Inspiro Learning Limited

Inspiro Learning Limited

Address: Inspiro Learning Centre, Rands Lane, Armthorpe, Doncaster, South Yorkshire, DN3 3EW Unique reference number (URN): 51859

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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 established a highly inclusive culture in which staff explore apprentices’ needs thoroughly and sensitively. Specialist staff design wellbeing support plans with apprentices to help them stay well and manage any potential emotional triggers. Trainers conduct routine welfare checks for apprentices with previous experience of the care system.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Staff support apprentices with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) very effectively. Staff carefully record any necessary adaptations for apprentices, planning how and when support may need to be modified in partnership with their workplace mentors. For example, apprentices who have hearing difficulties and work in noisy automotive and engineering workshops, are provided with non-noise cancelling headphones to help improve their focus while enabling effective communication with team members.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Leaders routinely review their inclusion strategy to ensure apprentices needs are identified and met quickly. They monitor the progress that apprentices make closely. Leaders use the information in group profiles, when they visit sessions so that they can monitor the effectiveness of training for those from identified groups. They update their learning support mechanisms annually to ensure continuation of high-quality support. Staff receive training from a qualified SEND coordinator. This helps ensure staff use inclusive language and deal with any emerging needs or barriers as they arise.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Leaders have detailed oversight of their provision, including their subcontracted training arrangements. Senior leaders hold thorough quarterly reviews with their managers, identifying necessary improvements and formulating realistic action plans to tackle them. Leaders have sustained high achievement rates across most of the apprenticeship provision.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Leaders continue to assess the viability of the current curriculum offer and mitigate the risks to their core automotive provision. They have recently acquired new contracts to provide high-quality apprenticeships with other leading car manufacturers. Leaders are careful to only offer apprenticeships in subjects where they have a specialism. Leaders ensure that trainers access a well-planned programme of training to develop the skills they need to teach effectively. Trainers recruited from industry are supported to gain teaching qualifications.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Leaders collaborate very well with employers to plan and teach effective, bespoke provision. For example, leaders have adapted early years apprenticeships for larger nursery chains to ensure the specific needs of those employers are met while also aligning to the apprenticeship standard.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Governors have sufficient oversight of the quality of provision. They receive helpful reports from leaders, which provides them with a useful insight into the actions leaders are taking to improve provision. Governors challenge leaders effectively.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Leaders take account of staff wellbeing. They provide trainers with sufficient time to complete their work. Staff have access to a wide range of support services to help manage their personal and professional wellbeing. However, a few staff struggle with excessive workloads, particularly when travelling long distances to visit apprentices.

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Participation and development Strong standard

Apprentices thrive in their learning environments. Apprentices feel very safe in training and at work, knowing that if they experienced bullying or harassment, it would not be tolerated. Apprentices staying in residential settings during training describe feeling well cared for by staff, including those under the age of 18.

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Participation and development Strong standard

Leaders have very high expectations about the professional behaviours apprentices are expected to exhibit. Apprentices are articulate and behave professionally, always conducting themselves impeccably. Apprentices attend training exceptionally well. They are motivated to be successful in training and at work.

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Participation and development Strong standard

Apprentices develop a very secure understanding of healthy lifestyles and wellbeing. Trainers explore topics such as consent, sexual harassment and risks associated with online behaviour with their apprentices. Apprentices confidently discuss these topics with maturity and demonstrate increased awareness of such matters.

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Expected standard

Automotive apprentices participate in highly beneficial outward bound residential activities, which makes a positive difference to their resilience and team-building skills. Many other apprentices participate in and win awards at prestigious skills competitions and annual award events.

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Expected standard

Trainers embed careers guidance very well through the curriculums. Apprentices know clearly the options available to them and trainers tailor training plans to help them achieve their career goals.

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Achievement Expected standard

Mostly, apprentices make sustained progress from their starting points and achieve their qualifications, although only around a third of apprentices on automotive apprenticeships achieve a distinction grade. Achievement rates in automotive, engineering and early years programmes are well above the national rates. On a few apprenticeships, such as management and hospitality achievement, rates are too low.

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Achievement Expected standard

Too few 16- to 18-year-old apprentices achieve their mathematics functional skills qualification. Leaders have taken decisive action, and several improvements have already been made with a higher proportion of apprentices achieving this year compared to the previous year.

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Achievement Expected standard

Apprentices develop substantial new knowledge, skills and behaviours, which they apply confidently in the workplace. On many apprenticeships, apprentices complete additional qualifications, such as electric vehicle maintenance and advanced driver-assistance systems that prepares them very well for their next steps.

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Achievement Expected standard

The quality of practical and theory work that apprentices produce is generally high. Employers value apprentices’ contributions at work. Most apprentices progress into sustained employment, with many securing promotions.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Leaders have developed ambitious curriculums matched precisely to current and future skills priorities in the motor vehicle, rail engineering, retail, early years and adult care sectors. Leaders work very closely with employers to co-design curriculums. They frequently visit employers to plan content that meets changing workforce needs. For example, motor vehicle apprentices now study qualifications in high voltage system diagnostics so they can work on a wider range of vehicles.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Staff ensure that on- and off-the-job training is well aligned. For example, in the academy for a large motor vehicle manufacturer, staff co-plan workplace activities with employers so apprentices can practise and apply the skills they learn in block release training when they return to work. Trainers typically use effective teaching strategies. They use their vocational expertise and knowledge to explain concepts clearly. For example, trainers in another motor vehicle academy demonstrate engine combustion and air flow effectively using brand new vehicle manifolds.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Staff ensure that curriculums are accessible to apprentices, including for those with barriers to learning. Trainers share apprentices’ support plans and intervention strategies appropriately with other trainers so that apprentices receive a consistent level of support.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Trainers mostly use assessment effectively and provide apprentices with helpful feedback on how to improve their work. However, on a few programmes, such as rail engineering and operations manager apprenticeships, feedback is less effective. On those apprenticeships, staff do not consistently challenge apprentices to deepen and extend their understanding. Trainers do not give level 4 and 5 adult care apprentices precise enough feedback to help them prepare for their final examinations.

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

Apprentices gain useful knowledge, skills and behaviours that improve their performance at work. For example, management apprentices confidently apply learning from topics, such as leadership, communication and project management to real workplace situations, including managing staff performance, resolving conflict and leading change.

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

Apprentices with learning difficulties or disabilities experience a very supportive, understanding environment, where their needs are recognised and accommodated by staff. Apprentices value the prompt identification of their needs during the early days of their training and the practical support strategies put in place by their coaches to make learning accessible.

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

Apprentices enjoy learning about healthy lifestyles. Those attending block release training are provided with healthy breakfasts, lunches and dinners in an on-site restaurant. Apprentices observing Ramadan have a pre-dawn meal delivered to their rooms to ensure they have the energy and hydration to fast through the day.

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

Younger apprentices appreciate the mature way they are taught. They feel respected by staff, who take time to understand their individual workplace demands. For example, apprentices on adult care programmes appreciate the compassion shown to them by trainers who understand the nature of their job roles can be very busy and stressful.

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

Railway engineering and motor vehicle apprentices value being able to meet and interact with other apprentices during block release or planned learning days. They like to hear about other workplaces and find it interesting to learn what other apprentices do at work. This helps them better understand the sector they work in as well as grow in confidence, improve their communication skills and work independently. These characteristics are further enhanced through the many competitions and team events that apprentices participate in.

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

Apprentices are proud to meet the high professional standards set for them by leaders and their employers. They wear professional dress and uniforms with pride, knowing that they represent their employers when doing so. For example, those working in early years settings feel a sense of pride when working for large, well-known and respected nursery chains. They feel part of a larger community and brand that impacts positively on how they feel about themselves.

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Next steps

Leaders should improve retention and achievement on apprenticeships, such as on management and hospitality programmes, so that achievement across all apprenticeships is consistently high. Leaders should ensure that automotive apprentices are consistently well prepared for their final examinations so that a higher proportion achieve a distinction grade. Leaders should improve the quality of tutors' feedback on rail and operations department manager apprenticeships, so that all apprentices have the information they need to improve the quality of their work. Leaders should ensure that apprentices are provided with a sufficiently demanding curriculum, so that apprentices deepen their understanding of the subjects they study and achieve their full potential. Leaders should ensure that a higher proportion of apprentices achieve their mathematics functional skills qualifications, so that 16- to 18-year-old apprentices complete on time.

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About this inspection

Following our renewed 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 leaders, governors, managers, employers, trainers and apprentices during the inspection.

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About this inspection

The inspectors confirmed the following information about the provider:

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About this inspection

At the time of this inspection, leaders offered apprenticeship training in a range of subjects that include health, public services and care, motor vehicle, railway engineering, retail and commercial, and business administration. Apprentices were located throughout the country.

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About this inspection

Around half of apprentices followed an apprenticeship in a motor vehicle related subject at level 2 or 3. Apprentices studied at one of the academy locations depending on which manufacturer they were employed with. These included BMW, Jaguar Land Rover, Volkswagen Group and Volvo.

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About this inspection

Six hundred and twenty three apprentices were studying railway engineering apprenticeship pathways at level 3 or 4. Seven hundred and fifty one apprentices were enrolled to an early years pathway from level 2 to 5. Four hundred and fifteen apprentices were enrolled to an adult care apprenticeship ranging from level 2 to 5. There were 418 apprentices studying a level 3 team leader or level 5 operations management apprenticeship. Two-thirds of

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Team inspectors:

Alison Dennis, His Majesty's Inspector Sambit Sen, Ofsted Inspector Christine Blowman, Ofsted Inspector Beverly Cross, Ofsted Inspector Anne Tyrrell, Ofsted Inspector Alison Gray, Ofsted Inspector Sharron Mansell, Ofsted Inspector Michelle Patel, 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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5939

apprentices were enrolled to a level 3 apprenticeship. Most apprentices were aged 19 and over.

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5939

Leaders were phasing out their use of subcontractors. From September 2025, there were no new contracts to deliver apprenticeship training for subcontractors. Existing arrangements were being phased out based on the length of the apprenticeship.

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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

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Urgent improvement

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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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