to assist small companies and freelancers pay for training courses offered by the Publishing Training Centre (PTC), which administers the scheme.

Grant amount: £150 per person

Start date: 1 November 2006

Eligibility

• Applicants must have been freelancing or trading as a small publishing company for a minimum of two years.
• Companies must have no more than 10 staff, including part-timers and directors, and not be part of a larger or umbrella organisation.

Restrictions

• Grants are to be used on PTC short courses only.
• Grants are limited to one per individual in a 12-month period. Companies are limited to two grants in the same period, but these cannot be for the same person.
• Grants cannot be allocated once a PTC invoice has been raised (see below).
• Unwin Charitable Trust (UCT) grants cannot be used in conjunction with any other grant or assisted-funding scheme administered by the PTC.

How to apply

1. Make a provisional booking on any PTC short course at least 21 days before the course starts and request a UCT £150 grant at the time of booking. PTC staff may question enquirers to ensure that they fulfil the criteria.
2. Return the course registration form to PTC as soon as possible, to confirm your place on the course.
3. You'll be invoiced for the course fee (incorporating 10% small company or freelance discount) minus the £150 grant, approximately three weeks before the course start.

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