Setting

North-East Worcestershire College was inspected in January 2002. Inspectors from the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) and the Adult Learning Inspectorate (ALI)) carried out the inspection under Section 62 of the Learning and Skills Act. The quality of provision was found to be satisfactory in all areas inspected, except in Hairdressing WBL, which was found to be unsatisfactory.

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Outcome of monitoring inspection

The overall provision in the curriculum area of hairdressing work-based learning (WBL) is satisfactory .

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Background

Ofsted and the ALI have particular duties in relation to colleges where their inspection report indicates that individual curriculum and/or work-based learning (WBL) areas are unsatisfactory or very weak or that leadership and management are unsatisfactory or very weak. Where a college has been judged to have less than satisfactory provision in any curriculum or WBL area, or less than satisfactory leadership and management, Ofsted or the ALI will visit the college to carry out monitoring inspections of any unsatisfactory curriculum or WBL areas and of leadership and management, where applicable.

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Background

As a result of monitoring inspections, inspectors may judge that the curriculum or WBL area or areas, or leadership and management are satisfactory and that no further visits are required. Such a judgement is likely to be made between 12 and 24 months after the initial inspection. A short report outlining the improvements made will be published on the Ofsted website alongside the original report. If, after approximately 24 months, the college has not made sufficient progress to justify a judgement that the curriculum or WBL area(s) or leadership and management are satisfactory, the original grades for the areas that continue to be unsatisfactory will remain on the college's record until the next full inspection. Ofsted will inform the local LSC that provision remains unsatisfactory and why.

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Monitoring inspections

In accordance with the above procedures, monitoring inspections of hairdressing WBL took place on 15 and 16 October 2002, 10 and 12 February 2003 and 17-19 June 2003.

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Hairdressing WBL

In the January 2002 inspection, the quality of the WBL provision was judged to be unsatisfactory . The following strengths and weaknesses were identified in the hairdressing and beauty therapies curriculum area inspection report:

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Strengths

• good quality holistic therapies courses

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Strengths

• good retention and pass rates on NVQ level 1 hairdressing and NVQ level 3 beauty therapy

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Weaknesses

• poor retention and pass rates for modern apprentices

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Weaknesses

• insufficient internal verification and assessment on some courses

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Weaknesses

• some poor resources Following the monitoring inspections, inspectors judged that progress has been made in addressing the above weaknesses and that overall provision in this area is now satisfactory .

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Weaknesses

NVQ level 2 achievement is satisfactory. There is good progress by the first year students who are accumulating NVQ units from early in their programme. The retention rates of the foundation modern apprentices, who are in the majority, have made a significant improvement over the past three years. They are now good for the first years and satisfactory for the second year students. Key skills are fully integrated into the programme and are included from the beginning of the programme on schemes of work and lesson plans. The first year students are entered for the key skills external examinations throughout the year, according to their progress. There is on-line key skills initial assessment and a useful college Intranet key skills' site. The learners' individual learning plans (ILPs) and reviews are not using all training and assessment opportunities fully in setting challenging targets. The teaching is good both at the college and in the salon workplaces. The new college

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Weaknesses

salons with modern resources will be used from the autumn term 2003. The college hairdressing Intranet site has a good range of useful information and hypertext links to other relevant sites. Work- place salons have good standards of hairdressing skills and resources. Work-based assessment is clearly identified in the students' portfolios and is carried out regularly. Work-based evidence, for example witness statements, is also used for assessment. Internal verification is clearly planned and includes the work-based assessment. Staff development is clearly recorded in accordance with the award body assessor requirements. The new management information systems' computerised tracking spreadsheets give the WBL co-ordinator and curriculum managers clear information about the progress of the WBL students. These also provide good detail for clarifying issues and interpreting data for senior managers. College procedures are not effective in monitoring the equality

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Weaknesses

of opportunities in the workplaces. College quality assurance processes are not identifying the inadequate completion of work-based learning documentation.

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Weaknesses

commercial educational purposes, provided that all extracts quoted are reproduced verbatim without adaptation and on condition that the source and date thereof are stated. Inspection reports are available on the Ofsted web site (www.ofsted.gov.uk).

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