Eden College of Human Resource Development and Management Studies Limited

Further education and skills inspection report

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Eden College of Human Resource Development and Management Studies Limited Independent learning provider

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Inspection dates 30 January–1 February 2018

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Overall effectiveness Good Effectiveness of leadership and management Good Adult learning programmes Good

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

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Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Not previously inspected

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Summary of key findings

 Working in close partnership with employers and local communities, managers have developed a very relevant programme to widen the participation of adult learners and to meet the particular needs of those already employed.  Managers and staff create an inclusive, safe and welcoming environment for learners, where they behave well, and in which they and staff treat one another with care and respect.  Learners’ achievement of their qualifications is high, with good pass and retention rates.  Trainers and employers work in close partnership to develop good teaching and learning; as a result, learners gain good vocational and technical skills in beauty therapy, care and supporting teaching and learning in schools.  Managers and staff achieve very well the college’s key objective of improving learners’ skills for employment, such as in time management and customer service.  Staff know their learners well and provide them

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Summary of key findings

with prompt and effective support.  Staff use their significant expertise and knowledge of careers well to provide good quality careers advice and guidance at all stages of learners’ programmes.  A high proportion of learners progress to sustainable employment or start their own businesses.  Trainers’ feedback to learners on their written work is too often insufficiently detailed to help learners make maximum progress.  Trainers are improving their learners’ use of mathematics, and their understanding of its relevance to their work, but their development of English skills in vocational lessons is not good enough.  Managers have a sound understanding of the college’s strengths and weaknesses, but quality assurance activities are insufficiently formalised or rigorous to maximise improvement. Studies Limited, 30 January–1 February 2018

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Information about the provider

 Eden College of Human Resource Development and Management Studies Limited (Eden College) has a single location, in Romford, within the outer London Borough of Havering. It has a relatively long history of providing education and training for children and adults prior to receiving a contract with the Education and Skills Funding Agency in May 2015 to provide training for adults with Advanced Learner Loans.  Training takes place at the Romford site and at employers’ premises, some of which are in other London boroughs or Essex, and increasingly at schools or community venues. Substantial vocational programmes, at levels 3 and 5, operate in: business administration, childcare, health and social care, hairdressing and beauty, advice and guidance, internal verifiers and assessors’ qualifications and supporting teaching and learning. Most learners, however, are on care-related courses.

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What does the provider need to do to improve further?

 Managers and staff must ensure that teaching, learning and assessment continue to improve, paying particular attention to consistently applying the best practice of trainers, through an increasingly rigorous college scheme for the observation of lessons.  Trainers must maximise the opportunities for the progress of all their learners by providing helpful evaluative feedback on learners’ written work.  To secure the best improvement, managers must review the current arrangements for their evaluation of the provision and their quality improvement plans. Managers should ensure that key judgements are comprehensive and evaluative, and provide a good basis for detailed and specifically targeted improvement plans.  Managers and staff should continue to implement their agreed strategies to help learners improve their use of English and mathematics, especially the former, in vocational lessons. Studies Limited, 30 January–1 February 2018

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

 Leaders and managers have successfully introduced programmes for recipients of Advanced Learner Loans for adults, skilfully building on their substantial experience in offering a wide variety of other education and training.  With their good knowledge of local and regional employment and training demands in east London and Essex, leaders and managers have developed a good range of qualification courses for adults. These help adults in their current employment to improve their career opportunities, or to help them find employment, and often encourage participation from those who have earlier abandoned their education and training.  The managing director and her staff promote high expectations to learners and with good teaching, learning and assessment learners achieve well and make good progress. There are many examples of learners using their new skills, knowledge and qualifications to gain employment or to set up their own businesses.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

 The college’s business plan accurately describes how leaders and managers work increasingly successfully with employers, schools, local authorities and business enterprise agencies. This ensures that the local training needs of learners and the wider communities are met, and that training is relevant and up to date.  Learners benefit from good careers advice and guidance at all stages of their programmes. The managing director is a careers guidance professional and uses her substantial expertise and experience to ensure that all staff are alert to the importance of this strand of support for learners. As a result, learners find themselves on courses which are right for them, stay on their courses and make good progress.  The personal supervision of senior management and the close contact between trainers and their relatively small groups of learners provide a good foundation for quality assurance. Managers and trainers are aware of any learners at risk and take prompt

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

action to address issues, either for individual learners or groups. For example, they have readily identified the main reason for the poor performance of the level 3 early years educator programme and taken steps to remove risks for current learners.  Formal quality assurance measures require improvement to ensure that the college’s plans to expand its provision are to come to fruition. The college’s own assessment of its strengths and weaknesses is largely accurate but is too often insufficiently evaluative and pays too little specific attention to weaknesses. The actions and ‘milestones’ in quality improvement plans are too broad, lacking precise intermediate targets and evaluation points. The plan for 2017/18 shows improvement.  The scheme being developed by managers for the observation of teaching and learning does not yet have sufficient impact on further improving teaching, learning and assessment. Evidence from this process does not contribute well to the self-assessment

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

report.  The managing director adequately reviews the progress of all staff, identifying areas for improvement. There is an appropriate accompanying scheme for professional development. Studies Limited, 30 January–1 February 2018  Managers and staff are committed to the further development of their learners’ English and mathematics, but their strategy to achieve this is not yet sufficiently successful, either in engaging learners or in their success in examinations. Very few learners have yet taken functional skills examinations, with only eight taking the mock examinations last December. Leaders and managers do not help the promotion of good English when they fail to quality assure college documents, many of which contain errors of text or grammar.  The college meets adult learners’ needs particularly well through its very flexible and tailored programmes. Provision supports the college’s vision for meeting local and

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

regional training needs, for employment especially, and promotes the wider inclusion of learners lost to learning.  In the close and inclusive environment of the college, respect for learners’ diversity is valued by staff and other learners. Learners are aware of the key risks of radicalisation and what to do if they recognise aspects of this, but their knowledge of wider British values still requires development.

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The governance of the provider

 The managing director provides governance and is one of the two directors of the company, the other being an absentee director. Good, well-qualified and experienced leadership is provided and significant professional experiences are used well to serve the best interests of the college and its learners.  The managing director makes effective use of ‘critical friends’, a management consultant and an educational specialist, to provide an external view on the quality of performance and management. There are positive plans in place to reintroduce more formal arrangements for governance, support and challenge in relation to educational performance.

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Safeguarding

 The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.  Staff have extensive experience of provision for both children and adults. Their policies and safeguarding arrangements reflect their good understanding of safeguarding risks and how to address them.  Staff are thorough in ensuring that adult learners are safe. The managing director ensures that comprehensive recruitment checks are completed on staff and keeps thorough and up-to-date records.  The training of staff, to help them understand safeguarding and what to do should safeguarding issues arise, is very thorough and up to date. Managers maintain helpful links with local expert agencies.  Managers and staff continue to make progress with the implementation of the ‘Prevent’ duty. Staff and learners have a sound understanding of local risks and threats of radicalisation. Studies Limited, 30 January–1 February 2018

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

 The large majority of learners are highly self-motivated, aspirational and take their learning seriously. The college’s flexible approach to timetabling and planning, designed to meet the particular needs of these adult learners, ensures that they attend taught sessions regularly and secure placements with good employers. As a result, learners develop valuable vocational and employability skills and qualifications.  Managers and staff ensure that the effective partnerships with community providers enable learners to access volunteering opportunities and placements in their local communities, nurseries and primary schools. Learners gain a strong sense of pride from the contribution they make to their workplaces and often secure permanent employment on completion of their programmes.  Staff use their knowledge and careers expertise well to provide good-quality information, advice and guidance for learners, prior to learning, on programmes and for progression.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

As a result, learners make well-informed choices about their programmes of study, which the large majority successfully complete.  Learners enjoy their learning. Trainers help them to work collaboratively and productively in lessons. They contribute well to discussions, often sharing their placement experiences and the knowledge and technical skills they have gained.  Trainers use effective questioning to help learners extend their thinking and relate new information to their professional practice. For example, a beauty therapy teacher is skilful in ensuring that learners can fully explain techniques, such as applying pigmentation to clients’ eyebrows.  Learners’ understanding of safeguarding and equality and diversity, in the context of their placement activity and the communities within which they live, is good. Recent training for trainers on the ‘Prevent’ duty has increased their awareness, but they currently lack

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

the confidence to be able to develop and support learners’ awareness sufficiently.  Trainers ensure that learners discuss their targets and progress at reviews, often leading to good unit completion. Learners do not always have sufficient personal targets set or reviewed to ensure that they develop the wider range of skills.  Trainers’ feedback to learners on their work does not provide them with sufficient information about what they have done well and how they can improve their work. Trainers frequently use descriptors such as ‘good’ and ‘well done’ when marking learners’ work, without providing them with the information about why something is good, what they have done well and how they can improve. In a small minority of cases learners have not acted on the feedback to improve their work.  Trainers pay insufficient attention to the development of learners’ English skills. In lessons, trainers do not always promote well spoken English, or support learners’

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

development of language through supportive correction, such as the accurate use of plurals. Too often, there is insufficient correction of poor sentence structure in learners’ written work. Studies Limited, 30 January–1 February 2018

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

 Learners enjoy their learning, work hard in lessons and most make good progress to develop their vocational skills and knowledge. Learners’ attendance in lessons, on most courses, is very high.  Trainers ensure that learners produce vocational work and develop skills of the required standard for their qualification. For example, learners in a beauty salon are skilful in shaping eyebrows. Learners on a supporting teaching and learning in schools course, many of whom are parents, are developing their skills and confidence in supporting children effectively while volunteering in schools. As a result, the parents are also now more confident and effective in helping their own children with their homework.  Trainers are significantly improving their teaching of mathematics in vocational lessons. For example, beauty therapy learners on a micro-pigmentation course are developing mathematics skills using callipers confidently to measure eyebrows and draw up a plan for

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

a treatment. However, trainers pay insufficient attention to the development of learners’ English skills and learners’ use of English is not to the best standards, including poor sentence construction.  Successfully addressing one of the college’s key objectives, trainers are effective in developing learners’ employability skills, such as managing time and client expectations. For example, in a beauty salon trainers place a significant focus on ensuring that learners plan their day carefully so that they consider and monitor the time spent with a client in applying a treatment. This ensures that clients do not wait too long for a scheduled appointment.  Learners receive good advice and guidance and are clear about the next steps available to them. Staff use their excellent knowledge and careers expertise well to provide good- quality information, advice and guidance for learners, prior to learning, on programmes

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

and for progression. As a result, most learners either sustain their current employment, secure a job if unemployed or progress into further education. A small number, especially from caring courses, are progressing to higher education.  Learners feel safe and work safely, including the correct use of appropriate personal protective equipment in salons. Learners have a good understanding of how to keep safe online. Trainers have not yet ensured that all learners have a good understanding of British values, such as democracy and the rule of law, as part of their lives in modern Britain.

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Outcomes for learners Good

 Learners make good progress on their courses, attaining their own learning goals, which originally led them to apply for an Advanced Learner Loan. In 2016/17, which was the first year of the programme for the college, many learners achieved their qualification, with very high pass and retention rates.  With the exception of the level 3 early years educator programme, where too few learners achieved, all courses, across the range of levels 3 to 5, had high pass and retention rates. Learners’ retention during the current academic year is good. Studies Limited, 30 January–1 February 2018  Many learners have employment while they follow their programmes of study. Even during this first full year of the Advanced Learner Loan courses it is evident that learners progress in their jobs as a result of their studies, taking on promoted roles, for example. Managers and teachers successfully add value to learners’ capacity to do their jobs well,

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Outcomes for learners Good

with significant emphasis on the development of their practical skills.  Unemployed learners develop their practical and employability skills through work experience and nearly all of these in 2016/17 either gained employment or continued with their further education.  Managers are committed to the further development of their learners’ English and mathematics, but their strategy to achieve this is not yet sufficiently successful, especially in English. Very few learners have yet taken functional skills examinations, with only eight taking the mock examinations last December. Studies Limited, 30 January–1 February 2018

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Provider details

Type of provider Independent learning provider

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Provider details

Approximate number of all learners over the previous full contract year Managing Director Freda Jacobson

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Provider information at the time of the inspection

Main course or learning programme level Level 1 or below Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 or above Total number of learners (excluding apprenticeships) 16–18 19+ 16–18 19+ 16–18 19+ 16–18 19+

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Provider information at the time of the inspection

- - - - - 92 - 32 Number of apprentices by apprenticeship level and age Intermediate Advanced Higher

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Provider information at the time of the inspection

16–18 19+ 16–18 19+ 16–18 19+ - - - - - - Number of traineeships 16–19 19+ Total - - - Number of learners aged 14 to N/A

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Provider information at the time of the inspection

Number of learners for which the provider receives high- needs funding N/A

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Provider information at the time of the inspection

At the time of inspection, the provider contracts with the following main subcontractors: None Studies Limited, 30 January–1 February 2018

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Information about this inspection

The inspection team was assisted by the managing director, as nominee. Inspectors took account of the provider’s most recent self-assessment report and development plans. Inspectors used group and individual interviews, telephone calls and online questionnaires to gather the views of learners and employers; these views are reflected within the report. They observed learning sessions, assessments and progress reviews. The inspection related uniquely to the adult provision at the college, in relation to learners with Advanced Learner Loans.

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Inspection team

David Martin, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Roger Pilgrim Ofsted Inspector Studies Limited, 30 January–1 February 2018 guidance ‘Raising concerns and making a complaint about Ofsted’, which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.gov.uk/government/publications/complaints-about-ofsted . 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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Inspection team

Learner View Learner View is a 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. To find out more go to www.learnerview.ofsted.gov.uk .

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Inspection team

Employer View Employer View is a website where employers can tell Ofsted what they think about their employees’ college or provider. They can also see what other employers think about them too. To find out more go to www.employerview.ofsted.gov.uk .

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Inspection team

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 and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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

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