Burnley College

Overview

Burnley College is judged as ‘Requires improvement’ overall, driven primarily by weaknesses in ‘Leadership and management’. Despite this, the report highlights that the ‘quality of education’ is ‘Good’ and ‘Personal development’ is ‘Outstanding’. Learners are described as thriving in a ‘nurturing and supportive environment’, with strong contributions to meeting local skills needs.

Strengths

• ‘Personal development’ is rated ‘Outstanding’, with learners developing independence, confidence, and a strong sense of belonging.
• ‘Adult learning programmes’ are rated ‘Outstanding’, with adults making ‘excellent progress’ and gaining vital skills for work and life.
• The college makes a ‘strong contribution to meeting skills needs’ through exceptional collaboration with employers and stakeholders.
• Tutors have ‘high expectations’ for behaviour, and learners ‘work diligently’ and arrive ‘prepared and ready to learn’.
• Learners benefit from ‘state-of-the-art facilities’ and ‘highly effective careers guidance’.

Areas to improve

• Strengthen the governing board with individuals possessing experience of the further education and skills sector.
• Strengthen systems to ensure ‘accurate qualification and achievement data are recorded and reported’, following issues with inflated rates.
• Provide consistently effective checks on learning and high-quality feedback to help learners improve.
• Improve attendance for learners who do not attend often enough.

Safeguarding

The report states that ‘The arrangements for safeguarding are effective’, noting that learners feel safe and confident that concerns would be dealt with swiftly.