Technical Professionals Limited

Technical Professionals Limited

Address: Regus – Manchester Airport, Manchester Business Park, 3000 Aviator Way, Wythenshawe, Manchester Airport, Manchester, M22 5TG Unique reference number (URN): 1278669

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Safeguarding standards met

The safeguarding standards are met. This means that leaders and/or those responsible for governance and oversight fulfil their specific responsibilities and have established an open culture in which safeguarding is everyone's responsibility and concerns are actively identified, acted upon and managed. As a result, learners are made safer and feel safe.

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How we evaluate safeguarding

When we inspect providers for safeguarding, they can have the following outcomes:

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How we evaluate safeguarding

Met: The provider has an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not met: The provider has not created an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not all legal requirements are met.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Leaders have successfully embedded a widespread culture of inclusion across the organisation. Leaders, trainers, mentors and learning support officers (LSOs) provide a well- coordinated and unified approach to make sure that all apprentices, including the significant proportion who have barriers to their learning, benefit from an inclusive curriculum.

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Inclusion Strong standard

At the beginning of the apprenticeship, staff swiftly identify apprentices' barriers to learning. They put a range of highly effective support strategies in place that empowers apprentices to build their confidence and self-belief and thrive during their studies. Staff meet regularly with apprentices to review progress and appropriately reduce support. Apprentices with barriers to their learning typically achieve their apprenticeship and gain distinction grades at a slightly better rate than their peers.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Trainers, mentors and LSOs skilfully and confidently adapt their teaching and support sessions to meet apprentices' needs fully. They encourage apprentices to have frequent breaks, arrange for additional time in examinations and provide apprentices with assistive software technologies that make reading and processing information more accessible.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Leaders provide a variety of highly relevant training to trainers, mentors and LSOs to improve support for apprentices. Staff benefit from training on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, neurodiversity, autism, dyslexia and rejection sensitive dysphoria.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Governors and senior leaders have a clear insight into the strengths and areas for development of the provision. They receive timely, clear and insightful information and reports on all aspects of training that they use to challenge leaders and managers to bring about improvements. Leaders maintain an accurate oversight of the quality of the training that apprentices receive. However, they do not consistently use this information to act swiftly enough to rectify dips in performance.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Leaders articulate a very deliberate decision to focus on their area of expertise and provide training to fill skills gaps in the digital sector. They recognise the fast pace of change in this area and articulate high expectations to equip the workforce with digital literacy and data insight to fill emerging skills gaps. Leaders work with employers to revise their curriculum content routinely to stay relevant and current.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Leaders have developed a culture of continuous improvement. They have organisational, departmental and individual oversight of performance that helps start conversations around improvement. Leaders routinely monitor, track and review the progress that apprentices make. They act in the best interests of apprentices to make sure that most apprentices make at least their expected progress.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Leaders value staff highly and prioritise their welfare and wellbeing. They work collaboratively with staff to make the job both manageable and enjoyable. Staff are proud to work at Technical Professionals Limited. They are passionate about helping their apprentices to develop and succeed. Staff benefit from bespoke professional development that keeps them relevant in their fast-evolving sector.

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Achievement Strong standard

Apprentices achieve well. They consistently make extensive progress from their starting points. Pass rates are high. Almost three-quarters of apprentices who complete their apprenticeship achieve merit and distinction grades. They gain highly valued additional industry-standard qualifications and accreditations.

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Achievement Strong standard

Apprentices swiftly develop and apply the knowledge and skills that they need to take on extra responsibilities at work. In network engineering, apprentices learn how to troubleshoot problems, carry out network patching and install access points. Data analysis apprentices use programming skills to produce lists and variables to analyse. They become valued members of the workforce.

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Achievement Strong standard

Apprentices produce theoretical and practical work of consistently high standard. They produce detailed technical documents that are well designed for audiences with different levels of technical knowledge.

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Expected standard

Consistently high-quality training from expert tutors and personalised support from mentors ensure that apprentices develop the knowledge, skills and behaviours to excel in the workplace or move to higher-level study.

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Curriculum and teaching Strong standard

Leaders have a clear aim to cultivate the next generation of technology experts in the digital sector. They have developed a consistently high-quality curriculum closely aligned with the specific skills needs and training priorities of local and national employers.

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Curriculum and teaching Strong standard

Leaders have carefully designed a curriculum that supports apprentices to develop swiftly their knowledge and skills for work. For example, apprentices on the IT solutions technician programme develop their project management skills early in the apprenticeship, helping them to manage challenging workplace projects.

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Curriculum and teaching Strong standard

Leaders provide a highly inclusive and accessible curriculum for their apprentices, a significant proportion of whom have special educational needs and/or disabilities or other barriers to their learning. Managers and mentors work closely with employers to plan and implement on- and off-the-job training, so that apprentices can practise and master their practical digital skills in the workplace. They liaise with line managers on applied workplace projects to help apprentices embed, extend and consolidate the skills they have learned in high-quality training sessions.

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Curriculum and teaching Strong standard

Apprentices benefit from valuable additional learning opportunities and qualifications in data visualisation and generative artificial intelligence to make sure they have the skills needed by employers in the dynamic digital sector.

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Curriculum and teaching Strong standard

Leaders ensure that trainers and mentors are subject experts and have the vocational and technical skills to skilfully teach complex topics to apprentices. Trainers use 'exit tickets' after training sessions to check apprentices' understanding and swiftly correct any misconceptions. They provide constructive assessment feedback, which helps apprentices to improve the quality of their work.

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Participation and development Expected standard

Apprentices receive useful careers information, advice and guidance. Trainers support them to create an online profile and regularly discuss career aspirations in progress reviews. Apprentices research pathways available to them in their specialist sector to better understand their career options and next steps. However, leaders have yet to fully embed high-quality information, advice and guidance throughout the curriculum.

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Participation and development Expected standard

Trainers create calm, welcoming online environments, ensuring that apprentices benefit from safe spaces for learning. Apprentices, notably the significant proportion with special educational needs and/or disabilities or other barriers to their learning, feel very well supported. They benefit from staff taking the time to get to know them well as individuals. Staff provide support and motivation when needed. A few apprentices report that, without this support, they would have left their apprenticeship early due to feeling overwhelmed.

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Participation and development Expected standard

Most apprentices have a secure understanding of life in modern Britain. They learn about mutual respect, tolerance and the democratic values that benefit their community. Apprentices discuss sensitive issues about Israel and Palestine and the potential bias from news reports, fake news, misinformation and polarisation. They discuss recent events in relation to immigration. However, a few apprentices cannot recall what they have been taught about British values.

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What it's like to be a learner and/or an apprentice at this provider

Throughout their training, apprentices benefit from real-world projects that help them to apply their new knowledge and skills. They work in teams to develop their problem-solving skills, such as designing a networking project based on client information, infrastructure and equipment. They learn to include redundancy in the network and subnets for ease of security for internal departments. Apprentices are given leadership roles that help them develop their wider skills.

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What it's like to be a learner and/or an apprentice at this provider

Apprentices use practical 'lab' simulations that help them develop their practical networking skills with more independence. This helps them to develop confidence and fluency in their skills and take on more responsibilities at work.

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What it's like to be a learner and/or an apprentice at this provider

Apprentices benefit from an inclusive learning environment in which they feel confident to ask questions about any misunderstandings or technical queries. Trainers use pauses well after asking questions to give apprentices time to consider and formulate their answers. Apprentices use high-quality teaching resources and recorded sessions to work at their own pace when reviewing learning and completing activities.

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What it's like to be a learner and/or an apprentice at this provider

Apprentices flourish and succeed because of the extremely high levels of support that they receive from staff. They value their training highly and benefit from welcoming online environments that help them to feel safe, relaxed, less anxious and thoroughly understood. This support has helped a few apprentices to overcome their barriers and stay on their course, when it would have been easier to give up and leave. Most apprentices progress to positive destinations, staying in the sector, taking on additional responsibilities, gaining promotions or moving into different roles.

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What it's like to be a learner and/or an apprentice at this provider

Apprentices demonstrate mature and professional behaviours in training sessions and mentor meetings. Trainers establish high expectations for online attendance, conduct, participation, having cameras on and being respectful to others. Apprentices have high rates of attendance to training.

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Next steps

• Senior leaders should use their oversight of data and information incisively to identify and act swiftly on any emerging concerns so that their actions have a sustained positive impact on the quality of provision for their apprentices. • Leaders should further embed high-quality careers education and guidance throughout the apprenticeship so that apprentices develop detailed knowledge of their potential future pathways. • Leaders should continue to implement their plans to provide apprentices with a rich programme of wider opportunities so that apprentices develop and apply their understanding of British values, cultural diversity and the dangers of radicalisation and extremism to their lives and work.

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About this inspection

Following our updated inspection framework, all inspections are now led by His Majesty's Inspectors (HMIs) or by Ofsted Inspectors (OIs) who have previously served as HMIs.

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About this inspection

Inspectors spoke with governance board members, leaders, trainers, mentors, learning support officers, apprentices, line managers and employers during the inspection.

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About this inspection

The inspector(s) confirmed the following information about the provider:

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About this inspection

Technical Professionals Limited (known as LearnTech) is an independent learning provider specialising in digital apprenticeships in software development, AI, data and business analysis, and infrastructure, cyber and networking. It operates nationally. Trainers deliver technical training online while mentors provide both online and face-to-face support for apprentices.

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About this inspection

At the time of the inspection, there were 385 apprentices studying 13 different apprenticeships at levels 3, 4 and 7. There were 182 apprentices studying at level 3, 158 at level 4, and 45 at level 7. The largest numbers were on the level 3 information communications technician, level 4 data analyst, level 7 AI data specialist, level 3 data technician, level 4 cyber security technologist and level 3 IT solutions technician apprenticeships. Most apprentices were aged over 19. Leaders identified 176 apprentices from inclusion categories. There were 64 apprentices without English and 60 without mathematics qualifications at level 2.

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Lead inspector:

Alastair Mollon, His Majesty's Inspector

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Team inspectors:

Kim Bleasdale, His Majesty's Inspector Steven Ingle, Ofsted Inspector Jaqui Scott, Ofsted Inspector

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Facts and figures used on inspection

The data was used by the inspector(s) during the inspection. More recent data may have been published since the inspection took place.

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national average

'This provider' and 'national average' figures are taken from the publicly available DfE achievement rates. Where the DfE have supressed the figures, usually due to small cohorts, this has been mirrored in the Report Card and will be shown by an 'S'.

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Exceptional

Practice is exceptional: of the highest standard nationally. Other providers can learn from it.

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Strong standard

The provider reaches a strong standard. Leaders are working above the standard expected of them.

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Expected standard

The provider is fulfilling the expected standard of education and/or care. This means they are following the standard set out in statutory and non ‑ statutory legislation and the professional standards expected of them.

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Needs attention

The expected standards are not met but leaders are likely able to make the necessary improvements.

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Urgent improvement

The provider needs to make urgent improvements to provide the expected standard of education and/or care. services providing education and skills for children and learners of all ages, and inspects and regulates services that care for children and young people.

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Urgent improvement

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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Urgent improvement

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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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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

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