Since 2018, employers have had the opportunity to review apprenticeship training providers using a four-point scale system that ranges between four stars (excellent) and one star (very poor). Based on these reviews, apprenticeship training providers are awarded an average star rating that appears on the government’s apprenticeship website. Until now, no further details beyond the allocated star have been accessible to the public.
Thanks to the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA), the scores have been made public for the first time and display the ratings given to leadership and management apprenticeship training providers across the UK.
How the rating system works
Employers and apprentices are sent an email invitation to provide private feedback within a digital apprenticeship rating system. Participants are asked to answer 12 multiple-choice questions before finally rating their training on a scale of ‘excellent’ to ‘very poor.’ The participants can give feedback from three months into their training and can update it thereafter every three weeks.
Once 10 participants have responded, apprenticeship training providers can review the feedback and monitor performance ratings to tailor and optimize training programmes as necessary.
What the ratings mean
Since the rating scheme is still in its early stages, its current purpose is to collate data and inform the public about the performance of their chosen apprenticeship training provider.
As the platform matures and its credibility becomes more concrete, the ratings will serve as an intervention trigger for enhanced monitoring, management conversations with government officials, the development of improvement plans and referrals to Ofsted. Although the threshold for this trigger is yet to be confirmed, those who average less than 2.5 stars are already placed into a ‘needs improvement’ category.
The importance of the review
The digital feature allows employers and apprentices alike to give anonymous feedback about their training, allowing apprenticeship training providers to further advance and improve their programmes. This makes it an invaluable tool in helping apprenticeship training providers deliver the best programmes possible.
Working with an excellent apprenticeship training provider
Excellent apprenticeship training providers maintain outstanding performance reviews with consistently high feedback from both employers and apprentices. Not only does this demonstrate the effectiveness of their training programmes, but it also shows their commitment to excellence with the willingness to refine their service offerings based on feedback.
Working with Instep
Instep received 95 reviews with an average score of 3.4, granting us an excellent overall rating that ranks us among the best apprenticeship training providers in the country for leadership and management apprenticeships.
With a range of management apprenticeship programmes, we’re committed to delivering programmes that challenge and encourage individuals to advance the organisations they work for. When you choose to work with us, our team becomes an extension of yours, working together to achieve your business growth goals. This includes tailoring our apprenticeship programmes to suit your unique goals.
Developing tailored curriculums and learning programmes that strengthen businesses one person at a time, we start every partnership with our comprehensive discovery process. Geared towards getting to know your business goals and limitations inside and out, the process follows three steps:
Stage one – consultation and diagnostic:
- Finding out more about you and your business.
- Identifying obstacles standing in your way.
- Developing action plans to overcome challenges.
Stage two – design and implementation:
- Designing tailored learning programmes.
- Optimizing programmes to suit your apprentices.
Stage three – progress:
- Producing monthly progress summaries.
- Highlighting what is going well so far.
- Identifying areas for improvement.
Find out more about our unique process here.
Why Instep?
With an excellent rating and over 25+ years of experience in the leadership training field, we put all hands on deck to drive business growth, efficiency and improvement underpinned by bespoke curriculums designed to bridge the skills gap.
We take pride in delivering tangible results, and reviews play a big part in this. Operating with the end goal in mind, we drive outcomes to advance your organisation through the effective delivery of leadership and management apprenticeships.
Get in touch to find out how we can enable your organisation to establish the right conditions for success.
