Training firm ‘inadequate’ - Ofsted

DAMNING verdict . . . Blue Training (UK) Ltd at the Victoria Hotel, Chadderton

A TRAINING firm given £2.4 million in government funding last year has been slated by inspectors for its apprenticeships.

Ofsted slapped Chadderton-based Blue Training (UK) Ltd with an “inadequate” rating — the lowest grade — down from “good” in 2012.

The company, which owns and is based at the Victoria Hotel in Hollinwood Avenue offered inadequate apprentice outcomes. Over the past three years too few have achieved their qualifications and very few completed them in the planned time.

Teaching, learning and assessment were also inadequate: trainers didn’t set sufficiently high expectations for apprentices, with too few assessments. A majority of apprentices weren’t developing new skills to help them progress.

Trainers failed to help apprentices improve their basic English and maths: Ofsted also classed leadership and management as inadequate.

Blue Training provides intermediate and advanced apprenticeships across the country, but mainly in the North West. It has around 540 apprentices, most aged over 19, the majority in administration, customer service and service enterprises.

It bought the Victoria Hotel in 2012 and has a hospitality and catering training academy there - praised by the inspectors for its high success rates.

The company also provides courses for unemployed adults through Jobcentre Plus - and that while success rates on these were high, two thirds of participants failed to get a job.

Blue Training did not respond to Chronicle requests for comment.