Woodspeen Training Plc

Jul 30, 2013

Huddersfield town centre apprentice centre Woodspeen Training ‘not good enough,’ says Ofsted 10:27, 30 Jul 2013 Get daily news by email A company which trains nearly 3,000 apprentices is not good enough, according to Ofsted. Following a visit by seven inspectors, Woodspeen Training, based in Huddersfield town centre, has been graded as 3: Requires Improvement. And the company has admitted there are lessons to be learned from the inspection. The inspectors criticised the training company in many areas, stating: Too many apprentices leave without completing all aspects of their qualification Teaching, planning, learning and assessment all require improvement Written feedback is insufficient to help learners improve and not enough attention is given to learners’ spelling and grammar Functional skills resources are not properly aligned with vocational training Too many progress reviews do not sufficiently involve employers, nor record learners’ progress to enable them to meet specific and challenging targets Leadership and management require improvement. Equality and diversity are not sufficiently promoted. The training centre in Kings Head Buildings, Cloth Hall Street, is one of a number of Woodspeen centres across the UK. They provide apprenticeships in all areas, including health and social care, business administration, customer service, retail, IT, childcare, manufacturing, call centre operations and accounting. The Huddersfield centre currently has 2,836 registered part-time learners. Ofsted praised it for success rates in health and social care and business administration, and the way tutors and assessors help learners to develop good occupational skills. They added that managers have recently introduced a wide range of new procedures to improve quality and outcomes for learners. A spokesman for Woodspeen said: “Woodspeen supports fully the findings from the recent Ofsted inspection. These findings were accurately reflected in Woodspeen’s own self-assessment report. “Since the previous inspection in 2011, Woodspeen has integrated its subsidiaries into a single operating unit. The 2013 Ofsted report recognises the effectiveness of the extended change programme that has been underway and acknowledges the new procedures and approaches introduced by management to further improve the quality of learning. “It is too early to evidence the impact of these initiatives on the quality of learning and this is reflected in our current grading.”