Lewisham College - Good

2024 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider need to do to improve?

• Provide learners on vocational programmes with high-quality and relevant work experience on those courses where this is not yet in place.
• Identify and implement actions to increase the proportion of learners who complete their courses at West Lancashire and on A-level courses at Newcastle Sixth Form College.
• Ensure that staff take full account of EHC plan outcomes to identify the best way to support learners with high needs on vocational courses.
• Provide effective support for apprentices on all programmes to develop their use and knowledge of English and mathematics.

Newcastle College - Good

2024 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider need to do to improve?

• Provide learners on vocational programmes with high-quality and relevant work experience on those courses where this is not yet in place.
• Identify and implement actions to increase the proportion of learners who complete their courses at West Lancashire and on A-level courses at Newcastle Sixth Form College.
• Ensure that staff take full account of EHC plan outcomes to identify the best way to support learners with high needs on vocational courses.
• Provide effective support for apprentices on all programmes to develop their use and knowledge of English and mathematics.

Newcastle Sixth Form College - Good

2024 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider need to do to improve?

• Provide learners on vocational programmes with high-quality and relevant work experience on those courses where this is not yet in place.
• Identify and implement actions to increase the proportion of learners who complete their courses at West Lancashire and on A-level courses at Newcastle Sixth Form College.
• Ensure that staff take full account of EHC plan outcomes to identify the best way to support learners with high needs on vocational courses.
• Provide effective support for apprentices on all programmes to develop their use and knowledge of English and mathematics.

City College Plymouth - Good

2024 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider need to do to improve?

• Use information about the prior knowledge and skills that learners with high needs have, to plan learning and accurately assess the progress they make.
• Provide effective specialist SEND support, including speech and language therapy, for learners with high needs.
• Set targets for learners and apprentices that are specific and clear about how they can improve their knowledge or skills.

Blackburn College - Good

2024 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider need to do to improve?

• Implement effective, timely and sustainable quality improvement measures across all apprenticeships so that the proportion of apprentices who achieve their apprenticeships is consistently high.
• Ensure that staff give students with high needs enough opportunities to develop their independent thinking skills so that students make at least the progress they are capable of on their course.
• Improve students’ attendance and the proportion of students who achieve higher grades in GCSE mathematics.

Strode College - Outstanding

2024 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider do well and what does it need to do better?

Leaders create a diverse and inspiring curriculum offer that is ambitious for all. Highly inclusive courses meet local and national skills needs exceptionally well and powerfully tackle social disadvantage. For example, staff work in partnership with British Gymnastics to plan and teach the level 2 community activator coach apprenticeship. Apprentices are supported financially to achieve recognised coaching qualifications, helping them to gain work as professional gymnastics coaches and further develop their careers. Leaders provide students with a wide range of course options to suit their existing knowledge and skills, including a comprehensive suite of level 1 and 2 courses. This includes a level 1 automotive maintenance diploma that teaches students the practical skills and professional behaviours they need to start work in a garage, and a level 2 professional cookery technical certificate that teaches students the skills they need to join a commercial kitchen. Online and distance learning courses make training more accessible for adults. They improve their knowledge in subjects such as understanding autism, and children and young peoples’ mental health.

etc.

Bridgwater & Taunton College - Outstanding

2024 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider do well and what does it need to do better?

Leaders create a diverse and inspiring curriculum offer that is ambitious for all. Highly inclusive courses meet local and national skills needs exceptionally well and powerfully tackle social disadvantage. For example, staff work in partnership with British Gymnastics to plan and teach the level 2 community activator coach apprenticeship. Apprentices are supported financially to achieve recognised coaching qualifications, helping them to gain work as professional gymnastics coaches and further develop their careers. Leaders provide students with a wide range of course options to suit their existing knowledge and skills, including a comprehensive suite of level 1 and 2 courses. This includes a level 1 automotive maintenance diploma that teaches students the practical skills and professional behaviours they need to start work in a garage, and a level 2 professional cookery technical certificate that teaches students the skills they need to join a commercial kitchen. Online and distance learning courses make training more accessible for adults. They improve their knowledge in subjects such as understanding autism, and children and young peoples’ mental health.

etc.

Confetti Institute - Good

2024 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider need to do to improve?

• Provide young learners with suitably challenging tasks and activities in lessons.
• Ensure that lecturers of young learners consistently make useful checks on learning during lessons.
• Provide young learners who do not aspire to progress to university with appropriate careers advice.
• Fully implement the new approach to lesson observations for teachers of young learners and adults to ensure that staff benefit from developmental feedback that has a positive impact on their teaching practice.

Derby College - Good

2024 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider need to do to improve further?

• Continue to improve younger students’ attendance so they consistently attend their courses well.
• Ensure all students with high needs study well-planned curriculums so they do not repeat prior learning unnecessarily.
• Make sure that students consistently benefit from demanding enough learning activities and opportunities to revisit and practise what they learn.
• Support those teachers who require development to provide a high standard of feedback that enables students to improve the quality of their work.

Colchester Institute - Good

2024 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider need to do to improve?

• Ensure that level 1 courses are sufficiently ambitious so that students quickly learn new knowledge, skills and behaviours and swiftly move on to higher level study.
• Ensure that reviews of apprentices’ progress include sufficient discussions with employers to identify the knowledge, skills and behaviours that apprentices develop in the workplace.
• Increase the achievement rates on functional skills mathematics courses and on the few apprenticeship courses where these are not yet high.
• Increase the attendance of students at GCSE English and mathematics sessions and the proportion of students who achieve grade 4 and above.

City of Portsmouth College - Good

2024 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider need to do to improve?

• Accelerate the pace of improvements in apprenticeships so that more apprentices achieve their qualifications on time.
• Continue to support curriculum managers to implement appropriate quality improvement strategies in the few weaker areas.
• Make sure students and apprentices have a secure understanding of radicalisation and extremism as well as risks in the local areas in which they live and study.

Easton College - Good

2024 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider need to do to improve?

• Make sure that teachers provide learners and apprentices with high-quality feedback so they can improve their work.
• Make sure that apprentices have regular and frequent reviews so that employers and staff can plan their training effectively and apprentices can complete their training in the time expected.
• Make sure that learners can discuss personal development themes in their tutorials.

Paston College - Good

2024 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider need to do to improve?

• Make sure that teachers provide learners and apprentices with high-quality feedback so they can improve their work.
• Make sure that apprentices have regular and frequent reviews so that employers and staff can plan their training effectively and apprentices can complete their training in the time expected.
• Make sure that learners can discuss personal development themes in their tutorials.

City College Norwich - Good

2024 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider need to do to improve?

• Make sure that teachers provide learners and apprentices with high-quality feedback so they can improve their work.
• Make sure that apprentices have regular and frequent reviews so that employers and staff can plan their training effectively and apprentices can complete their training in the time expected.
• Make sure that learners can discuss personal development themes in their tutorials.

Cheshire College - Good

2024 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider need to do to improve?

• Strengthen quality assurance and improvement processes for apprenticeships to ensure that all apprentices make the progress of which they are capable.
• Improve the use of starting points for adult learners and apprentices so that they develop their knowledge, skills and behaviours swiftly.
• Strengthen the personal development curriculum for apprentices and ESOL learners.

Coulsdon College - Good

2014 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider need to do to improve?

• Increase the proportion of learners who achieve their qualifications, where the quality of teaching is not consistently good, such as sports, engineering and hair and beauty.
• Increase the proportion of learners, including those with high needs, who attend external work experience opportunities.
• Involve more employers in the design of the curriculum.
• Ensure all teachers check learners’ understanding thoroughly and effectively.

Croydon College - Good

2014 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider need to do to improve?

• Increase the proportion of learners who achieve their qualifications, where the quality of teaching is not consistently good, such as sports, engineering and hair and beauty.
• Increase the proportion of learners, including those with high needs, who attend external work experience opportunities.
• Involve more employers in the design of the curriculum.
• Ensure all teachers check learners’ understanding thoroughly and effectively.

City of Glasgow College

2024 Annual Engagement Visit

The following areas for improvement were identified and discussed with the senior managers:

• Learner success rates on part-time programmes have decreased.
• Overall success rates for almost all key groups of learners (learners who are care-experienced, from an ethnic minority background, identify as male on FE and higher education programmes, and identify as female on FE programmes) have decreased.
• Some programmes, predominantly at FE level, do not always meet the diverse needs of all learners. These programmes have high rates of learner withdrawal and low rates of success.

Birmingham Adult Education Service - Good

2024 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider need to do to improve further?

• Ensure teachers use information about what learners already know and can do at the start of their course to set meaningful targets so that learners understand what they need to do to improve.
• Ensure that learners understand how to protect and keep themselves safe in their local areas.
• Ensure that learners whose courses are designed to support them into employment receive careers education, information, advice and guidance so that they understand what they need to do to reach and succeed in their chosen careers.

Ayrshire College

2024 Annual Engagement Visit Report

The following areas for improvement were identified and discussed with the senior managers:

• In some curriculum areas the delivery of core skills is not sufficiently contextualised to ensure it is relevant and engaging for learners.
• Most curriculum teams have not yet fully embedded the development of meta skills within their programmes. This is limiting learner awareness of the importance of these skills and their ability to identify and promote them to prospective employers.
• Learner participation rates in the Student Engagement and Satisfaction Survey (SESS) are low.

Abingdon & Witney College - Good

2024 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider need to do to improve?

• Further develop enrichment opportunities for learners at the Witney and Common Lees campuses.
• Make sure leaders have clear and robust oversight of the quality of subcontracted provision.

Buckinghamshire Adult Learning - Good

2024 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider need to do to improve further?

• Make sure that a higher proportion of young learners access opportunities to develop their wider interests and talents.
• Make sure apprentices receive rapid support to stay or get back on track.

Barnfield College - Good

2024 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider need to do to improve?

• Increase the proportion of installation and maintenance electrician apprentices who complete their apprenticeship and achieve merit and distinction grades in their final assessments.
• Continue to improve how teachers prepare learners for external examinations on vocational and GCSE mathematics courses.

Riverside College - Outstanding

2024 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider do well and what does it need to do better?

Senior leaders and managers have a very clear rationale for their aspirational curriculums. Leaders carefully consider the courses they provide for students, apprentices and those who have high needs. They have a strong sense of community and are passionate to provide life-changing opportunities for young people and adults, many from disadvantaged backgrounds, to achieve their personal and career goals. They work collaboratively with their subcontractors to provide training for students, including for those that are the furthest from employment and education, to prepare them for work, further learning, apprenticeships and their next steps.

etc.

Cronton Sixth Form College - Outstanding

2024 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider do well and what does it need to do better?

Senior leaders and managers have a very clear rationale for their aspirational curriculums. Leaders carefully consider the courses they provide for students, apprentices and those who have high needs. They have a strong sense of community and are passionate to provide life-changing opportunities for young people and adults, many from disadvantaged backgrounds, to achieve their personal and career goals. They work collaboratively with their subcontractors to provide training for students, including for those that are the furthest from employment and education, to prepare them for work, further learning, apprenticeships and their next steps.

etc.

Cirencester College - Requires Improvement

2024 Full Inspection Report

What does the provider need to do to improve?

• Increase the number of young learners who stay on their course, and the number of young learners and learners with high needs who pass their qualifications.
• Improve initial advice and guidance for learners so that they choose and study the right course.
• Improve the assessment of what learners know and can do when they begin studying their course, and the ongoing assessments of learners’ knowledge and skills so that teachers and learners know whether they are making the progress of which they are capable, can identify their gaps in knowledge and can restructure the curriculum accordingly.
• Increase the number of young learners and learners with high needs taking part in high-quality work experience placements so that those who plan to move into employment are suitably prepared.
• Increase the attendance of young learners and learners with high needs for all parts of their programme, including GCSE English and mathematics classes and tutorial sessions.
• Increase and improve stakeholder engagement in the curriculum design for education programmes for young people and learners with high needs so that learners develop industry-relevant skills.
• Improve the focus of curriculum reports so that governors can more robustly challenge leaders on the progress made by learners in their learning and their achievement of qualifications.