The Portland Training Company Limited

Further education and skills inspection report

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Inspection of The Portland Training Company Limited

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Inspection dates: 30 November to 3 December 2021

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Overall effectiveness Good

The quality of education Good Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Good Leadership and management Good Adult learning programmes Good Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Not previously inspected

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Information about this provider

The Portland Training Company (PTC) is an independent training provider that was established in 2014. It received its first directly funded adult learning and apprenticeship contracts in 2017 and 2018 respectively. PTC no longer delivers apprenticeship programmes. Its adult learning programmes are funded by the West Yorkshire Combined Mayoral Authority. PTC has recently secured a national adult learning contract with the Education and Skills Funding Agency.

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Information about this provider

During the current academic year, PTC has delivered a range of short employability courses to 204 unemployed adults in construction, logistics, warehousing, retail and hospitality. 30 November to 3 December 2021

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What is it like to be a learner with this provider?

Most learners secure sustainable employment due to the knowledge, skills and behaviours that they acquire on courses. Learners benefit hugely by being referred directly to employers working in sectors where demand for labour is high.

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What is it like to be a learner with this provider?

Learners develop essential employability skills. They turn up on time, attend all their sessions and complete tasks that they are set with enthusiasm.

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What is it like to be a learner with this provider?

Learners from challenging and disadvantaged backgrounds, including experience of long-term unemployment and prison sentences, gain in confidence and self-esteem as they feel respected and valued by tutors and support staff.

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What is it like to be a learner with this provider?

Learners develop a realistic sense of the pace and demands of the working environment through training in facilities that replicate those that they will find in employers’ premises. For example, they practise how to operate the same pick-and- pack machines in the training academy that are used in commercial warehouses.

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What is it like to be a learner with this provider?

Learners gain a heightened awareness of health and safety at work through their training. For example, learners understand the different signage that they would find on building sites and warehouses, alerting them to potential hazards.

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better?

Leaders and managers have developed a curriculum that provides unemployed adults with the knowledge, skills and behaviours that enable them to secure sustainable employment. They offer a range of short, intensive introductory courses to enable learners to gain the entry requirements for the logistics, warehousing and construction industries.

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better?

Leaders and managers work effectively with employers to design courses that address specific skills gaps in local and regional labour markets. Managers run successful sector work academies, with courses designed to meet the requirements of specific employers and to provide learners with guaranteed interviews if they complete the course. Most learners on these courses progress into employment with these employers.

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better?

Leaders and managers have high aspirations for learners, whom they support to find well-paid jobs in growing employment sectors. For example, they are about to start a programme to train unemployed adults to achieve the licences to enable them to drive heavy plant machinery, such as dumper trucks. This will enable these adults to gain immediate employment in different branches of the construction industry.

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better?

Leaders and managers work well with partner organisations to enrol onto courses adults who are furthest from the labour market. This liaison includes partnerships with resettlement organisations working in prisons that refer prisoners who are about to move into bail hostels onto courses. 30 November to 3 December 2021 Leaders and managers use performance information and feedback from key stakeholders effectively to evaluate the curriculum and make changes to it. For example, following feedback from referral agencies and employers, managers removed study towards an employability qualification from their courses and replaced it with the teaching of work-related skills as an integral element of all courses. This has enabled learners to move more swiftly into employment.

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better?

Tutors plan and deliver programmes that build useful skills and knowledge progressively over the duration of the course. Learners studying logistics courses start by undertaking basic fork-lift truck operations, such as moving the truck backwards and forwards, before progressing to more complex manoeuvres in confined spaces, where they learn how to lift loads of different sizes, weights and complexity. As a result, they build the necessary set of skills in readiness for work.

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better?

Tutors use most learners’ individual starting points effectively when planning learning. Learners with degree-level qualifications but no relevant vocational experience benefit from additional practice examination questions. They move quickly through to their final assessment and become ready to progress towards employment. Learners with additional needs receive support outside taught classes. As a result, most-able learners accelerate their learning and those at risk develop their skills and understanding at the same rate as their peers.

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better?

Tutors use a range of effective teaching and assessment strategies to ensure that learners retain what they are taught. For example, in construction, tutors introduce the stages of safe manual handling at the start of the course and then repeatedly check learners’ understanding of the different stages through practical applications over the rest of the course. Consequently, learners know how to lift objects safely by the time they enter employment.

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better?

Tutors assess learners’ work rigorously but fairly throughout the training. Assessment helps learners on logistics courses to understand how they can demonstrate a high level of safe driving skills to be able to achieve the final test. Consequently, those learners who pass the test do so above the minimum expected level of proficiency. Most learners pass their final assessment at the first attempt and almost all the remainder pass at the second attempt.

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better?

A few planned activities within the curriculum lack a clear purpose and fail to emphasise what learners need to know in the workplace. For example, the time management exercise on the warehousing course is repetitive and mundane. It does not help learners understand the importance of planning work schedules and the negative impact on customer satisfaction if these are not followed correctly.

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better?

A few learners are not provided with feedback that helps them to improve their knowledge further. In a few instances, teachers provide brief feedback, but then do not check to see whether learners have understood it. This impedes the progress of a few learners. 30 November to 3 December 2021 Staff ensure that learners receive effective careers advice and guidance to support their journey towards employment. Across all programmes, many learners are placed or linked with employers with the guarantee of a job if they pass the course. Consequently, a high proportion of learners successfully gain employment.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

The owner-director establishes and maintains the company’s effective commitment to safeguarding in the role of designated safeguarding lead for the organisation.

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Safeguarding

Leaders and managers have developed a set of safeguarding policies and procedures that are proportionate to the context of delivering training to adults on short, intensive courses, where their time with the provider is brief. For example, tutors focus on the specific threats from terrorism in high-risk areas in the logistics industry.

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Safeguarding

Leaders and managers address the specific risks that some of their adult learners bring with them when they enrol on courses. They work effectively with agencies who refer newly released prisoners to courses to make adaptions to training rooms, such as placing restrictions on access to computers and mobile phones.

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What does the provider need to do to improve?

 Ensure that all planned activities within the curriculum have a clear purpose to develop relevant knowledge, skills and behaviours that learners can use at work.  Provide feedback to all learners that enables them to improve their knowledge and skills, and check that learners have understood and can apply this feedback in their subsequent activities. 30 November to 3 December 2021

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Provider details

Address Mandale House 28 Bailey Street Sheffield S1 4EH

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Provider details

Provider type Independent learning provider

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Provider details

Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

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Provider details

Main subcontractors None 30 November to 3 December 2021

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Information about this inspection

The inspection team was assisted by the operations director, as nominee. Inspectors took account of the provider’s most recent self-assessment report and development plans, and the previous inspection report. The inspection was carried out using the further education and skills inspection handbook and took into account all relevant provision at the provider. Inspectors collected a wide range of evidence to inform judgements, including visiting learning sessions, scrutinising learners’ work, seeking the views of learners, staff and other stakeholders, and examining the provider’s documentation and records.

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Inspection team

Charles Searle, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Ian Frear Her Majesty’s Inspector Tracey Baron Ofsted Inspector 30 November to 3 December 2021 regulates and inspects to 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 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 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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