Report finds positives and negatives

The inadequacies were uncovered during an inspection of further education and work-based learning provision that took place at NWRC over February and April 2012.

The inspection report was broadly positive and found the quality of education and training to be good across further education and work-based learning with strengths outweighing areas for improvement.

For example, the quality of provision in health and social care at NWRC was deemed ‘outstanding.’ Art and design, early years, hairdressing and electrical installation and engineering were also ‘very good.’

Pointing to these positives a spokesperson for NWRC told the Sentinel: “NWRC has welcomed the final report from the recent ETI inspection at the College, which concluded that the final overall grading was ‘good’.

“It is particularly pleased to learn that its overall further education provision in terms of teaching and learning was deemed ‘very good’, and that two specific areas were graded as ‘outstanding’, with 9 others graded as either ‘very good’ or ‘good.’”

But in a number of areas the quality of education and training provided to pupils was satisfactory or worse.

In mechanical and manufacturing engineering, for example, work-based learning provision was deemed to be ‘inadequate.’

Essential skills, transportation operations and maintenance, and wood occupations were deemed ‘satisfactory.’

And the technical college serving Northern Ireland’s worst economic blackspot is failing to find enough apprenticeship placements for students.

Inspectors said the number of students registered on the ApprenticeshipsNI programme was ‘inadequate’ and that the provision in most areas was too small.

One of their key recommendations was for an expansion of the range of provision, and in particular the numbers of learners registered on the ApprenticeshipsNI programme.

The inspection team also recommended that further work is needed “to improve the quality of the College’s provision in essential skills, particularly leadership and management, the quality of teaching and learning in a significant minority of lessons, and in the outcomes in the essential skill of Information and Communications Technology (ICT).”

The performance of the mechanical and manufacturing engineering department was deemed by the inspectors to be ‘inadequate.’

Strategic planning and development across the department as a whole was not good enough and the structure and balance of the fabrication and welding provision in particular “does not meet well enough the needs of the trainees, and the quality of the training resources are not matched adequately to local industry practice.”

Strikingly, apprentice welders at NWRC are training with out-dated equipment and the mechanical engineering workshop at Springtown is cramped, untidy and does not even meet expected health and safety standards.

“There is an insufficient range of modern fabrication and welding equipment, and only limited Information and Learning Technology (ILT) resources to support and enhance the trainees’ and apprentices’ learning experiences,” the inspectors found.

“While the classrooms and laboratories for maintenance engineering are spacious and well-resourced with modern equipment and ILT resources, the mechanical engineering workshop is unsatisfactory. It is cramped, untidy and does not meet fully the required standards in health and safety,” they added.

Furthermore, would-be welders at the ‘tech’ are not provided with sufficient training and accreditation opportunities in the use of modern technology, such as “manual active gas welding, tungsten inert gas welding and computer-aided design and manufacturing techniques.”

The report also says that the majority of students in mechanical and manufacturing engineering and transportation operations and maintenance are not sufficiently aware of the career progression pathways available to them.

As a result of these and other problems the inspectors recommended an improvement in the quality of mechanical and manufacturing engineering provision.

A spokesperson for NWRC told the Sentinel it believed some of the recommendations - including the lack of apprentices registered - could be blamed on the economic downturn.

“The College believes that some of these have arisen as a result of the recent economic downturn, where work-based learning and placement opportunities have been affected due to training shortages which currently exist among local employers,” the spokesperson stated.

The spokesperson said NWRC was committed to addressing the issues raised by the report.

“One example of the College’s commitment to improvement is through its recent application to the Department for Employment and Learning to extend its provision of Apprenticeships NI programmes, as it now ready to deliver an increased range of Level 3 training courses across an extended number of skilled areas. Other issues raised within the report, for instance one of College’s engineering workshops, were rectified immediately by the College,” the spokesperson explained.

“The College will continue to monitor the progress of the action plans which have been set out to address the recommendations from the report, and is confident that it will deliver on each of the issues which have been raised.

“It also looks forward to working with colleagues from the ETI, and other stakeholders, in the future to ensure that it continues to provide a high quality education and training experience for all people from throughout the local area,” the spokesperson added.