The Franklin Grants
for Professional Development

The Educators’ Trust

The Trust’s Professional Development Grants are named for the Foundation Master of the Worshipful Company of Educators, Professor Raoul Franklin CBE FREng (1935–2021).

From its foundation Professor Franklin was an active supporter of the Trust and he has left a legacy that enables us to substantially increase the monetary value of our awards and grants.

We are grateful to the family for their support in naming our grants in his honour.

Professor Franklin was Vice-Chancellor of City University for twenty years and an Honorary Fellow of Keble College, Oxford. Obituaries from those institutions are available here: City University, Keble College.

Grants are made available at least annually. Details will appear here so please check back regularly if you or a colleague may be interested.

Applications for Franklin Grants are currently open.

Applications are invited from educators with at least 3 years’ recent working experience, resident in the United Kingdom, who wish to broaden their professional skills. These grants are intended to provide short-duration assistance to practitioners to undertake activities that increase their effectiveness and proficiency and contribute to education more generally.

Applicants can come from any sector of education and training, from early years to lifelong learning, including those who are employed full-time, part-time or are self-employed.

The deadline for the receipt of applications is 30 April 2024.

Applicants should complete and submit a grant application form. Guidance for completion can be downloaded HERE and the application form HERE. (pdf) and HERE. (docx)

“Since undertaking the training [funded by your grant], I have reviewed the training that I deliver to ensure that it covers the subject of safeguarding in a holistic way, sharing all the knowledge that people need to effectively keep children safe. This updated information, increases the quality of the educational package, it increases my confidence in the subject matter and then provides a quality to the people undertaking the course.”

“None of this would have been possible without funding from yourselves to pay for [a Wildlife Trust] to train me and source a set of sturdy reusable metal mammal traps that can used with schools and local sixth form ecological societies.”

“[The grant] has benefited me personally, transforming my thinking in unexpected ways and changing the way I view myself as well as dealing with others. I am more capable than ever of understanding people and interacting with them by being a creator, a challenger, and a coach instead of a rescuer.”

Grant recipients 2023