Jarvis Training Management Ltd

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk

p.1

Mr Mike Bracegirdle Jarvis Training Management Ltd Hudson House Speke Boulevard Liverpool L24 9HZ

p.1

Short inspection of Jarvis Training Management Ltd

Following the short inspection on 5 and 6 May 2016, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to report the inspection findings. The inspection was the first short inspection carried out since the provider was judged to be good in June 2012. This provider continues to be good.

p.1

Short inspection of Jarvis Training Management Ltd

Jarvis Training Management (JTM) makes a significant contribution to improving skills in Merseyside and the North West. You and your management team have a clear and ambitious strategy to provide high-quality provision that meets local needs and is responsive to national priorities. You and your management team have maintained the good quality of education and training at JTM since the previous inspection. The accurate evaluation of the quality of teaching, learning and assessment linked to good staff development is improving the quality of provision and ensuring that a high proportion of apprentices and learners are successful in achieving their qualifications. You have embraced and implemented the new traineeship programme particularly effectively. The traineeship programme provides learners with good-quality external work-experience opportunities with a rich mix of different employers. Your staff are

p.1

Short inspection of Jarvis Training Management Ltd

particularly good at placing learners with employers who will support them well; consequently, helping learners develop good employability skills. Since the last inspection, you and your managers have improved your strategy for the delivery of English and mathematics. Training has taken place to improve the skills of tutors, resulting in staff being more confident to plan and embed functional skills into the curriculum. Consequently, the provision for English and mathematics is good, with learners making good progress in improving these important skills. At the previous inspection, strategic links to local priorities was weak. Strong partnerships are now in place with the local enterprise partnership, local authority and external provider groups. Partnership links are enabling you to develop the curriculum in response to the demand for skills locally, particularly in development of the digital technology courses and airport security.

p.1

Short inspection of Jarvis Training Management Ltd

Your good and improved partnership working with employers has been maintained and improved to ensure that courses are developed to reflect their business needs and improve employment prospects for apprentices and learners. A high proportion of apprentices complete their programmes successfully within the planned time. Although apprenticeship success rates fell slightly in 2014/15 they remain higher than the rates nationally. You identified accurately the reasons for the fall and took decisive action to remove underperforming subcontracted provision. This has resulted in a significant increase in the proportion of current apprentices achieving in their planned time. Safeguarding is effective.

p.2

Short inspection of Jarvis Training Management Ltd

Staff and senior managers are very committed to ensuring that learners are safe and respond swiftly and effectively to any concerns. Staff receive frequent and regular training on all aspects of safeguarding. Links with the local safeguarding board are in place, which inform staff training. Your staff manage the required systems and procedures to underpin the safeguarding arrangements very well and they demonstrate in their work a good understanding of their role in safeguarding. Learners feel safe and are aware of the process for reporting concerns. All staff and managers are fully aware of the risk of radicalisation and extremism, and have received comprehensive training on the ‘Prevent’ duty. Tutors effectively plan well to embed the ‘Prevent’ duty into the curriculum and as a result apprentices and learners can confidently articulate a sound understanding of the steps they would take if they had concerns about issues relating to radicalisation and

p.2

Short inspection of Jarvis Training Management Ltd

extremism. Standards of behaviour and the level of mutual respect are very high. The number of recorded incidents of bullying and harassment is low and JTM staff tackle any incidents appropriately.

p.2

Inspection findings

 The curriculum has developed successfully to meet local needs and national priorities with the expansion of apprenticeships and traineeships over the last two years. JTM work closely and successfully with provider networks and local strategic partnerships to identify and respond to skills needs.  On your pre-employment programmes, unemployed learners develop good employability skills that enable a high proportion to secure sustainable employment. Managers work effectively with employers to design vocationally specific courses with employability skills embedded within them, such as good customer service skills for pre-employment learners gaining employment in airport security.  All aspects of the traineeship programme are implemented effectively. Learners benefit significantly from well-organised work preparation training, effective teaching of English and mathematics and good-quality work experience that meets their needs. Learners develop good

p.2

Inspection findings

employability skills. Consequently, the majority of learners progress into employment or higher-level training at the end of their programme.  The improvements to the initial assessment of apprentices and learners skills enable you to gather a very good range of information about their academic ability, pastoral needs and career aspirations. The information is used well by tutors to plan learning. However, targets for a minority of apprentices and learners do not sufficiently focus on their individual learning needs.  An effective strategy to deliver English and mathematics has led to a greater proportion of learners and apprentices improving their skills and most are successful in achieving their qualifications. Apprentices successfully acquire the English and mathematics skills that they need in their job roles. Learners on pre-employment courses improve the speaking and listening skills that they need to be successful at job interviews and in

p.3

Inspection findings

their employment. However, tutors do not always challenge apprentices and learners to develop their skills in English and mathematics beyond the requirements of their programme.  Tutors provide most learners with effective advice and guidance at the beginning which ensures that they are clear about the requirements of their learning programme. However, a minority of apprentices and learners coming to the end of their course are not clear about their next steps or wider career progression opportunities.  Tutors use a wide range of effective strategies to improve the skills of apprentices and learners. Tutors provide detailed and helpful feedback so that learners and apprentices know what they need to do to improve. Consequently, apprentices and learners make good progress in developing good relevant occupational skills and as their personal skills improve they gain in confidence in the workplace.  The quality of the training delivered through the electronic portfolio system

p.3

Inspection findings

is monitored closely and is used well to support learning.  The apprenticeship programme meets the specific needs of employers. Tutors use their occupational expertise effectively to coach apprentices in the workplace, ensuring that they develop an in-depth understanding of good working practice. Managers and tutors work closely with employers to identify the skills that they need and ensure that apprentices develop these skills as part of their programme. Employers value highly the training and support provided by your tutors for apprentices because it meets their specific business needs particularly well. The majority of apprentices progress into employment at the end of their programme.  A thorough self-assessment process enables managers to identify accurately areas for improvement. The self-assessment process uses a wide range of evidence, including observations of teaching, learning and assessment, performance data and feedback from learners and employers.

p.3

Inspection findings

The quality improvement plan has realistic objectives, but data analysis is not used sufficiently well to measure progress towards achieving objectives. The process to collect learners’ and employers’ views is good and supports quality improvements well.  The performance of subcontractors and partners is monitored closely and they receive good support and relevant training. You agree relevant actions with partners to improve the quality of provision when they identify that success rates have fallen below target. You have acted swiftly where improvements are too slow and removed underperforming subcontractors.  The virtual learning environment includes a good range of materials to support independent learning outside training sessions and in the workplace. Tutors effectively use this resource to extend the skills and understanding of apprentices and learners.

p.3

Next steps for the provider

Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that:

p.4

Next steps for the provider

 tutors challenge apprentices and learners to extend their skills and understanding in English and mathematics beyond the requirements of their programme  all apprentices and learners receive effective advice to enable them to be clear about their next step in developing their career  the targets in the quality improvement plan are monitored regularly using relevant data so that everyone has a clear understanding of the progress made in achieving the objectives in the plan   the information from the initial assessment of apprentices and learners is used to provide all apprentices and learners with targets that are specific and individualised so that they all make good or better progress.

p.4

Information about the inspection

During the short inspection we were assisted by you, the managing director, as nominee. We met you, the operations director, your management team, tutors, employers, partners, apprentices and learners. We observed teaching, learning and assessment both at your training site and at employers’ premises. We discussed with apprentices and learners their views on their experience at JTM, reviewed the quality of their work, learners’ progress and the skills they had mastered. We reviewed key documents including those relating to self-assessment, performance and safeguarding. We considered the views of apprentices and learners by reviewing the comments received on Ofsted’s online questionnaires.

p.4