An independent training provider was hit with Ofsted’s lowest possible grade weeks before announcing its closure.
Liverpool-based Jarvis Training Management (JTM) received ‘inadequate’ grades for overall effectiveness, quality of education, leadership and management, adult learning programmes and apprenticeships in a damning inspection report published today.
It comes a week after JTM, and its owner Woodspeen Training, announced they had ceased trading, blaming the Department for Education’s (DfE) apprenticeships accountability framework.
Inspectors visited JTM in July and found the “large majority” of apprentices in training quit before completing, and “almost half” of those remaining were making slow progress and were unlikely to complete on time.
On its adult learning courses, just under two-thirds of learners “had fallen considerably behind” in their studies and had not achieved their qualifications. A “significant proportion” of learners had dropped out, and for those that stayed, “too few learners regularly attend”.
Governance at the provider was described as “weak”. Attempts by a new leadership team to improve standards had “not had the desired impact”. Leaders also did not identify learners falling behind or take action to help them catch up, with inspectors warning apprentices were “not challenged to achieve their full potential”.
The watchdog concluded the quality of education had “declined significantly” since the previous inspection in 2022.
JTM was awarded a ‘requires improvement’ judgment for behaviour and attitudes and a ‘good’ for personal development. Safeguarding was ‘effective’.
At the time of the inspection, JTM had 422 adult learners on personal training, early years and beauty therapy courses. JTM’s 251 apprentices in learning at the time of the inspection were studying a range of early years, education and care standards from levels 2 to 5. Over half were aged under 19.
JTM was approached for comment.
Closure explained
Woodspeen Training and JTM, owned by the same Swiss investment firm, announced their closures last week ahead of the publication of today’s Ofsted report. Around 175 staff were employed by the providers, according to Companies House.
A spokesperson at the time said their collapse followed “recent Department for Education decisions under the apprenticeships accountability framework”.
They added: “The outcome reflects historic performance challenges, particularly around timeliness measures that lag behind recent operational improvements. Our priority now is to work closely with the department [for education] to transfer learners smoothly to alternative providers and support staff through the transition.”
Under the DfE’s apprenticeship accountability framework, training providers judged ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted can face immediate contract termination.
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