Select Service Partner UK Limited

Further education and skills inspection report

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Select Service Partner UK Limited Employer

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement Effectiveness of leadership and management Requires improvement Apprenticeships Requires improvement Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement Personal development, behaviour and welfare Requires improvement Outcomes for learners Requires improvement

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Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Requires improvement

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Summary of key findings

This is a provider that requires improvement

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Summary of key findings

 Leaders and managers have insufficient oversight of the quality of teaching, learning and assessment, which has not improved enough since the previous inspection.  The proportion of apprentices who achieve their qualifications is too low.  Apprenticeship advisors do not use information on apprentices’ prior educational attainment well enough to plan learning that meets their individual needs.  Apprentices at non-airport locations have an insufficient understanding of how the risks of radicalisation or extremism relate to them and their workplace settings.  Staff do not ensure that all apprentices have sufficient time for off-the-job training.  Staff do not support apprentices well enough to improve their written English skills, particularly for apprentices whose first language is not English.

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Summary of key findings

The provider has the following strengths

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Summary of key findings

 Apprentices develop a good range of skills and become better hospitality and retail managers as a result of their training.  Leaders and managers, in conjunction with most managers in the individual retail outlets, are very supportive of the apprenticeship programme, because of the value that apprentices bring to the organisation.  Leaders and managers support apprentices well to move into management jobs, following their apprenticeship.  Apprentices value the high-quality workshop sessions. They learn new skills that they apply well to the workplace.

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Information about the provider

 Select Service Partner Group PLC (SSP) is a British-based, multinational company, with its group headquarters in central London. SSP operates catering and retail outlets at airports and railway stations around the world and in most major air and transportation hubs across the UK.  The learning and development team, in conjunction with managers in the individual outlets, provide apprenticeship training at level 4 in retail management to approximately 125 apprentices. Most apprentices are aged 24 and over, and around half of them speak English as an additional language.

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What does the provider need to do to improve further?

 Leaders and managers should implement a rigorous approach to evaluating the quality of teaching and learning. They should then use this knowledge to provide apprenticeship advisors with effective professional development and support to help to improve their practice.  Leaders and managers should ensure that apprenticeship advisors use information on apprentices’ prior educational attainment and what they can and cannot do to plan learning that meets apprentices’ individual needs.  The provider should ensure that leaders and managers have thorough systems to check that apprentices receive their entitlement to off-the-job training.  Staff should ensure that apprentices have a more comprehensive understanding of the dangers posed by radicalisation and extremism.  Leaders and managers should implement a strategy to enable apprenticeship advisors to provide the support apprentices need to improve their English skills.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Requires improvement

 Leaders and managers have not rectified in full the recommendations made at the previous inspection. They do not have a good enough overview of the quality of teaching, learning and assessment, which has not improved enough.  Leaders and managers do not conduct frequent reviews of apprenticeship advisors’ work with apprentices, or of the workshop sessions run by learning and development managers. Managers’ observations of apprenticeship advisors’ reviews with apprentices focus solely on what the advisor is doing and not what the apprentice is gaining from the review. Following their observations, managers do not set apprenticeship advisors’ targets to improve. As a result, apprenticeship advisors do not improve the quality of teaching and learning.  Leaders and managers understand the strengths and weaknesses of the quality of the provision. However, their own evaluation lacks sufficient detail on what needs to be done

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Requires improvement

to make rapid improvements in the identified weaknesses. As a result, apprentices’ experiences at the provider are not yet consistently good.  Leaders and managers provide an insufficient range of support for apprenticeship advisors to help them improve their pedagogic skills. They do provide good support in relation to the company’s services and brands.  Leaders and managers have a clear vision for the development of apprenticeships to meet the company’s long-term staffing needs. Leaders and managers have high aspirations for the apprenticeship programme. Staff at all levels of the organisation understand this vision well.  Leaders and managers have responded well to the issues regarding the low proportion of apprentices achieving their qualification, as identified at the previous inspection. They have rationalised the apprenticeship programme to focus on level 4 apprenticeships in retail management, which fits the business’s need to develop management capacity.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Requires improvement

 Leaders and managers provide apprenticeships that support individuals to make progress in their career within the company. They offer individuals good opportunities to move on to more senior jobs within the company, and to study for degree-level apprenticeships, as their career develops within the organisation.

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The governance of the provider

 The learning and development division, which reports to the executive board of SSP UK, oversees the apprenticeship training programme. Members of the board have a good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the apprenticeship programme and the progress that apprentices make.  The executive board has started to hold senior leaders to account for the performance of apprenticeships within the company. Because of the reports that the board members receive, they have provided additional resources to support apprentices to achieve. As a result, they have a focus on ensuring that senior leaders make improvements that enable apprentices to achieve their qualifications.

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Safeguarding

 The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.  Managers and apprenticeship advisors establish a culture of safeguarding, and apprentices understand the importance of keeping themselves safe. Apprentices receive appropriate training on safeguarding and on the risks posed by extremism and radicalisation at induction, in discussions at checkpoint reviews and on compulsory online courses.  Apprentices feel safe and know how to keep safe, including when they are online. However, apprentices in locations other than airports do not have a sufficient understanding of how the risks associated with extremism and radicalisation apply to their workplace. As a result, it is unclear whether apprentices know the impact these risks could have on them and their workplace, and what to do when they have concerns.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

 Staff do not plan apprentices’ learning based on what apprentices already know and can already do. All apprentices follow a generic series of workshops and online tasks, regardless of their prior knowledge or experience. Apprenticeship advisors monitor apprentices’ progress based on completion of tasks, rather than on the development of their knowledge, skills and behaviours, as specified in the apprenticeship standards. As a result, staff are not sufficiently aware of what new knowledge and skills apprentices have learned.  Staff do not monitor closely apprentices’ entitlement to off-the-job training. They do not ensure that all apprentices spend adequate time undertaking this element of their programme. The majority of managers and apprentices are aware of the commitment to completing off-the-job training, but business pressures often mean they do not achieve it. As a result, many apprentices make slower than expected progress with the tasks they

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

need to complete.  Staff do not plan learning carefully enough, based on the time it takes to complete training in different brands and locations. This is exacerbated by the weak planning of functional skills English and mathematics, and apprentices not always managing their own time effectively. Apprentices and their managers are aware that many apprentices make slow progress, but have not resolved this concern.  Apprentices benefit from their interactions with apprenticeship advisors, who possess a good range of academic and practical expertise, relevant to the apprenticeship.  Most managers are very supportive of the apprenticeship programmes. They review what apprentices learn from the workshop sessions. They spend time coaching apprentices to implement new knowledge and skills in their jobs. Whenever possible, they attend the checkpoint meetings to understand the progress apprentices make and what support

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

apprentices need to develop. They agree actions and target dates for specific activities.  Apprentices prepare well for the checkpoint meetings by making notes on what they have learned and how they apply this knowledge to their work. Apprenticeship advisors question apprentices effectively to check their understanding of topics and ensure they apply these to their jobs. As a result, apprentices become more confident in using what they have learned in their jobs.  Apprentices receive good advice and support from apprenticeship advisors outside their regular checkpoint meetings, through emails, telephone calls and additional meetings. As a result, apprentices feel well supported while on their apprenticeships.  Apprentices talk confidently about how they use what they have learned on the apprenticeship programme to improve their management and communication skills. They feel more confident in prioritising activities and in informing their teams. For example,

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

apprentices email their teams prior to meetings to ask them to prepare ideas on launching new products, and on how to cope with the busy summer holiday season. This ensures the meeting is very productive. Team members feel they can contribute to the business, rather than having someone tell them what is going to happen.

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare Requires improvement

 Too few apprentices have a good understanding of the dangers posed by the risks associated with extremism and radicalisation. Apprenticeship advisors do not make these risks evident in all apprentices’ everyday work and life during their training. Apprentices feel safe, and are safe, in the workplace.  Leaders, managers and apprenticeship advisers do not identify and provide the additional help that apprentices require with their English skills early enough. Apprentices who speak English as an additional language often do not receive the help they need at the beginning of their programme to start their learning effectively. As a result, too few apprentices make good progress towards completing their qualifications in the time planned. Many make slow progress in improving their English skills.  Apprentices are motivated and enjoy their learning. Tutors in workshop sessions are good at explaining topics and making them relevant to different parts of the business.

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare Requires improvement

Apprentices’ attendance at workshop sessions is high. They enjoy working with their peers in groups and learning about other brands and sites, and the challenges they face. Apprentices benefit considerably from the chance to learn about management techniques in hospitality and retail and the wide range of opportunities available in SSP.  Apprentices’ confidence and skill in carrying out their managerial roles improve considerably as a result of their training. They explain clearly how they delegate tasks and manage their time more productively, or communicate with their staff more effectively. They value their training and the way their new knowledge and skill help them to contribute more effectively at work.  Apprenticeship advisors and workplace managers encourage apprentices to be aspirational in their next steps within the company and the retail industry. Apprentices make well-informed choices about their learning and careers. The majority of those who

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare Requires improvement

complete their apprenticeship progress to higher-level job roles as outlet managers. Apprentices benefit from taking additional qualifications, such as more advanced food safety training.  Apprentices make good use of SSP’s online learning resources to develop their knowledge and understanding. For example, apprentices learn to analyse the impact of political, economic, social and technological changes on their businesses. This helps apprentices to develop the skills they need to learn independently.

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Outcomes for learners Requires improvement

 While the proportion of apprentices achieving their qualifications is increasing, it is not yet high enough. The proportion of apprentices who stay on their course has improved and is now high.  The majority of apprentices make slow progress. Leaders and managers do not have sufficient oversight of which apprentices are at risk of not making their expected progress until the apprentices have fallen significantly behind. Leaders and managers have started to remedy this issue through more interventions by operations directors and managers. The impact of these actions is not yet evident.  Leaders and managers evaluate the performance of different groups of apprentices well. As a result, leaders and managers know what achievements gaps may exist between different groups of learners and what they need to do to address these. As a result, no significant achievement gaps exist.  The proportion of apprentices who achieve their functional skills qualification in English

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Outcomes for learners Requires improvement

and mathematics is increasing and is high. The proportion who achieve their qualifications at their first attempt is also high.  Apprentices produce a good standard of work at their end-point assessments. At mock assessments, apprenticeship advisers pose challenging questions to test apprentices’ knowledge and understanding of their presentation. They give apprentices good advice on what they need to do to improve their performance by, for example, including more data in their analyses.  Most apprentices who achieve their qualifications progress to the next level of training or to further education on completion of their programme. Internal promotion to management posts is high.

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Provider details

Approximate number of all learners over the previous full contract year Principal/CEO Simon Smith

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Provider details

Website https://www.foodtravelexperts.com

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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

- - - - - - - - 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+ - 2 - 61 - 64 Number of traineeships 16–19 19+ Total - - - Number of learners aged 14 to -

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Provider information at the time of the inspection

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

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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: -

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Information about this inspection

The inspection team was assisted by the UK apprenticeship manager, as nominee. Inspectors took account of the provider’s most recent self-assessment report and development plans, and the previous inspection report. 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 took into account all relevant provision at the provider.

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Inspection team

Steve Lambert, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Ken Fisher Ofsted Inspector 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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