A training provider delivering lucrative engineering apprenticeships online has suffered Ofsted’s lowest grades following an inspection held just weeks after it was bought by new owners.
Semester Learning and Development was taken over on October 1 by RMI Standards and Certification (RMISC), which serves the automotive sector, and was then inspected from November 27 to 29.
Ofsted’s report, published on Thursday, was damning. It found the quality of its apprenticeship provision had “deteriorated” and described a “lack of support” from tutors, especially for younger apprentices who “often struggle with learning independently online”.
The number of apprentices completing their course was “extremely low” and “almost all” apprentices had, and continue to have, a “poor learning experience”, the report said.
Ofsted noted that following the takeover, new leaders “immediately began implementing actions to improve the quality and effectiveness of the education and training that apprentices receive”.
However, “it is too early for any of these actions to have had a positive impact,” it said.
Semester Learning and Development has now been downgraded from ‘requires improvement’ to ‘inadequate’.
Private providers typically have apprenticeship funding contracts terminated by the government following a grade 4 Ofsted verdict. Officials can however continue to fund such providers if there are exceptional circumstances.
RMISC told FE Week it could not comment on Ofsted’s report or potential contract termination because its chief executive was out of the country.
Semester started operations in 2014, beginning with telecoms courses before offering online engineering and fire safety courses.
The Rugby-based provider won its first apprenticeship contract in 2018 and currently offers 11 apprenticeships from levels 2 to 4 in engineering-related standards that attract high levels of funding.
Most of the 68 apprentices with the provider at the time of inspection were also studying NVQs.
The company had 19 apprentices on the level 3 compressed air and vacuum technician standard, which comes with a maximum funding band of £14,000. A further 25 apprentices studied engineering operative, fitter and technician standards with funding bands ranging from £10,000 to £26,000 per apprentice.
All training is delivered online.
Ofsted found that Semester’s tutors put a “disproportionate emphasis” on apprentices completing NVQs “at the expense” of their apprenticeship.
It also lambasted the curriculum as “ineffectively” planned and unambitious.
Most apprentices’ interest in their apprenticeship had lapsed since they started, the report added.
Tutors did not give apprentices the theory they needed to build upon their practical skills, and most apprentices do not develop substantial new knowledge, skills and behaviours.
“This is particularly the case with adult learners, where most already have the knowledge and skills they are expected to learn,” the report said.
The watchdog also pointed out that apprentices’ vocational training was provided by their employer.
Inspectors slammed Semester tutors for failing to coordinate their training with employers.
“Employers allow apprentices the time off they need to study the theoretical elements of their apprenticeship but tutors do not make sure that apprentices use this time productively,” the report said.
Inspectors added that few apprentices knew how their apprenticeship would be assessed and tutors were not preparing them properly.
As a result, most apprentices were making “very slow progress” and the proportion of learners completing their qualifications was “extremely low”.
The report also found Semester’s safeguarding arrangements were ineffective.
RMISC is the motor industry certification offshoot of the Retail Motor Industry (RMI) Federation.
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