CITB (Construction Industry Training Board)

Learning and Skills inspection report Date published: 09 January 2013 Inspection Number: 388432 URN: 51170

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Summary of key findings for learners

 Outstanding learning, assessment and support strategies have a significant impact in maintaining high and improving apprenticeship and other programme completion rates.  Very effective training programmes enable learners to gain excellent craft, personal, social and employability skills and make significant progress relative to their starting points.  Outstanding personal and learning support makes a significant contribution to learners receiving the individual help and challenge they need to make good progress and to be successful.  Learners develop particularly good skills and experience through access to some outstanding and sometimes unique on- and off-the-job training resources.  Leadership and management are highly effective in driving improvements to outcomes for learners. Staff at all levels are clearly focused on meeting learners and employers needs exceptionally well.  Quality assurance arrangements, including those for the management of subcontractors, are

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Summary of key findings for learners

exceptionally effective. Performance management procedures and processes are extremely thorough and contribute significantly to the continuous improvement and success of the provision.  The curriculum is extremely well planned with on- and off-the-job training coordinated especially well. Strong working relationships with subcontractors, together with the exceptional support provided by CITB-ConstructionSkills staff, ensure learners make excellent progress and achieve well.

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This inspection: Outstanding-1

Previous inspection: Good-2 Outcomes for learners Outstanding-1 Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Outstanding-1 Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding-1

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What does the provider need to do to improve further?

 Enhance the good quality of teaching, learning and assessment provided by all subcontractors, to make more of it outstanding. Ensure that teachers and assessors use all available information to plan lessons and assessments more effectively to meet previously identified individual learners needs. Identify and plan relevant discussion opportunities into off-the-job teaching sessions to enhance the promotion of equality and diversity where possible.  Extend the range of assessment methods used to judge NVQ competence requirements to provide a more robust and diverse evidence base.  Extend learners progress review targets to include areas that will help them to develop more personal skills. Make sure that the targets are written clearly and reflect the details discussed when agreeing the targets.  Identify and correct mistakes that some learners make in written work and communications to help to reinforce and further develop their functional skills. Ensure that subcontractors provide

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What does the provider need to do to improve further?

functional skills sessions that contextualise the teaching to be relevant to the construction industry wherever possible.

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Inspection judgements

 For apprentices and advanced apprentices, who are the majority, overall success rates are high and improving, being significantly above national averages for the sector. The advanced apprenticeship success rates are particularly high and improving.  Success rates for learners on adult skills programmes are exceptional. Most learners complete their learning programme within the agreed timeframes. On the most substantial courses such as advanced wood and trowel occupations, success rates are outstanding and significantly above the national average for the sector.  Learning is excellent. Learners develop very good personal, social and employability trade skills. New knowledge and understanding are quickly learnt across all programmes and confidence levels are improved markedly as learners develop and make excellent progress. Learners are highly motivated to master and further develop often complex craft skills required for working

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Inspection judgements

effectively in the sector.  No significant variations in success rates exist across different groups or types of learners. Support for learners is excellent and all learners’ success rates are better than the national averages for the sector.  Most learners start with academic attainment levels at or below level 1. These learners often make better progress than they would expect and achieve at a very high level relative to their starting point.  Nearly all learners remain on the programmes and make excellent progress with their planned learning. Progression rates to higher levels of study or into sustained employment are good. Attendance at off-the-job training sessions is excellent.  For the small number of learners who leave the programme early, most will achieve either a technical certificate, the subject area NVQ, functional skills certificates or a combination of these qualifications to assist their future employment prospects.

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Inspection judgements

 The achievement rates in functional skills exams are outstanding, particularly considering the low attainment levels that many start the programmes with. Employers appreciate the improved maths, English and other employability skills developed by their learners during training that include team working and self-evaluation.  Managers, together with employers, have developed an excellent initiative that provides an innovative approach to apprenticeship training in difficult recessionary times. A shared apprenticeship scheme very effectively provides short term work opportunities for apprentices to develop their construction skills and knowledge with a range of different employers. This also allows construction contractors to meet any local training obligations required as part of their contractual procurement specification. About 90 per cent of the apprentices completing the shared apprenticeship have gone on to gain full-time employment.

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Inspection judgements

 CITB-ConstructionSkills provide very effective programmes designed to meet some large employers’ specialist skills needs. The programmes are highly effective in supporting specialist skills development and lead to good employment opportunities. Learners who complete the specialist programmes often progress onto higher level supervisory or management courses.

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Inspection judgements

The quality of teaching, learning and assessment Outstanding

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Inspection judgements

 An outstanding range of learning, assessment and support strategies enhance the good teaching that learners experience during off-the-job training. These have a significant impact in maintaining high and improving success rates. The range of very well co-ordinated on- and-off the job training and assessment activities enables learners to develop excellent personal, social and craft skills. Learners make significant progress relative to their starting points while on the programmes.  Staff at CITB-ConstructionSkills and at the subcontractors set demanding targets and have high expectations for learners. Many learners demonstrate a detailed understanding of their craft, enabling them to work effectively and efficiently to a high standard with minimal supervision. These skills are exceptional for specialist trade area apprentices, for example in understanding where timber is sourced, how it is cut and what impact this has on the look and finish of the

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Inspection judgements

material.  The pace and quality of learning is outstanding. Highly effective arrangements are in place for improving the skills being developed in very good off-the-job training settings through the practise and application of skills at work. The apprenticeship officers add significant value to the quality of learning, using very effective and well developed training schedules to manage and coordinate learners’ programmes particularly well.  Learners benefit from regular and timely assessment in off-the-job training. Highly effective assessment is carried out on-site through direct observation that recognises the skills and knowledge acquired by learners. In the best examples apprenticeship officers work very closely with subcontractors to facilitate regular on-site assessment. This assessment is well planned and meets the needs of learners. In a small minority of subcontractors learners do not benefit from

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Inspection judgements

direct on-site observation of competence and assessors rely solely on assessing product evidence brought in by learners from the workplace.  Feedback from assessment is good. The good and often outstanding work produced by learners is recognised and celebrated to encourage progression. Written feedback has helpful comments on how learners can improve their work further.  Highly effective developmental learner progress reviews take place frequently both on- and off- the-job. The review of learners’ progress against previous targets and framework qualifications is very purposeful and very effective. Learners’ understanding of health and safety is excellent. Learners are set realistic and challenging targets. However, when they are written down they do not always reflect the detail of the agreed targets. Targets tend to mainly focus on the collection of work-based evidence rather than on developing important personal skills.

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Inspection judgements

 Learners have access to excellent on- and off-the-job training resources and facilities that enhance learning and enable them to develop very good construction craft skills and knowledge. The skills, vocational knowledge and expertise of staff are very good. Off-the-job training centres provide good and often excellent resources that benefit learners, for example specialist resources at the CITB-ConstructionSkills National Construction College are unique and outstanding.  Pastoral support for apprentices is outstanding. The apprenticeship officers provide highly effective and reliable coordinated links between construction employers, apprentices and subcontractors, contributing significantly to the high retention on programmes and the good progress made by learners. They initiate excellent actions frequently to support learners who have been made redundant, require access to types of work their employer cannot provide, or

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Inspection judgements

who are identified as being at risk of falling behind schedule on their programme.  Particularly good information advice and guidance provided by staff at CITB-ConstructionSkills and subcontractors help learners make informed decisions about joining the apprenticeship programme. On-going advice and guidance is provided through tutorials and progress reviews which support learning very effectively. Many learners benefit from a wide range of sector-based enrichment activities and skills competitions that provide additional challenge and motivation.  Equality and diversity is very well promoted and reinforced very effectively in progress reviews. At each review, a topic is introduced and a discussion guides apprentices and enables them to consider meaningfully the implications in the context of society in general and their experience within the construction industry. This however, does not extend into formal teaching sessions

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Inspection judgements

that show little planned consideration for the inclusion of relevant equality and diversity issues or topics.  The teaching of functional skills varies greatly. While most subcontractors deliver the subject very well using construction as a context for learning, in a few it lacks relevance and application to the learners’ programme and craft area. Within the craft teaching observed, too many opportunities are missed to develop learners’ skills in English and maths. Spelling and grammatical errors are not always corrected in their written work by the tutors.

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Inspection judgements

The effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

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Inspection judgements

 Senior leaders and the executive board set a very clear strategic direction and have extremely high expectations and aspirations. Business planning and quality assurance processes are outstanding and focus relentlessly on ensuring that high standards of performance are achieved and maintained. Leaders and managers have an uncompromising ambition to continually improve performance and work tirelessly to ensure the provision meets the needs of employers and learners, locally, regionally and nationally.  Initiatives to engage employers in training and to ensure the continuation and expansion of construction provision in subcontractors’ premises are extremely beneficial. Strong working relationships with trade associations contribute to ensuring the development of specialist training and assessment provision and the innovative ‘shared apprenticeship scheme’ enables continuity of employment for apprentices and contributes significantly to supporting the

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Inspection judgements

development needs of learners and of the industry.  Communication is highly effective and management structures enable high levels of accountability and autonomy. Staff at all levels contribute significantly to meeting business targets while ensuring that the training and development needs of employers and learners are met. Managers invest significant resources in promoting construction education and training that provides highly effective advice and guidance to construction employers and supports the knowledge and skill development of learners.  Performance management arrangements are exemplary. Roles and responsibilities of managers and staff are very clearly defined and management structures are highly effective in both supporting and developing staff and holding them to account for their performance. Staff are involved in setting clearly defined targets relevant to their job role and these are frequently

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Inspection judgements

reviewed by managers using an exceptionally comprehensive range of accurate and timely management information reports.  Contracting arrangements and working relationships with sub-contracted providers are exceptionally effective in driving improvements to outcomes for learners. Close working relationships between CITB-ConstructionSkills staff, subcontractor staff and with employers are excellent and contribute significantly to the highly effective coordination of on- and off-the-job training. Information provided to subcontractors and the support given to them through network meetings promotes best practice and contributes very effectively to raising standards.  Self-assessment is comprehensive and evaluates an extensive range of evidence that supports the accurate judgements made. The process is inclusive and the resulting report and improvement plans are used extremely effectively to target actions to remedy any weaknesses

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Inspection judgements

identified. The work of the provider’s quality team and the support provided by quality advisers contribute significantly to informing the self-assessment process and in raising overall standards of performance to benefit learners’ experiences.  Excellent training and development for CITB-ConstructionSkills staff has enabled all areas for improvement identified at the previous inspection to be successfully rectified. A comprehensive range of training and development opportunities has contributed very effectively to enhancing staff skills to enable them to better meet the needs of learners and employers and to support learners in making progress. The capacity to make further improvement to the quality of provision and outcomes for learners is outstanding.  Strategies for engaging with learners and employers to gain their views are highly developed and the information collected is analysed and used extremely well to inform improvements to

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Inspection judgements

the provision. Learning programmes are planned very effectively and meet the needs and interests of learners and employers exceptionally well. Learner surveys and focus groups enable the views of learners to be taken into account and acted upon although the number of learners who respond to learner surveys is relatively low and feedback is not always provided to learners in a timely manner.  The curriculum is extremely well planned and managed with the work of CITB-ConstructionSkills staff significantly adding value to the learning and development activities completed by apprentices at sub-contracted providers. Apprenticeship officers monitor the progress of learners extremely effectively. They ensure learning programmes at sub-contracted providers and activities completed with employers on site are closely aligned to maximise the learning and skill development opportunities for apprentices. The curriculum meets the needs and interests of

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Inspection judgements

learners and of employers exceptionally well.  Arrangements for safeguarding learners are particularly good. CITB-ConstructionSkills meets its statutory requirements for safeguarding learners. Arrangements for learners staying in residential accommodation whilst attending off-the-job training courses take very careful account of safeguarding requirements to protect and keep learners safe. CITB-ConstructionSkills staff receive good safeguarding awareness training and provide highly effective care and support for learners' safety and welfare during all stages of the programme.  Equality and diversity are promoted particularly well by apprenticeship officers during learner progress reviews. Highly effective discussions take place covering a range of equality and diversity situations that check and extend learners' understanding. The provider is particularly proactive in raising the profile of equality and diversity across the construction industry by

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Inspection judgements

providing fairness, inclusion and respect courses for the sector. It has recently developed a comprehensive equality framework for companies to work towards to recognise their application of, and commitment to, equality and diversity for all working in the industry.

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provider’s performance:

1: Outstanding 2: Good 3: Requires improvement 4: Inadequate

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Overall

14-16 Learning programmes 16-18 Learning programmes 19+ Learning programmes Apprenticeships Other work- based learning Employability Foundation Learning Community learning

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Overall

The quality of teaching, learning and assessment 1 1 1

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Overall

The effectiveness of leadership and management 1 1 1

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CITB-ConstructionSkills

Type of provider Independent learning provider

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full contract year

Principal/CEO Mr Mark Farrar Date of previous inspection October 2006 Website address www.cskills.org

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programme level

Level 1 or below Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 and above

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(excluding apprenticeships)

Full-time N/A N/A N/A 0 N/A 0 N/A 0 Part-time N/A N/A N/A 396 N/A 57 N/A 5

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Apprenticeship level and age

Intermediate Advanced Higher 16-18 19+ 16-18 19+ 16-18 19+ 2,833 1,623 528 728 N/A N/A

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Apprenticeship level and age

Number of learners aged 14-16 N/A Number of community learners N/A Number of employability learners N/A Funding received from Skills Funding Agency (SFA)

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ConstructionSkills:

 Newcastle College  York College  Northumberland College  Sheffield College  Reaseheath College  Barnsley College  Leicester College  Lakes College West Cumbria  City of Bristol College  Askham Bryan College  Simian Risk Management Limited  Wigan and Leigh College  K College  Otley College of Agriculture and Horticulture  Liverpool Community College  Oxford College and Cherwell Valley College  The Bournemouth and Poole College  Barnfield College  Leeds College of Building  Mid Kent College of Higher and Further Education.

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Additional socio-economic information

CITB-ConstructionSkills is the largest provider of construction work based learning in England. The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) was formed in 1964 as a non-departmental public body under the Industrial Training Act 1964. In 2003, they were awarded a licence to operate as a Sector Skills Council for the construction industry with the Construction Industry Council and CITB- Northern Ireland and became known as CITB-ConstructionSkills. CITB-ConstructionSkills delivers a wide range of publicly funded education and training provision, through CITB-ConstructionSkills Employer Services, the National Specialist Accredited Centre and the National Construction College (NCC). The NCC operates from multi-sites across England including; in the East at Bircham Newton, in Ashbourne in association with JCB, in the Midlands at King’s Norton, Birmingham, in Waltham Forest East London, in Ilford at the Tunnelling and Underground Construction Academy

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Information about this inspection

Two of Her Majesty’s Inspectors (HMI) and five additional inspectors, assisted by the CITB- ConstructionSkills Quality Improvement Manager as nominee, carried out the inspection with short notice. Inspectors took account of the provider’s most recent self-assessment report and development plans, and the previous inspection report. Inspectors also used data on learners’ achievements over the last three years to help them make judgements. Inspectors used group and individual interviews, telephone calls and online questionnaires to gather the views of learners and employers; these views are reflected throughout the report. They observed learning sessions, assessments and progress reviews. The inspection took into account all of the provision at the provider. Inspectors looked at the quality of teaching, learning and assessment across all of the provision and graded the sector subject areas listed in the report above.

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Grade Judgement

Detailed grade characteristics can be viewed in the Handbook for the inspection of further education and skills 2012, Part 2:

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Grade Judgement

http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/handbook-for-inspection-of-further-education-and-skills- september-2012

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Grade Judgement

guidance 'Complaining about inspections', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234 , or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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Grade Judgement

Learner View is a new website where learners can tell Ofsted what they think about their college or provider. They can also see what other learners think about them too.

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Grade Judgement

To find out more go to www.learnerview.ofsted.gov.uk or if you have any questions about Learner View please email Ofsted at: learnerview@ofsted.gov.uk achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children's social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work-based learning and skills training, community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Grade Judgement

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Grade Judgement

T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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