Cheshire College - South & West

Overview

Cheshire College - South & West is a general further education college with three main sites, offering a wide range of courses for young people, adults, and apprentices. The inspection found that the quality of education, behaviour, personal development, and leadership are all rated as ‘Good’. Leaders make a ‘strong contribution to meeting skills needs’ by working effectively with employers and local stakeholders to address regional shortages.

Strengths

• Learners are ‘motivated and keen to learn’, demonstrating ‘positive and professional behaviours’ in practical areas such as cookery and engineering.
• Teachers use ‘skilful questioning and assessment strategies’ effectively, helping learners grasp key concepts and develop fluency in their skills.
• The college provides ‘well-planned, unbiased careers advice and guidance’, including support for university applications and interview skills.
• Leaders have ‘nurtured highly successful relationships’ with employers, co-constructing curriculums to meet local needs, such as introducing apprenticeships in dual fuel smart meter installation.
• Learners with high needs gain confidence and independence, with the quality of education at subcontractors having ‘improved’ due to robust monitoring.

Areas to improve

• Strengthen quality assurance for apprenticeships to ensure all apprentices make the progress of which they are capable, as leaders do not always intervene quickly enough when progress is slow.
• Improve the use of starting points for adult learners and apprentices to ensure they develop knowledge and skills swiftly, as this is not currently done consistently.
• Strengthen the personal development curriculum for apprentices and ESOL learners, particularly regarding understanding the risks of radicalisation and fundamental British values.

Safeguarding

The report states that ‘the arrangements for safeguarding are effective’, noting that learners feel safe and have access to support networks like the peer signposting scheme ‘ear4You’.