North West Training Council

North West Training Council Unit 33 Dunes way, Wellington Employment Park, Sandhills, Liverpool L5 9RJ

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report:

At the most recent full inspection, the following areas were identified as needing to improve:

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report:

Plan the coordination of on- and off-the-job training for apprentices employed at small employers so that apprentices develop their skills swiftly.

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Provide constructive and developmental feedback to apprentices following written assessments so that they know what they need to do to improve their work.

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Provide appropriate training to tutors to improve their teaching skills in the classroom.

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Provide careers information, advice and guidance so that apprentices know the full range of opportunities available to them.

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Monitor accurately the actions taken to improve areas of weakness in the quality of training that apprentices receive.

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During the monitoring inspection, inspectors focused on the following themes:

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 How effective have leaders been in working with small employers to coordinate on- and off-the-job training so that apprentices practise in the workplace what they learn in training?

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 To what extent do apprentices receive constructive feedback following assessments so that they improve their work?

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 How much progress have leaders made in ensuring that apprentices receive careers education and guidance so that they know the range of opportunities available to them beyond their apprenticeship?

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 To what extent have leaders provided effective training to tutors to develop their teaching skills? Monitoring inspection report: North West Training Council 3 and 4 June 2026

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 To what extent have leaders improved the processes to monitor accurately the quality of training that apprentices receive?

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training? (Curriculum teaching and training)

Too many apprentices working for small employers do not benefit from the opportunity to practise in the workplace what they learn in training. While leaders have focused on working more closely with small employers to improve the coordination of on- and off-the-job training, there are still too many apprentices who do not benefit from this planned approach. These apprentices see differences in how other employers work closely with technical trainer assessors (TTAs) to plan on- and off-the-job training and feel disadvantaged because their employer is not as supportive.

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training? (Curriculum teaching and training)

Most apprentices’ line managers or mentors attend apprentices’ progress reviews. However, in too many instances, TTAs do not work well enough with employers to understand the tasks that apprentices will complete at work to ensure that they have the necessary opportunity to practise their skills. A few year 2 apprentices have experienced disruption to their training and have not had a TTA since December 2025. These apprentices are frustrated because this has slowed their progress.

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training? (Curriculum teaching and training)

Where apprentices do not have the opportunity to practise skills at work due to job limitations, TTAs arrange for them to do this at alternative establishments. However, a few apprentices do not benefit from this opportunity.

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(Curriculum teaching and training)

The quality of feedback that tutors and TTAs provide to apprentices is still too inconsistent. The feedback that staff provide to apprentices is often too general and focuses on what apprentices have done well, rather than on helping them to improve their written work. Leaders have not ensured that all staff have completed training on how to provide effective feedback.

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(Curriculum teaching and training)

In lessons, tutors mostly provide effective verbal feedback to apprentices as they complete activities to consolidate their knowledge. Tutors explain clearly what apprentices need to do to improve. Apprentices respond to this advice by immediately improving their work.

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(Curriculum teaching and training)

Apprentices value the verbal feedback that they receive from their tutors. This helps Monitoring inspection report: North West Training Council 3 and 4 June 2026

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them to amend their written work before resubmitting it. In some cases, this helps apprentices achieve higher grades.

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apprenticeship? (Participation and development)

Leaders do not ensure that apprentices routinely receive effective ongoing careers advice and guidance. Apprentices report that careers discussions in progress reviews are not meaningful. TTAs discuss with apprentices the opportunity to study towards higher-level qualifications but do not talk sufficiently about the wider career options available to them across the engineering sector. Apprentices who are not employed by national employers do not know about the wider range of engineering roles that they could move into. Leaders are in the process of implementing career presentations from guest speakers, so apprentices can learn about their career journeys and wider career opportunities. At the time of the visit, only one of these had occurred.

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apprenticeship? (Participation and development)

Staff provide apprentices with useful advice and guidance at the start of their apprenticeship. During induction, staff provide apprentices with information about the engineering sector. They discuss ways to move into broader roles, such as supervisor or team leader, and the higher-level qualifications that they require to become more specialised engineers. TTAs provide apprentices employed at national organisations with useful and highly detailed information on their career opportunities that are linked to their current employer. Apprentices learn how to move on from being a mechanical engineer and the skills required to be promoted to a chief engineer.

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governance)

Since the previous inspection, leaders have recognised that they did not use information from observations sufficiently to inform the development of staff’s teaching practices. They have recently developed a new observation process to align observations of teaching to the professional development that staff require. Leaders have very recently developed a training academy that will provide staff with targeted training to improve their teaching skills following the observation process. However, at the time of the visit, it was too early to see the impact of this new initiative.

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governance)

Leaders have provided most teaching staff with professional development to improve their teaching practices. They have provided training on topics, such as effective starts to lessons, questioning techniques and how to effectively structure lessons. In the lessons visited, tutors mostly use appropriate questioning techniques to check Monitoring inspection report: North West Training Council 3 and 4 June 2026

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apprentices’ understanding. Tutors recap on previous learning effectively and design useful activities to support apprentices to recall their previous learning accurately. They teach theory about heat expansion and internal energy change in a way that helps apprentices to understand isolated, closed and open systems.

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(Leadership and governance)

Leaders have not made swift enough progress to improve their oversight of the quality of the apprenticeship provision. Although they have identified suitable actions to improve the quality, these actions have not had sufficient impact. Too many apprentices from small employers still do not have enough opportunities to apply their learning in the workplace. Leaders have revised targets in the quality improvement plan, but it is too early to see the impact of their actions.

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(Leadership and governance)

Since the previous inspection, leaders have restructured the leadership team and appointed delivery managers to strengthen the oversight of apprenticeships. However, difficulties in retaining recent employees have slowed progress in rectifying the identified weaknesses. Leaders have very recently introduced a range of quality improvement processes to improve their oversight of training and to strengthen staff accountability. They gather feedback from apprentices and employers and review this alongside performance indicators, such as the numbers of apprentices that are beyond their planned end date. Senior leaders now meet monthly to review this information. However, leaders do not set precise enough actions from these meetings. They do not have a clear enough oversight of apprentices’ progress or the quality of their training.

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Additional next steps

Leaders should continue to work to address the areas identified as needing improvement in the full inspection report.

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About this inspection

This is the first monitoring inspection following publication of the inspection report on 6 to 9 May 2025 which found the provider to be requires improvement overall.

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About this inspection

The provider’s previous full inspection was carried out under the Education Inspection Framework (EIF) at that time. The renewed EIF took effect from 10 November 2025. The areas for improvement identified at the provider’s full inspection have been cross-referenced to relevant evaluation areas in the inspection toolkit for consideration on this monitoring inspection. Monitoring inspection report: North West Training Council 3 and 4 June 2026

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The purpose of this monitoring inspection was not to determine grades for any of the evaluation areas set out in the further education and skills inspection toolkit. The purpose was to identify and report on the provider’s progress in addressing the areas identified as needing to improve since the provider’s previous inspection.

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Lead inspector

Alison Humphreys His Majesty’s Inspector

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needs funding at time of inspection

Monitoring inspection report: North West Training Council 3 and 4 June 2026

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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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