Brooks and Kirk (Assessor Training) Limited

Brooks and Kirk (Assessor Training) Limited Monitoring visit report

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Name of lead inspector: Russ Henry, Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection dates: 1 and 2 September 2022

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Type of provider: Independent learning provider

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Address:

63 Wide Bargate Boston PE21 6SG Monitoring visit: Brooks and Kirk (Assessor Training) Limited, 1 and 2 September 2022

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Context and focus of visit

From October 2018, Ofsted undertook to carry out monitoring visits to all newly directly funded providers of apprenticeship training provision which began to be funded from April 2017 or after by the Education and Skills Funding Agency and/or the apprenticeship levy. This monitoring visit was undertaken as part of those arrangements and as outlined in the ‘Further education and skills inspection handbook’, especially the sections entitled ‘Monitoring visits’ and ‘Monitoring visits to providers that are newly directly publicly funded’. The focus of these visits is on the themes set out below.

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Context and focus of visit

Brooks and Kirk (Assessor Training) Limited was founded in 2015. It recently began providing level 3 digital marketer apprenticeships, initially for its own staff and subsequently for other employers. At the time of the monitoring visit there were five apprentices at various stages of their courses.

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Reasonable progress

Managers established apprenticeship provision to meet their own need for skilled digital marketing staff. They subsequently offered courses to other local employers. Their long-term aim is to provide high-quality digital marketing training to a small number of local businesses.

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Reasonable progress

Leaders and managers ensure that the principles of apprenticeships are followed. Apprentices are all new recruits with little or no prior experience of digital marketing. Trainers assess the existing knowledge and skills of potential apprentices to ensure that they will benefit substantially from their studies. Managers make suitable arrangements for off-the-job training and final assessments.

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Reasonable progress

Staff develop effective relationships with employers. Managers and trainers take time to understand the needs of each business and adjust courses to better meet these needs. They ensure that employers understand the requirements of the apprenticeship. Trainers and employers review apprentices’ progress together and plan workplace activities that will support apprentices’ learning. However, this process is not always effective and, as a result, workplace learning is not always matched to apprentices’ classroom learning. Monitoring visit: Brooks and Kirk (Assessor Training) Limited, 1 and 2 September 2022 Trainers have suitable occupational and training expertise. They undertake assessor qualifications and benefit from relevant subject updating. They receive training in topics such as the requirements of end-point assessments and how to quality assure training.

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Reasonable progress

Managers have made basic but appropriate arrangements to evaluate the quality of training. These arrangements include standardisation meetings, observations of lessons, and reviews of learning resources. Although managers identify weaknesses, they do not always make improvements quickly enough. They have not yet tackled several areas for development identified in the recent self-assessment report.

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Reasonable progress

Managers and trainers identify most of the knowledge and skills that apprentices should develop. They plan a clear course structure that introduces apprentices to topics in a sensible and coherent sequence. However, they have not yet developed detailed plans for a small number of topics. For example, they have not yet planned training to develop apprentices’ writing skills, which is a key component of the digital marketing apprenticeship.

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Reasonable progress

Trainers make effective use of a range of teaching tools that include face-to-face and online lessons, written exercises, further reading, and video tutorials. Trainers’ explanations of topics are clear and the learning resources that they produce are of a suitable standard. Trainers refer apprentices to useful websites that supplement training and help them to develop their understanding of topics such as HTML. However, too much of apprentices’ off-the-job learning time is unplanned, and apprentices have to identify suitable learning materials for themselves. In a few cases, trainers do not give enough consideration to the best way to teach topics. For example, they teach about solving problems using pseudocode without any reference to actual programming languages and this leaves apprentices confused.

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Reasonable progress

Trainers do not provide apprentices with enough well-planned opportunities to practise their skills and refresh their knowledge throughout their studies. As a result, apprentices are not always able to recall key information about topics they studied earlier in their courses.

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Reasonable progress

Managers have not yet made suitable arrangements to support apprentices who need to complete functional skills qualifications in mathematics. Although none of the current apprentices need to complete functional skills qualifications in English, their written work is often poor, and trainers do not identify errors or help apprentices to eliminate them. Monitoring visit: Brooks and Kirk (Assessor Training) Limited, 1 and 2 September 2022

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Reasonable progress

Managers make appropriate arrangements to ensure that apprentices are safe both when studying and when in the workplace. They have produced a relevant and clear safeguarding policy. They carry out appropriate suitability checks on trainers and provide them with annual safeguarding training that includes topics on radicalisation and extremism.

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Reasonable progress

Trainers help apprentices to understand how to keep themselves safe. They promote basic health and safety in the workplace, explain the safeguarding policy, and ensure that apprentices know what to do if they have any concerns. However, they do not provide apprentices with training in the whole range of topics relevant to them in digital marketing, such as online safety.

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Reasonable progress

Leaders and managers have recently introduced useful well-being reviews that provide apprentices with an opportunity to talk to someone other than their trainer or employer about workplace relationships and any personal support that they need. Monitoring visit: Brooks and Kirk (Assessor Training) Limited, 1 and 2 September 2022 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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Reasonable progress

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Reasonable progress

You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/ , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

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Reasonable progress

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Reasonable progress

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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