Award-winning Hemel Hempstead training centre rated ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted

Too many apprentices are not securing jobs after their courses with an award-winning Hemel Hempstead business and beauty learning centre, according to Ofsted.

The regulator has given UK Training and Development Ltd (UKTD) the lowest overall rating of “inadequate”.

An Ofsted report into the centre, which was written after an inspection between July 5 and 8, found around a third of all hair professional apprentices fail their first assessment attempts. UKTD was contacted for comment by the Local Democracy Services and the Hemel Hempstead Gazette but it did not respond in time for publication.

Despite negative feedback, the Ofsted report found that learners “enjoy their workplace training” and that there is an “effective culture of safeguarding” at the centre, which hosted 185 apprentices on their level two hair professional standards-based courses at the time of the inspection, and 13 on the level three qualification.

The report read: “Apprentices are often frustrated by a lack of effective coordination of their in-salon training and the training and assessment provided by UKTD staff. Too many apprenticeships do not secure employment following their apprenticeship and fewer than half stay at their current employer. Apprentices often struggle to meet the demands of work and study because they do not regularly receive their entitlement to time away from work.”

It added: “Most apprentices enjoy their workplace training with employers. They gain confidence in their hair styling, cutting and colouring skills. Apprentices who stay in training are valued by their employers. They communicate effectively with their colleagues and clients.

The report called for course leaders to be more “ambitious” for level two professional apprentices, making more effort to identify and assess apprentices’ existing skills and knowledge effectively.

It added: “Tutors do not use assessment effectively to help apprentices make improvements. Apprentices receive appropriate verbal feedback from their tutors that helps them develop their workplace skills. However, most apprentices do not receive feedback on the written work they produce.”

The July Ofsted inspection was the eleventh which UKTD has received since April 2000. The centre received a ‘good’ rating in 2012.

In 2019, it was rated as requiring improvement’. The centre won an East of England Business Champions award in 2016.