An adult care apprenticeship provider has been hit with an ‘inadequate’ rating after Ofsted found unsupported off-the-job training and “uninspiring” teaching.

Geoseis Consultant Limited, which trades as Geotraining, was also criticised for focusing on the achievement of a diploma qualification that is only part of the apprenticeship while failing to make apprentices aware of their end-point assessment.

The provider started delivering apprenticeship training in April 2020 but today received Ofsted’s lowest possible judgment in its first full inspection. The firm now faces likely contract termination from the Education and Skills Funding Agency.

Geotraining had 55 apprentices on adult care programmes from levels 2 to 5 based in the Midlands at the time of Ofsted’s visit in November.

Too few apprentices have achieved their apprenticeship and hardly any have completed it on time, according to the inspectorate’s report.

The watchdog found that too many apprentices do not receive their full entitlement to off-the-job training, which should be a minimum of six hours per week. Most Geotraining are also required to learn in their own time and are “not supported” by their employer.

Ofsted raised concern that level 2 apprentices “learn in noisy workplaces”, or through online meetings with no practical opportunities.

Inspectors took aim at Geotraining leaders for not ensuring that the basic requirements of an apprenticeship are promoted to and implemented by employers.

The report claimed that too many employers are “only interested in their apprentices achieving the diploma qualification, which is only part of the apprenticeship, rather than the knowledge, skills and behaviours that the apprenticeship standard prescribes”.

Apprentices are “often unaware of the requirements of the end-point assessment or the requirements of the broader apprenticeship”.

The government is currently implementing reforms to align qualifications within apprenticeships with end-point assessments after discovering this was a key reason why nearly half of apprentices drop out before completing their programme every year.

Ofsted had found Geotraining making ‘reasonable progress’ in an early monitoring visit report published in November 2022. But since then, the firm’s director has reduced the size of permanent staff, according to today’s full inspection report, and the remaining managers and team members “do not have the knowledge or skills to manage, monitor and improve the quality of training that apprentices receive”.

The few tutors that remain “do not have the time or skills to provide effective training to apprentices”, Ofsted added.

As a result, too many apprentices “do not receive timely and regular reviews of their progress, receive a poor standard of training and make slow progress on their apprenticeship”.

Apprentices also reported feeling “frustrated by constant changes in tutors which has slowed their progress”.

There is no external independent oversight of Geotraining’s leaders, who fail to systematically review and evaluate achievement, retention and attendance data, Ofsted said.

The watchdog concluded: “Leaders’ oversight of the quality of education is not fit for purpose. Their assessment of the quality of education that apprentices receive is too positive and does not identify the many weaknesses at the provider.”

Geotraining did not respond to requests for comment.

More than 250 small and medium-sized employers have already recruited over 10 apprentices since the government scrapped a cap on starts last year.

SMEs were restricted to a maximum of ten apprenticeship starts from 2020 until April 3, 2023.

Ministers finally decided to abolish the cap after consecutive resets amid warnings from FE Week and the Association of Employment and Learning Providers that non-levy paying businesses were being forced to turn apprentices away after hitting the limit.

Skills minister Robert Halfon has now revealed, in answer to a parliamentary question from Grahame Morris MP, that 256 non-levy payers have recruited 11 or more apprentices since the policy change came into force 10 months ago.

The majority – 214 – hired between 11 and 19 apprentices, while 33 had starts of between 20 and 29.

Six other SMEs managed to enrol between 30 and 39 apprentices, another recruited between 40 and 49, and two managed to enlist over 50.

Number of starts since April 2023 (grouped)	Number of non-levy employer accounts
11-19	214
20-29	33
30-39	6
40-49	1
50+	2

The figures come at the start 17th annual National Apprenticeship Week.

Tina McKenzie, policy chair at the Federation of Small Businesses, said: “It’s great to see so many non-levy payers taking on larger numbers of apprentices since the cap was lifted, bringing in lots of new talent for them to nurture.”

However, McKenzie warned that taking on numerous apprentices is still financially out of reach for most small businesses. She called for the current £1,000 bonus for hiring an under-19 apprentice to be increased to £3,000 for small businesses and expanded to cover under-25s.

The SME cap was originally introduced in January 2020 with a limit of three new apprenticeship starts, before it was lifted to ten in summer 2020.

Small businesses that do not pay the apprenticeship levy receive 95 per cent of training costs from the apprenticeship budget, funded by levy paying businesses.

The rationale of the cap had been that it would help prevent the overall apprenticeships budget from being overspent.

Simon Ashworth, AELP director of policy, said it was “positive that the removal of cap of ten non-levy starts cap has enabled more employers to access the benefits we know that apprenticeships bring”.

However, he warned that although the changes have helped, the government still hasn’t “addressed the wider barrier of employer engagement and accessing opportunities in the first place”.

“It is critical to get the apprenticeship service system working more effectively, for SMEs including by giving providers more autonomy”, Ashworth said, adding that the current “expert” provider pilot has the potential to support this change.

The government will launch a long-awaited school teacher degree apprenticeship for non-graduates next year, it has been announced.

The four-year course, which would see apprentices achieve a degree and qualified teacher status, will be piloted with “up to” 150 trainee maths teachers from September 2025. 

Apprentices would spend “around 40 per cent” of their time studying and the rest of the time in the classroom, the Department for Education said.

The government missed its secondary teacher recruitment target by 50 per cent this year.

Planning for a route that does not require applicants to already have a degree has gone on behind the scenes for years. Without such a route, schools have limited ways to spend money they pay into the apprenticeship levy. 

But earlier attempts to create such a route never came to fruition, in part due to opposition from former schools minister Nick Gibb, who left government in November.

Education secretary Gillian Keegan said the teacher degree apprenticeship (TDA) would be a “game-changing opportunity for schools to nurture and retain talent from the ground up, helping apprentices to gain the knowledge and skills they need to teach future generations.

“The teacher degree apprenticeship will open up the profession to more people, from those who want a career change to those who are looking for an earn and learn route without student debt.”

A 12-month postgraduate apprenticeship route has existed for several years but requires applicants to already hold a degree. 

Government data shows 630 people achieved the qualification in 2021-22. ITT census figures show 962 applied for the course this academic year.

Route for non-graduates

The DfE said its teacher degree apprenticeship would offer a “high-quality, alternative route for people to become qualified teachers”, and would “diversity the route into teaching so schools across the country can continue to recruit the teachers they need”.

The department added the new route would “provide a new route for teaching assistants who do not have an existing degree to train to become a teacher and continue their career progression in the classroom”.

The government will double the current minimum off-the-job training requirements from 20 per cent to “around 40 per cent” for teacher degree apprentices.

The DfE said apprentices would spend “around 40 per cent of their time studying for their degree with an accredited teacher training provider, gain qualified teacher status and all tuition fees are paid for, so trainees won’t be saddled with the student debt”.

It is also not clear whether the government will expect the qualification to be offered only by universities, or whether other teacher training providers will be given degree-awarding powers.

The department said it was “working with subject experts and the trailblazer group to co-develop how universities and schools offering the TDA can ensure secondary subject specialism is comprehensive and high-quality”.

The courses also “must adhere to the ITT criteria, encompass all aspects of the ITT core content framework (CCF) and enable trainees to meet the teacher standards”.

‘Unlikely’ to solve teacher shortages

Ministers will launch recruitment to the pilot scheme in the autumn. It will see the government “working with a small number of schools and teacher training providers to fund up to 150 apprentices to work in secondary schools to teach maths”. 

Training providers “will bid to partake in the pilot and trainees will be recruited from this autumn and start their training the following year”.

The teacher degree apprenticeship grant funding pilot will only include government funding for the training of one cohort. 

After that, schools will have to use levy funding. The DfE said providers and schools would also be able to “develop and run” apprenticeship courses with their own funding from September 2025.

The apprenticeship has been developed by a “trailblazer group” – panels of employers that draw up the standards that underpin courses. 

The group is chaired by the South Farnham Educational Trust, whose chief executive Sir Andrew Carter led the government’s review of teacher training in 2015.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the ASCL leaders’ union, said while the apprenticeship was a “good idea in principle”, it was “unlikely that teacher degree apprenticeships will provide anywhere near the number of qualified teachers required to solve the recruitment and retention crisis”.

He added that he was “concerned about how realistic this will be in reality for many schools given the number of competing demands on them and the lack of sufficient staffing and funding in the education system”.