A training provider that teaches a range of lower-level online courses to over 350 adults, mostly from disadvantaged backgrounds, has been rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted.
Antrec Training, a subsidiary of the Learning Curve Group (LCG), received the watchdog’s top grade in its first full inspection report published today.
The provider was awarded its first publicly funded contract for adult education in November 2017 and now delivers mostly level 2 provision through online, flexible courses including mental health first aid, understanding autism, counselling skills, tenant support for social housing and domestic violence.
Ofsted reported that learners “clearly benefit, both personally and professionally, from the diverse range of high-quality courses available to them”.
The inspectorate also said “learners, many of whom are from disadvantaged backgrounds and have family and caring responsibilities, feel a great sense of accomplishment, often overcoming challenging personal circumstances to achieve their qualifications”.
Students “often progress to further qualifications or training as a result”, Ofsted added.
Antrec Training was taken over by LCG in March 2021, at which point the provider had received ‘reasonable progress’ judgements across the board from Ofsted following an early monitoring visit report that was published in June 2019.
LCG has seven other training providers in its group, four of which have received Ofsted visits over the past two years, each achieving ‘good’ ratings.
Chief executive of LCG Brenda McLeish said she was “delighted” with this latest result, adding that all of her group’s Ofsted grades “was the culmination of our amazing culture”.
“One of our key pieces of feedback from this inspection was that ‘learners often progress to further qualifications or training as a result’, which is extremely important to us as we strive to give people opportunities to transform their lives,” she added.
Ofsted praised leaders and managers at Antrec for having a “clear vision for the provision that they offer”.
“They provide flexible, online learning programmes to employed and unemployed adults to help with their career aspirations and personal circumstances,” inspectors said. “For example, line managers learn how to provide more effective support to their teams in the workplace and unemployed adults improve their prospects of gaining employment”.
Today’s report added that leaders have constructed a “rich curriculum that is relevant to local, regional and national employment priorities”.
This is mostly incorrect. Antrec provided 2 courses, taxis and CSCS level 2. The company permanently closed in July by lcg following a loss in funding and a wave unnecessary redundancies.