Qts-Global Ltd

Further education and skills inspection report

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Qts-Global Ltd Independent learning provider

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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

 Leaders and managers provide bespoke, flexible courses that meet employers’ and learners’ needs.  Leaders and managers monitor learners’ attendance, progress and achievements closely and take swift action to address any concerns.  Leaders and managers use their accurate understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the provision to plan improvements.  Tutors use their considerable vocational expertise to plan and deliver sessions that inspire learners and develop their practical skills and theoretical knowledge.  Tutors provide good-quality and challenging individual coaching for learners.  Learners attend well and complete homework between sessions to accelerate their progress.  Learners who complete their courses achieve their qualifications.  Learners produce work of a high standard that, in many cases, exceeds qualification requirements.  Learners develop their confidence and their personal and employability skills effectively to

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Summary of key findings

prepare them for their next steps.  Learners extend their mathematical skills effectively as part of their vocational studies.  A minority of tutors do not provide learners with sufficient feedback on their written work to help them improve.  Leaders and managers do not ensure that learners benefit from sufficient impartial careers advice and guidance at the end of their courses.  Leaders and managers do not analyse information on learners’ destinations well enough to evaluate the full impact of the programmes.

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Information about the provider

 Qts-Global Limited (Qts) was established in 2011 and is a privately owned training provider with four directors. Its administrative base is in Ripon, North Yorkshire. Qts delivers adult education programmes funded both directly and through advanced learner loans.  Currently, all learners are on programmes funded through advanced learner loans. Just over half are on courses in personal training, with the remainder studying on beauty therapy courses in make-up artistry and nail technology. Personal training courses are currently running at venues in Birmingham, Hartlepool, Newcastle and Sunderland. Beauty therapy provision is delivered at a training salon in Bridlington. Qts also offers courses in customer service, spectator safety and warehousing, but no learners are currently on these programmes. Qts engages with freelance tutors, who deliver the courses in a range of venues.

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What does the provider need to do to improve further?

 Support tutors to provide constructive feedback to learners on their written work to help them improve.  Provide learners with high-quality impartial careers advice and information towards the end of their programmes.  Ensure that leaders and managers record and analyse data more thoroughly to gain a better insight into learners’ destinations when completing their programme.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

 Leaders and managers plan programmes very effectively to meet the needs of employers and learners. They work with employers and partners closely to recruit and train learners to fill job vacancies in, for example, the events management and the logistics sectors. Courses often take place in the evening and at weekends so that learners can study while fulfilling their other commitments.  Leaders and managers have a clear strategy and well-advanced plans to relocate the beauty therapy provision to Sunderland. New premises have been secured in a central location, where demand for these courses is high and there is the potential to attract a wider range of clients than is available in Bridlington. Leaders and managers have recruited staff and learners for courses that will begin in the coming weeks. The new premises include theory classrooms and will provide a central hub to deliver provision in the north of England, reducing the geographic dispersal of programmes.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

 Leaders and managers monitor all aspects of programmes closely and intervene swiftly if they have any concerns. They pay particular attention to the attendance, progress and achievement of learners through managers’ monthly visits to each delivery site and reports that delivery staff submit to the senior management team. They examine tutors’ schemes of work and lesson plans to ensure that they meet the high standards expected and include topics such as British values, English, mathematics and safeguarding, where appropriate.  Leaders and managers provide resources for learning that are of a high quality. They recruit staff who have high levels of knowledge, expertise and credibility in their subjects. Personal training courses take place in well-equipped commercial gymnasia. Beauty therapy resources in the training salon reflect those used in industry. Learners’ workbooks and other materials to support their learning are professionally presented.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

 Leaders and managers have an accurate view of the strengths and weaknesses of the provision and have an action plan that includes almost all of the aspects that they need to improve. They gather feedback from learners and staff and use it to improve programmes.  Performance management arrangements are effective. Leaders and managers evaluate teaching, learning and assessment accurately through lesson observations, and agree appropriate improvement actions. Annual appraisals for full-time staff result in clear performance objectives that managers review at appropriate intervals. Leaders and managers have recently introduced appraisals for freelance tutors.  Leaders and managers implement an appropriate strategy for English and mathematics. When learners wish to take qualifications in these subjects, staff refer them to other providers in the learners’ locality. Leaders and managers require tutors to develop

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

learners’ English and mathematics skills by including the development of these skills in the vocational learning. This approach is successful in developing learners’ mathematical skills. However, a small minority of learners do not improve their writing skills as tutors do not give them sufficient developmental feedback.  Managers ensure that staff provide learners with useful information and advice on career and progression options at the start of their courses. However, they do not ensure that staff provide appropriate impartial advice towards the end of courses, when learners are considering their next steps.  As recognised in the self-assessment report, leaders and managers do not analyse and use information well enough to enable them to understand trends over time and measure the impact of courses on their learners fully. They have suitable arrangements in place to find out whether learners progress into employment or further training on completion of

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

their courses, but do not establish the type of role or learning programmes.

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The governance of the provider

 The board of directors provides effective oversight of the provision. Recently, the company has established a governance group that includes external representation to provide additional scrutiny and support. However, it is too soon to see the impact of this initiative.

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Safeguarding

 The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.  Leaders and managers implement an appropriate safeguarding policy and ‘Prevent’ duty action plan.  Staff complete appropriate safeguarding training to equip them to carry out their roles and update their training each year. The designated safeguarding officer deals with the very few safeguarding concerns appropriately.  Leaders and managers carry out appropriate pre-employment checks on all new staff, including freelance tutors.  Staff cover safeguarding appropriately in lessons and signpost learners to relevant resources, such as a mobile telephone application to provide information and support on domestic violence. Learners have a good understanding of safeguarding and most know how to protect themselves from the risks of radicalisation and extremism. However, a minority of personal training learners have insufficient knowledge of how these risks apply

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Safeguarding

to their everyday lives.  Leaders and managers have good links with external agencies in North Yorkshire. However, links are not as well established in other areas where learners attend courses.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

 Tutors provide good-quality initial advice and guidance and a thorough induction so that learners have an accurate understanding of what their course entails. For example, tutors ensure that learners embarking on nail technology programmes are clear about the theory requirements. They show prospective learners evidence portfolios compiled by previous learners so that they are prepared for the demands of their course.  Tutors plan and deliver well-structured practical and theory sessions that inspire and motivate learners. They use questions very effectively to assess and reinforce learners’ knowledge and to challenge them to think more deeply.  Tutors provide very good-quality individual coaching and guidance for learners. Classes are small and tutors know their learners very well. Tutors set and monitor learners’ completion of homework to supplement their lessons and accelerate their progress.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

Learners value tutors’ patience, particularly when they are struggling to master practical techniques. Tutors are readily accessible to learners between lessons; learners can contact them by text messages, electronic mail and messaging applications.  Tutors are well qualified and have extensive vocational expertise. They continue to work in their chosen discipline and provide positive role models for learners. They use their up- to-date experience well to provide expert demonstrations of practical techniques.  Tutors identify learners’ additional support needs swiftly and provide very effective additional help. For example, learners who struggle with writing are enabled to record oral responses to questions. Learners with dyslexia receive good support to meet the literacy requirements of courses.  Tutors use high-quality learning resources very effectively to prepare learners for workplace expectations. In beauty therapy, salon resources include relevant and inspiring

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

visual displays and a range of high-quality retail products. In personal training, learning takes place in gymnasia that contain a suitable variety of equipment for use with a range of clients. Learners wear corporate uniforms, use personal protective equipment and adhere to the professional standards of behaviour expected in the workplace.  Learners’ portfolios are well organised and contain high-quality assessment evidence. Beauty therapy learners include photographs of their clients before and after treatments to demonstrate their abilities. Learners include their clients’ and their own evaluation of the treatments, which are insightful and lead to improvement.  Tutors provide constructive feedback on practical assessments that helps learners to improve their work. On personal training courses, tutors’ feedback on written work is helpful and specifies how learners can improve. However, tutors do not provide beauty

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

therapy learners with sufficient feedback on the vocational content of their written work.  Beauty therapy learners do not work with a sufficiently wide range of clients. Tutors rely on learners bringing their friends and family members to the training salon for treatments. This limits their experience of treating the diverse range of clients they can expect to encounter in commercial salons.

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

 Learners take great pride in their work. They develop the confidence and interpersonal skills required to provide professional services to personal training and beauty therapy clients.  Learners attend well and arrive at sessions with appropriate equipment, fully prepared for learning. They enjoy their courses and value highly the support that they receive from their tutors. If learners miss sessions, staff support them well to catch up by attending on alternative days.  Learners develop their mathematics skills effectively during vocational sessions. For example, personal training learners use percentages to calculate body mass index as part of their individual programmes for clients and include ratios when discussing macronutrients. Beauty therapy learners calculate the duration and costs of treatments. For learners who intend to set up their own business in the future, tutors provide guidance on profit and loss accounting.

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

 Tutors place a good emphasis on health and safety. They encourage personal training learners to keep a food diary as a way of increasing their awareness of healthy diets. Beauty therapy learners use anti-bacterial products to promote good hygiene and follow safe working practices when dealing with chemicals.  Learners have a well-developed understanding of safeguarding. They know how to keep themselves safe and how to recognise signs of abuse when working with vulnerable clients. Personal training learners learn how to apply this knowledge to practical situations when working with clients as part of their course. Tutors take opportunities to promote British values appropriately in lessons, such as through a discussion on ground rules and democracy.  Beauty therapy learners have a good understanding of the risks of radicalisation and extremism and know how to recognise the signs and report any concerns. However, a

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

minority of personal training learners do not have a good enough understanding of these risks.  Staff do not routinely provide learners with impartial advice and guidance on further learning and employment pathways on completion of their programmes. The information and advice that learners receive at the start of their courses are comprehensive and prepare them well for their chosen programmes.  A small minority of learners do not improve their writing skills during their learning. Tutors do not highlight spelling and punctuation errors sufficiently or provide learners with guidance on how to improve their writing skills.

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Outcomes for learners Good

 All learners who completed their courses in 2017/18, and in the current year so far, have achieved their qualifications.  Too few beauty therapy learners completed their courses in 2017/18. Leaders and managers identified the reasons why learners were leaving their programmes early in one centre and took effective action. As a result, current learners are remaining on their programmes and achieving at a very high level.  Learners make at least the progress expected of them towards achieving their targets, milestones and qualifications. Many learners exceed tutors’ expectations, particularly in their development of practical skills, such as nail techniques.  Most learners develop their confidence and personal and employability skills, which helps them move on to further education or employment. As a result of their studies, they feel more positive about their future lives and careers.  Most learners produce a high standard of work and take great pride in their

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Outcomes for learners Good

achievements. Many learners exceed the expected requirements of their qualifications and demonstrate in-depth knowledge in their written work.

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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 Principal/CEO Kevin Pound

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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

- - - - - 99 - - 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 -

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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 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; these views are reflected within the report. They observed learning sessions. The inspection took into account all relevant provision at the provider.

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Inspection team

Pat Hornsby, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

Jonny Wright 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

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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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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