College gets apprenticeship ban after Ofsted report

Ofsted inspectors visited Coventry College in November

A college has been forced to stop offering new apprenticeships after a critical Ofsted report.

Coventry College was rated as requires improvement overall, following an inspection in November.

The principal Carole Thomas said the Ofsted report had been "really disappointing", but she believed progress had been made in the two years she had been in charge.

She said apprenticeships accounted for about 4% of its total courses.

The Ofsted inspectors said leaders and managers had "not developed a curriculum that meets apprentices' individual needs" and teachers did not plan effectively, or coordinate with employers.

They also said teachers and assessors had not put in place a challenging or ambitious curriculum and rated the apprenticeship provision as inadequate.

Recruitment problems

In other parts of the college, there was also criticism of the feedback from teachers, which the report said was inconsistent, they said appropriate targets were not set for learners with high needs and there was too much inconsistency in the quality of teaching.

Ms Thomas said the college had faced significant challenges since a merger in 2017 and believed there had been "clear progress" since a 2019 inspection.

She has been in post for two years and said she thought it would take between three to five years to turn the college around.

"Unfortunately, I think Ofsted came about 12 months too soon for us," she said.

She said the college had found it "incredibly difficult" to recruit staff to teach some apprenticeships and had been forced to rely on agency staff.

Ms Thomas said the college remained "absolutely committed" to getting apprentices who were already enrolled to complete their courses.

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