Park Education and Training Centre Limited

Park Education and Training Centre Limited Report following a monitoring visit to a ‘requires improvement’ provider

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Name of lead inspector: Steve Lambert, His Majesty’s Inspector

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Type of provider: Independent learning provider

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Address:

Kingsbury House 468 Church Lane London NW9 8UA Monitoring visit: Park Education and Training Centre, 2 and 3 July 2024

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Context and focus of visit

Park Education and Training Centre 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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Context and focus of visit

Park Education and Training Centre Limited is an independent learning provider that offers apprenticeships mainly in health and social care and teaching assistance. Most apprentices are aged over 19 and are from Brent and surrounding London boroughs. The provider began teaching apprenticeships in October 2020. At the time of this monitoring visit, there were 81 apprentices.

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Reasonable progress

Most tutors and employers work together well to plan apprentices’ trainig. Tutors understand apprentices’ jobs and how the content of the course helps apprentices to develop the skills and behaviours needed quickly to become successful in their jobs. Tutors provide good support to apprentices to make sure that what they learn in lessons meets their needs at work. Apprentices who work mainly with residents with learning difficulties are taught about person-centred care and autism. Others receive specific training on how trauma affects a young person’s development. This helps apprentices to provide the support most suited to their clients. Tutors provide apprentices with helpful research tasks to complete before lessons. Apprentices develop their study skills and use their workplace as the context for the topic to be taught in the lesson. This contributes to apprentices being well prepared for their lessons and makes the topic taught more relevant to their workplace.

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Reasonable progress

Staff ensure that apprentices complete a range of helpful assessments at the start of the course. These include a detailed assessment of what apprentices already know and do in the workplace, as well as English and mathematics tests. Staff get to know what motivates the apprentice to want to complete the qualification and work in the specific sector. However, staff do not then use this information well enough to plan the specific details of the apprenticeship programme for each apprentice. Monitoring visit: Park Education and Training Centre, 2 and 3 July 2024

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Insufficient progress

Leaders and managers have been too slow to implement a personal development curriculum. Only recently have they started to put together a series of different topics they will teach that extend beyond the requirements of the course. These include topics on women’s health, cybercrime, and the environment. However, staff are still developing the training for these topics and the impact on apprentices is currently limited. Staff have started to send apprentices monthly emails on different personal development topics. However, too many apprentices were not aware of these and did not understand why it was important to develop themselves beyond the apprenticeship course. Leaders and managers have not supported apprentices well enough to develop their understanding of how to live a healthy and active life. Apprentices do not understand fully the importance of staying physically and mentally healthy.

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Reasonable progress

Tutors have improved the quality of feedback they give to apprentices on their written work. They provide apprentices with helpful feedback on their practical work. During workplace observations, tutors explain to apprentices exactly what is required to meet the expectations of the qualifications. For example, tutors provide apprentices on the level 5 healthcare practitioner course with helpful guidance and feedback on how to complete the mandatory health and safety checklist. As a result of the feedback they receive, apprentices know how to improve their work, and produce higher quality work over time. Tutors track apprentices’ progress effectively. They review apprentices’ learning from lessons and the workplace, setting targets related to the completion of subsequent assessments. However, many of the targets set by tutors following assessments do not relate closely enough to the knowledge, skills and behaviours that apprentices

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Reasonable progress

need to develop. Tutors do not consistently identify how apprentices can develop their spelling, punctuation and grammar. As a result, at times apprentices make the same mistakes in their written work. Monitoring visit: Park Education and Training Centre, 2 and 3 July 2024

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Insufficient progress

A small number of apprentices have benefited from preparation for their end-point assessment. Tutors provide apprentices with mock tests and practice discussions. As a result, those apprentices who receive support pass their end-point assessment. Too many apprentices do not consistently understand the individual aspects of their end-point assessment. While apprentices studying level 5 healthcare courses have a good understanding of what is needed at the end-point assessment, those on the level 4 children and young people’s apprenticeship do not understand well enough what is expected of them. As a result, too many apprentices do not feel confident about taking their final assessment. Tutors do not ensure that apprentices understand what grades are available to them in the end-point assessment. In a few instances, apprentices are aware that they can obtain a merit. However, apprentices do not know what they need to do to achieve

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Insufficient progress

Staff do not ensure that apprentices’ line managers routinely attend progress reviews. While tutors do keep in touch with apprentices’ managers to update them on their apprentice’s progress, they do not enforce the importance of attending these reviews. This results in line managers not having a full appreciation of the progress that apprentices make or issues that they may encounter. Too many apprentices do not understand the difference between the three-way progress reviews with their tutor and line manager and their other one-to-one meetings with their line manager. As a result, apprentices do not understand why they need to attend the review meetings. Tutors set apprentices targets during progress reviews. However these are often not specific enough. Tutors do not use targets adequately to guide apprentices on the knowledge and skills they need to develop. This results in apprentices not understanding what skills they need to focus on, and why.

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Reasonable progress

Monitoring visit: Park Education and Training Centre, 2 and 3 July 2024

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training?

Since the inspection, leaders and managers have appointed additional staff to help improve the quality of teaching. Through their work, staff have identified that the quality of feedback did not help apprentices to improve. This has resulted in additional training, which is starting to have a positive impact on apprentices’ experience. Leaders and managers carry out monthly observations of lessons. Where observers identify areas for improvement, tutors receive support from leaders and managers and these are followed up at the next observation. As a result, leaders and managers have a secure understanding of the quality of teaching, and staff know what they need to do to improve their teaching skills. Leaders and managers meet monthly with tutors. They use these meetings as a forum for providing support to tutors and for understanding better the challenges they face when working with apprentices. Leaders and managers work continuously to improve the provision and their

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oversight of it. For example, they are implementing an online platform as a single repository for all paperwork, teaching resources and reviews. At the time of this visit, piloting of the system was underway and proving to be positive for apprentices and staff. However, it is too early to determine the full impact this will have on the apprentices’ experience and leaders’ oversight of the provision. Monitoring visit: Park Education and Training Centre, 2 and 3 July 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 training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council

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children’s services, and inspects services for children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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