SETA

SETA Report following a monitoring visit to a ‘requires improvement’ provider

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Name of lead inspector: Roland White, His Majesty's Inspector

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Inspection date(s): 10 and 11 April 2024

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Type of provider: Independent learning provider

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Address:

First Avenue Millbrook Southampton SO15 0LJ Monitoring visit: SETA, 10 and 11 April 2024

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Context and focus of visit

Southampton Engineering Training Association (SETA) is based in Southampton and provides training for apprentices in engineering. At the time of the visit there were 240 apprentices participating in training, mostly at level 3. 142 apprentices were aged 16 to 18 years old with the remainder over 19 years of age.

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Context and focus of visit

SETA was inspected in July 2023. At that time, inspectors judged the overall effectiveness of the provision to require improvement.

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Context and focus of visit

The focus of this monitoring visit was to evaluate the progress that leaders and managers have made in resolving the main areas for improvement identified at the previous inspection.

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Reasonable progress

Leaders have high expectations of staff behaviour and conduct. Since the previous inspection, they have implemented a change management programme that places equality, diversity and inclusion at the centre of SETA’s activities. They use a pledge and ‘stamp it out’ campaign to communicate their expectations to all stakeholders successfully. Apprentices and staff are encouraged to call out concerns and consequently do so. As a result, staff understand clearly what is expected of them and their behaviour and conduct has improved.

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Reasonable progress

Leaders have introduced helpful processes that enable apprentices to raise concerns, including about staff conduct. The apprentice council and an affinity group for female apprentices provide safe spaces where apprentices can share their thoughts, ideas and concerns. As a result, apprentices can raise issues that leaders respond to quickly and decisively.

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Reasonable progress

Leaders provide staff with plentiful opportunities to develop their understanding of a range of helpful topics related to equality, diversity and inclusion. They support staff to develop their ability to recognise and respond to apprentices' individual learning needs, such as attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and dyspraxia. Monitoring visit: SETA, 10 and 11 April 2024 This helps staff to adapt training and assessment activities confidently so apprentices can fully participate in learning. For instance, staff provide apprentices with dyslexia with printed materials on blue paper and use audio recordings of questions and answers, as opposed to written assessments, to check apprentices’ learning.

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Reasonable progress

Since the last inspection, leaders have rightly focused on building the learning culture at SETA and improving the quality of provision. Leaders help staff to acquire and maintain the skills and knowledge they need to train and support apprentices effectively, including acquiring appropriate assessing and training qualifications, where necessary. Leaders observe assessors and instructors and provide feedback that helps improve their practice. However, leaders rightly recognise that they do not yet make full use of the outcomes from their quality assurance processes to target development activities and address specific areas for improvement.

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Reasonable progress

Most instructors and assessors provide apprentices with feedback that helps them recognise what they do well and how to improve their future work. In training workshops, instructors give apprentices verbal feedback that helps them enhance their practical work. For example, electrical instructors’ feedback supports maintenance and operations engineering apprentices to create increasingly complex electrical circuits safely. Consequently, the standard of most apprentices’ work improves over time. However, in a small number of cases the feedback that staff provide to apprentices is too general or not sufficiently timely. This limits apprentices’ ability to use it to aid future improvement.

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Reasonable progress

Leaders rightly identify that too often apprentices' understanding of the progress they are making is based on their completion of the qualifications that form part of their apprenticeship standard, rather than their accomplishment of the knowledge, skills and behaviours set out in the standard. This limits apprentices’ ability to fully appreciate the progress they are making and accurately identify areas where there are gaps in their knowledge, skills and behaviours. Leaders recognise this and are implementing a new process to review and track apprentices’ progress, but it is too soon to assess its effectiveness.

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Reasonable progress

Staff keep most employers well informed about their apprentices’ progress. Instructors provide apprentices and their employers with detailed and timely feedback on apprentices’ progress while attending practical training sessions at SETA. Assessors visit employers frequently and routinely to talk to apprentices about their progress, and coordinate on- and -off the job training effectively. Consequently, Monitoring visit: SETA, 10 and 11 April 2024 most apprentices make the progress expected and the proportion of apprentices taking longer than planned to complete their apprenticeship is declining. However, too few employers attend review meetings. This limits employers’ opportunity and ability to best support their apprentices. Leaders are taking action to address this, but it is too early to assess the impact.

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Reasonable progress

Leaders provide apprentices in the first year of their apprenticeship with a helpful tutorial programme. This develops apprentices’ understanding of useful topics that broadens their horizons and helps them develop as individuals. Apprentices now benefit from guest speakers, such as the police, who help develop apprentices’ insight into local and regional concerns and how to keep themselves safe in their community. Staff also discuss with apprentices topics such as the risks from substance misuse and how to keep safe while online.

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Reasonable progress

Staff provide apprentices who are later in their apprenticeship, and primarily based in the workplace, with electronic resources on a range of useful topics. These include subjects such as the risks from terrorism and extremism, safeguarding and first aid. However, leaders justly appreciate that these activities are not yet planned and integrated into apprentices’ learning sufficiently well. Consequently, this limits apprentices’ acquisition of wider knowledge and skills.

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Reasonable progress

Most apprentices benefit from participating in conversations about future work and learning opportunities that are available to them. Leaders provide apprentices with access to relevant guest speakers such as marine architects and engineers working in the defence industry who talk about their career journey. Representatives from universities talk to apprentices about pathways into higher education. Leaders are introducing ‘career clinics’ to provide more structured and timely careers advice throughout apprentices’ learning. However, it is too soon to assess the impact of this. Monitoring visit: SETA, 10 and 11 April 2024 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

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Reasonable progress

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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