Weymouth College

REPORT FROM THE INSPECTORATE Weymouth College June 1994 THE FURTHER EDUCATION FUNDING COUNCIL THE FURTHER EDUCATION FUNDING COUNCIL The Further Education Funding Council (FEFC) has a statutory duty to ensure that there are satisfactory arrangements to assess the quality of provision in the further education sector. It discharges the duty in part through its inspectorate, which inspects and reports on each college in the sector every four years. The Council’s inspectorate also assesses and reports on a national basis on specific curriculum areas and advises the Council’s quality assessment committee. College inspections involve both full-time inspectors and registered part- time inspectors who have specialist knowledge and experience in the areas they inspect. Inspection teams normally include at least one member from outside the world of education and a nominated member of staff from the college being inspected. GRADE DESCRIPTORS The procedures for assessing quality are described in the Council Circular 93/28. In the course of inspecting colleges, inspectors assess the strengths and weaknesses of each aspect of provision they inspect. Their assessments are set out in the reports. They also summarise their judgements on the balance between strengths and weaknesses using a five-point scale. The descriptors for the grades are: • grade 1 – provision which has many strengths and very few weaknesses • grade 2 – provision in which the strengths clearly outweigh the weaknesses • grade 3 – provision with a balance of strengths and weaknesses • grade 4 – provision in which the weaknesses clearly outweigh the strengths • grade 5 – provision which has many weaknesses and very few strengths. Cheylesmore House Quinton Road Coventry CV1 2WT Telephone 0203 863000 Fax 0203 863100 © FEFC 1994 This report may be photocopied. FEFC INSPECTION REPORT 40/94 WEYMOUTH COLLEGE SOUTH WEST REGION Inspected December 1993 and January and March 1994 Summary Weymouth College, Dorset, is the major provider of academic and vocational education for 16-19 year old students in south and west Dorset and is increasingly successful in attracting adult students. The governing body is supportive and effective. The college is responsive to the needs of students with learning difficulties. There are strong links with local schools. Effective teaching and student support, delivered by well-qualified and experienced staff, help to ensure high levels of achievement in most curriculum areas. Students’ results in external examinations are good. The college has some good quality teaching accommodation and well-resourced libraries. Student life is enriched by a varied programme of extra curricular activities. The college is working within a sound framework to develop its quality assurance although there are inconsistencies in the operation of existing procedures. It should ensure that the current restructuring of senior management results in an effective team approach to strategic planning. The college should strengthen its management information systems to ensure the greater reliability and availability of information. Other weaknesses include the lack of an effective overall marketing strategy and the poor access to rooms and buildings for students with restricted mobility. The grades awarded as a result of the inspection are given below: Aspects of cross-college provision Grade Responsiveness and range of provision 2 Governance and management 3 Students’ recruitment, guidance and support 1 Quality assurance 3 Resources: staffing 2 equipment/learning resources 2 accommodation 2 Curriculum area Grade Curriculum area Grade Science and mathematics 2 Hairdressing 3 Information technology 3 Construction 1 Creative and performing arts1 Engineering 2 Humanities 2 Community studies 2 Business and administration 3 Adult education 2 Foundation studies 2 Travel, tourism & leisure 2 Hotel and catering 3 CONTENTS Paragraph Summary Introduction 1 The college and its aims 3 Responsiveness and range of provision 7 Governance and management 16 Students’ recruitment, guidance and support 22 Teaching and the promotion of learning 31 Students’ achievements 39 Quality assurance 47 Resources 51 Conclusions and issues 55 Figures 1 INTRODUCTION 1 Weymouth College, Dorset, was inspected over the period December l993 to March l994. In December and January 13 inspectors spent 35 days inspecting specialist curriculum areas. Aspects of cross-college provision were subsequently inspected by a team of eight inspectors who spent 28 inspector days in the college during February and March 1994. Inspectors visited 206 learning sessions, examined samples of students’ work and held discussions with governors, college staff, students, parents, local employers and representatives of the Dorset Training and Enterprise Council (TEC). 2 The inspection was carried out according to the framework and guidelines described in Council Circular 93/28. The framework describes a four-year inspection cycle. When this cycle becomes fully established, colleges will have the opportunity to respond to the findings of earlier inspection visits before their quadrennial inspection and the subsequent published report. As the inspection of Weymouth College occurred early in the cycle, the opportunity for such a response has not been available. THE COLLEGE AND ITS AIMS 3 Weymouth College was established in 1985 as a tertiary institution for post-16 education and training. Situated in the town of Weymouth, it operates on two sites at Newstead Road and Cranford Avenue, which are two miles apart. The college is responsible for education services at the Verne prison, Portland and at two young offenders’ institutions Portland and Guy’s Marsh. 4 At the time of the inspection, there were 5,501 enrolments, including 2,124 students who were studying full time. Enrolments by age and level of study are shown in figures 1 and 2, respectively. The college employed 356 full-time equivalent staff, 212 of whom were teachers (figure 3). 5 The college is organised into 11 sectors. There are eight curriculum-based sectors offering full and part-time courses: business and catering studies, community studies, construction, creative and performing arts, engineering and electronics, foundation studies, humanities, and science and mathematics. The other three sectors are the flexible learning centre which sells training and consultancy; the information technology unit which is responsible for co-ordinating and procuring resources and systems as well as offering courses, and ‘Train West’, the college’s response to the TEC initiative on vocational programmes for youth training and the unemployed. Full-time equivalent enrolments by curriculum area and mode of attendance are shown in figure 4. 6 The senior management team comprises the principal and three senior managers for curriculum and student affairs, personnel planning and quality, and resources. The college management team is made up of senior managers, heads of section and the cross-college co-ordinators for information technology, work experience placements, curriculum, staff 2 development, quality assurance and the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) and General Certificate of Education advanced level (GCE A level) matrix. 7 The catchment area for the college is primarily south and west Dorset, including Weymouth and Portland, Dorchester, Bridport, Sherborne, Lyme Regis and Beaminster. The area has a population of approximately 147,000, which includes more than 61,000 for Weymouth and Portland alone. Some specialist courses recruit further afield. Courses in stonemasonry, for example, have developed as a result of the college’s proximity to Portland and these attract students nationally and internationally. 8 As a tertiary establishment, the college’s core market is for full-time 16-19 year olds. The percentage of 16 year olds staying in full-time education and training in the area is approximately 80 per cent. Of the 700 students leaving the four local 11-16 comprehensive schools in July 1994, 503 transferred to the college. The college took 264 students, approximately 18 per cent of their leavers, from other neighbouring schools and a further 282 students, 19 per cent of their leavers, from independent schools and other schools further away in north and west Dorset. The college also recruits from schools catering for students with learning difficulties and/or disabilities. The main competitors for school leavers are the sixth forms of schools in local towns. The nearest colleges are Bournemouth and Poole College of Further Education and Yeovil College, 29 miles and 28 miles away, respectively. 9 Ninety-six per cent of firms in Dorset employ fewer than 25 people, and 15 per cent fewer than six people. The local job centre advertises employment opportunities in leisure, travel and tourism and catering but many of these positions are temporary and part-time. According to the 1991 census, the largest local employment categories for south and west Dorset were distribution, hotel and catering and other services, followed by engineering and banking and business services. 10 Employment trends in the area are downwards, in part as a consequence of the running down of the local defence industry. The unemployment rate in the travel-to-work area of Weymouth is 9.3 per cent and in Weymouth/Portland it is 8.8 per cent. 11 In its mission statement, Weymouth College aims to ‘meet the needs of the community by providing a quality service which achieves positive outcomes’. The statement refers to

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