Caunton Engineering Limited

Caunton Engineering Limited

Address: Caunton House, 2 Coombe Road, Moorgreen Industrial Park, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, NG16 3SU Unique reference number (URN): 2539270

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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 Expected standard

Leaders make apprentices feel welcome and included and take steps to help them feel safe to disclose their additional needs. For example, staff only ask apprentices to disclose their needs once they have been accepted on the programme so that they do not worry about jeopardising their chances of acceptance.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Staff work with small groups of apprentices whom they quickly get to know well. They assess apprentices’ English and mathematics skills and try to understand any barriers to learning they face. Where necessary, trainers promptly adjust their teaching and provide pastoral help. Apprentices rightly value the support and guidance they receive, which helps them to make good progress.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Because they know their apprentices very well, staff notice changes in their behaviour that may indicate an emerging concern about their wellbeing or learning. They help apprentices to overcome any temporary barriers to learning, such as ill health or injury.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Discussions with apprentices about their support needs are informal and staff maintain only limited records, which risks problems being missed or support not being reviewed systematically. Although staff recognise many forms of additional need, they have not received training to help them identify and understand the range of challenges apprentices may face.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Leaders conduct a range of activities to evaluate the quality of their apprenticeship programme. As a result, they have a broadly accurate understanding of its strengths and areas for development. However, processes for evaluating teaching focus too much on compliance with awarding organisation requirements and not enough on the pedagogical skills of trainers. This limits the extent to which leaders can improve teaching.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Senior leaders who have responsibility for oversight of the apprenticeship programme know how well apprentices develop their knowledge and skills. They work closely with apprenticeship staff to make improvements and provide them with suitable challenge across a range of themes. They are mindful of the workload and wellbeing of staff, who feel valued and trusted. Leaders make decisions in the best interests of apprentices. For example, they have recently invested heavily in refurbishing and re-equipping their academy so that apprentices have access to very high-quality resources. Leaders elicit feedback from apprentices’ line managers about how well they are doing at work so that they can adjust training programmes and the support they provide to apprentices. This helps ensure that all apprentices have a positive learning experience.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Apprenticeship staff benefit from a substantial amount of professional training. They complete teaching, assessor and internal verifier qualifications. Trainers have many opportunities to update their technical skills. However, leaders do not do enough to identify specific aspects of trainers’ teaching practice that might be improved, and as a result trainers do not undertake relevant ongoing training to improve their teaching skills.

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Achievement Strong standard

Apprentices, including the most disadvantaged, make extensive progress from their starting points. Most complete their apprenticeship in a timely manner.

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Achievement Strong standard

Apprentices produce a high standard of practical and written work. For example, they take measurements from engineering drawings, working to fine tolerances, to ensure that brackets are correctly located on steel beam structures.

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Achievement Strong standard

Apprentices complete additional qualifications that help them to develop their skills beyond the basic requirements of the course. For example, leaders have introduced a fusion welding qualification that ensures apprentices' work meets high international standards.

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Achievement Strong standard

Apprentices develop their digital, English and mathematical skills well. Apprentices who do not have the required English and mathematics qualifications at the start of their apprenticeship achieve functional skills qualifications.

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Achievement Strong standard

Apprentices are very well prepared for their next steps. Most remain in employment on completion of their studies. Many past apprentices have progressed into leadership or technical roles with the company.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Leaders have designed a curriculum to meet the skills shortage in the engineering sector. They recognise that apprentices are the future talent that will support them to sustain and grow their business.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Leaders frequently review the curriculum, making sure that it reflects the state of the industry and the current needs of the business. They incorporate an appropriate range of skills and knowledge, ranging from fundamental employability skills to complex arc welding techniques. Leaders consider the sequencing of the curriculum to ensure it helps apprentices to progressively develop their knowledge and skills. For example, they now weave mathematics themes into a range of other topics before bringing everything together in a mathematics module in the third year.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Academy staff know apprentices very well and adapt their teaching so that all apprentices make good progress. They use their extensive expertise well to explain complex fabricating techniques, such as arc and oxy-acetylene welding using the academy’s excellent, modern equipment. This helps apprentices to develop their knowledge and skills quickly.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Trainers frequently assess apprentices’ work. They provide constructive feedback that helps apprentices to make improvements. They correct errors with apprentices’ spelling, punctuation and grammar, and this helps them to improve their writing over time.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Trainers work closely with workplace mentors to coordinate on- and off-the-job training. Apprentices are able to quickly implement in the workplace the welding and fabrication skills they learn in the training academy.

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Participation and development Expected standard

Leaders have high expectations for their apprentices. They want to develop employees who are not only good at their current job, but who possess the skills and personal qualities they need to move into senior or technical roles and to study at a higher level.

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Participation and development Expected standard

Apprentices behave in a consistently professional manner. They are respectful towards each other and their trainers. They attend well and arrive at lessons prepared to work hard and learn.

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Participation and development Expected standard

Leaders provide apprentices with opportunities to participate in activities that go beyond vocational topics, including activities that support local communities and charities. For example, apprentices worked with the charity Men in Sheds to construct a steel frame as a base for a large shed.

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Participation and development Expected standard

Apprentices undertake training on topics such as staying safe online, the risks of radicalisation, and sexual harassment. They know to whom they should report concerns and on the rare occasions when misconduct, including bullying, occurs, staff deal with it promptly and effectively. Apprentices learn how to keep themselves physically safe in what is a potentially dangerous work environment. Trainers provide apprentices with opportunities to discuss their future careers. Most apprentices remain with Caunton Engineering, although staff encourage them to consider other options.

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

Apprentices, including those who experience barriers to learning, develop their knowledge and skills very well, regardless of their starting points. They grow in confidence as a result. All of those apprentices who complete the course pass their qualifications. They remain with Caunton Engineering and become valued employees. In due course, many progress into more senior or technical positions in the company.

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

Apprentices value the support and encouragement that they receive from academy staff and work colleagues. Academy staff quickly get to know their apprentices very well. They are alert to changes in behaviour that might indicate that something is troubling an apprentice or that they are finding something especially difficult. On these occasions, staff intervene quickly to provide additional tuition or other help so that apprentices continue to make good progress.

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

Apprentices learn about a range of themes beyond the requirements of the apprenticeship. These include vocational topics, such as fusion welding, and subjects related to living a healthy life and contributing positively to their communities. Apprentices participate in local projects such as manufacturing raised steel planters for a local community garden. Apprentices learn about the importance of fundamental British values and how to keep themselves and others safe from radicalisation.

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

Apprentices enjoy their courses and are thoroughly satisfied with the training they receive. They are highly motivated, attend well and arrive at lessons prepared to study hard. They participate fully in learning and work activities. Most feel that their studies prepare them well for their future careers.

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Next steps

Leaders should ensure that training staff keep better records of the support they provide to apprentices to reduce the risk of support needs being missed and to confirm that the help they provide remains relevant. Leaders should improve the mechanisms through which they evaluate the quality of teaching so that they identify and provide staff with the specific training they need to improve their teaching skills.

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Facts and figures used on inspection

This was the data available at the time of the full inspection, taken from different sources . More recent data may have been published since the full inspection took place.

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Facts and figures used on inspection

The inspector(s) used this data during the full inspection on 28 July 2026

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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 the managing director, human resources manager, academy manager, academy training staff, apprentices, mentors and apprentices’ managers during the inspection.

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About this inspection

Caunton Engineering Limited is an engineering company that specialises in structural steelwork. It trains its own level 3 metal fabricator apprentices at its site in Nottingham. At the time of the inspection there were 17 apprentices in total.

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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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Year This provider 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.

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Urgent improvement

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

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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