TRS achieve Grade 2 Good at Ofsted inspection

In November 2021, Ofsted carried out an inspection of our apprenticeship provision.

We are delighted to have achieved grade 2 for overall effectiveness. Individual grades were given for each aspect of the inspection as follows:

At the time of inspection:

52% of apprentices were studying LGV L2
28% of apprentices were studying Team Leader L3
20% were studying apprenticeships that had less than 10 learners on each which included:
Porters
Traffic Office
Lean Manufacturing
Warehousing
Improvement Technician
Customer Service
Express Delivery Driver

What we do well

We are experts in our sector. Inspectors saw that we are wholly focused on supporting the logistics and manufacturing sector. They recognised our experience and expertise in these areas. The relationships we have with key professional organisations such as Road Haulage Association, British Association of Removers, Builders Merchants Federation, UK Warehousing Association and Skills for Logistics help us to structure our curriculum and keep ourselves abreast of emerging issues and trends in the sector. This keeps our teaching current and responsive.

Our staff are highly experienced and have a wealth of expertise. All our staff have been employed in the capacity of the curriculum in which they teach and so deliver from a position of understanding of the industry. Additionally, all our trainers are qualified teachers, and we have a comprehensive development strategy that ensuring all staff maintain their expertise and continue to improve their skills in new technologies and the latest thinking in teaching.

Inspectors found that apprentices enjoy their studies at TRS and they become confident learners and employees. This was a critical finding to us as this stimulates a desire to continue learning beyond the completion of their apprenticeship, enabling apprentices to progress through their career and achieve to their highest potential.

Apprentices learn relevant workplace skills that prepare them well for jobs in the logistics sector, and they make significant contributions to their workplace.

Our curriculum is well designed and helps our learners build up knowledge in a logical sequence so that they develop their knowledge and behaviours in the right order to prepare them to work effectively.

Apprentices and employers benefit significantly from the embedding of workplace skills in our teaching. Inspectors found our teaching of skills such as communication and problem-solving techniques help apprentices by:
overcoming complex issues such as vehicle breakdowns, collisions, and accidents
supporting them to keep within the legal limits of driving hours and weights
improving their resource planning skills
enabling them to communicate more effectively with customers, and colleagues, particularly those speakers of other languages and in turn this improves customer service
working more safely and efficiently
identifying improvements that lead to cost savings and reducing waste through Kaizen and project management tools

Our English and maths provision is excellent. The design of our functional skills curriculum meets our apprentices’ needs in term of structure and modality. Topics used relate to our industries which make learning relevant and interesting to our apprentices, for example the use of axle weights in the teaching of maths. Inspectors found the quality of teaching is excellent, and that a high proportion of apprentices pass their exams at their first attempt and achieve to a high standard

Support for those apprentices who require additional learning support is a strength. Our support staff are highly qualified and understand that some learners require different ways of learning and more support than others. As a result of this, the inspection team found that those learners with additional support needs, such as dyslexia or mental health conditions achieve as well as, and in some cases better, than those apprentices without.

Safeguarding is effective. Our apprentices develop a sound understanding of safeguarding issues that are specific to their job role. They know how to spot dangers and how to tackle these or get help. Our teaching has also helped them to understand the importance of looking after themselves both physically and mentally, which helps them to stay healthy and reduces absence rates.

Ensuring employers are fully involved in the review process.

A small number of employers do not always attend the review. This can slow the progress of the apprenticeship as the employer may not be aware of all the issues and work that the apprentice is facing or needs to complete. We will continue to send out monthly updates to our employers, however we would strongly encourage all employers to attend reviews as they play a critical role in the success that the apprentice will have.

Lean Manufacturing Curriculum

Although this only makes up 2% of our provision, we recognise that these apprentices deserve the same quality of teaching and learning that our other apprentices benefit from. The Ofsted team recognised that we had already identified the improvements needed in this area and had put an improvement plan in place, but it was too early to see the impact of these at the time of inspection. The improvements we are continuing to make in this area are:
Revising the plan for off the job training and increased the amount of face to face contact time
Ensuring closer contact and communication with employers
Developing literature to show the careers and opportunities within the sector