The Construction Industry Training Board has been deemed to “require improvement” in a damning Ofsted report, after the body announced a change to outsourced apprenticeship provision.
The CITB, rated ‘outstanding’ in its last inspection six years ago, received the second lowest rating in the five areas it was assessed in, with leaders found to be ‘focusing too much on compliance of contracts” at the expense of the quality of education. .
Its decision to move away from outsourcing has seen the number of apprentices drop from 9,000 in 2017 to just 629 as it focuses on specialist apprenticeships in areas such as plant operations, formwork and formwork and scaffolding.
The board said its business model had “fundamentally changed” since 2021 in response to a change in government policy on higher education.
“The CITB is now working more widely with employers and providers nationally on the provision of apprenticeships at a local level,” he said in a statement.
“We continue to offer training directly in niche areas that would be prohibitively expensive for the rest of the market.”
The board said no new apprentices would be taken on through its 24 subcontracting partners across the country, although it pledged to support all apprentices who continued their apprenticeships.
The Ofsted report, based on an inspection in March, found the outsourced provision was not managed effectively and raised concerns about the quality of education provided.
“Leaders focus too much on fulfilling contracts and not on the quality of education, or the skills learners develop or their progress,” he said.
“As a result, learners take too long to get there.”
Too few apprentices studying on subcontractor sites across England achieved their apprenticeships in the expected time frame, he added, while the on-the-job and off-the-job training of these apprentices was not sufficiently linked to enable apprentices develop their skills incrementally.
However, he noted that the newly hired new managers had already taken decisive steps to improve the quality of provision, including the cessation of the use of subcontractors, who had managed to reduce the large number of apprentices beyond the date of expected completion.
“While it is too early to judge the full impact of many of their actions, the changes made are already having a demonstrable positive impact,” he said.
The CITB said it was aware of the challenges highlighted in the inspection and had taken steps to improve provision.
“There are many examples of high quality practice in our apprenticeship provision, much of which was recognized by Ofsted, and we are moving quickly to extend this quality to our CITB apprenticeships,” he added.
At the end of last year it was revealed that the CITB could be forced to repay up to £10.3m after claiming cash from the government for his apprenticeship program without providing the required evidence that he sufficiently met the funding requirements.
