Reports of the first five inspections carried out by the Adult Learning
Inspectorate reveal a mixed bag of performance.
Two of the providers inspected failed to meet the needs of their learners,
while the remainder were judged adequate overall.
Successor to the Training Standards Council, the Ali promised to work
"straight from the box" from its launch in April. It inspected the
organisations during April and published its reports in June.
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Of the two work-based learning providers, one was awarded grades 4
("unsatisfactory") and 5 ("very weak") for the quality of
its training provision and for its leadership and management. Three of the
organisations were delivery units offering New Deal training and education.
Each delivered some provision which merited grade 2 ("good") or 3
("satisfactory"), but in one case, part of the provision was
"unsatisfactory", along with the unit’s leadership and management.
Yet Ali chief inspector David Sherlock is not pessimistic. The good news is
that 90 per cent of unsatisfactory providers reinspected by the TSC came
through as satisfactory or better, proving the effectiveness of inspection in
raising standards. "People want to do a good job, but often they’re not
clear what’s expected of them until somebody comes along and makes it
absolutely plain. Then they can do something about it."
