CONTENTS Section Page PART ONE: SUMMARY 1. INTRODUCTION 1 2. SUMMARY OF MAIN FINDINGS 2 PART TWO: OVERALL QUALITY OF PROVISION 3. LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT 4 4. ACHIEVEMENTS AND STANDARDS 5 5. QUALITY OF PROVISION FOR LEARNING 6 PART THREE: REPORTS ON CURRICULUM AREAS 6. CURRICULUM AREA: COMPUTING AND 9 INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) 7. CURRICULUM AREA: ENGINEERING 11 8. CURRICULUM AREA: ESSENTIAL SKILLS 13 9. CURRICULUM AREA: TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY 15 (HOSPITALITY AND CATERING, AND TRAVEL AND TOURISM) PART FOUR: CONCLUSION AND KEY PRIORITIES FOR DEVELOPMENT 10. CONCLUSION 18 11. KEY PRIORITIES FOR DEVELOPMENT 18 APPENDIX 1 – Health and Safety APPENDIX 2 – Deficiencies in Equipment A number of quantitative terms are used in the report. In percentages, the terms correspond as follows: More than 90% - almost/nearly all 75%-90% - most 50%-74% - a majority 30%-49% - a significant minority 10%-29% - a minority Less than 10% - very few/a small minority PART ONE: SUMMARY 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 The Northern Regional College was formed in August 2007, following the merger of the former Causeway Institute of Further and Higher Education, the East Antrim Institute of Further and Higher Education and the North East Institute of Further and Higher Education. The college has nine campuses spread over a large geographical area, and across seven local government districts. It has two campuses located in both Ballymena and Newtownabbey, and one in Antrim, Ballymoney, Coleraine, Larne and Magherafelt. The significant distances between the campuses has provided executive and senior management with major challenges in a number of key areas, including staff travelling times, timetabling, the scheduling of team meetings and in the development of a corporate identity for the college. 1.2 Recent figures from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Industry’s monthly Labour Market Report (May 2009) indicate that the claimant counts in Antrim (3.4%), Ballymena (3.3%), Larne (4.0%), Magherafelt (3.8%) and Newtownabbey (3.5%) are just below the Northern Ireland average of 4.3%, with Ballymoney and Coleraine just above at 4.5%. The employment rates in Ballymoney (68%) and Magherafelt (64.8%) are below the Northern Ireland average of 70.3%. In all of the other district council areas the employment rate is above the Northern Ireland average: Antrim at 76.7%, Ballymena at 75.5%, Coleraine at 76.1%, Larne at 75.5% and Newtownabbey at 78.3%. The Northern Ireland Multiple Deprivation Measure ranks Antrim at 16th, Ballymena at 20th, Ballymoney at 12th , Coleraine at 18th, Larne at 14th, Magherafelt at 17th and Newtownabbey at 23rd in the most deprived areas of Northern Ireland. 1.3 The inspection focused on the college’s full-time and part-time provision in the priority skill areas at level 2 on the national qualifications framework, which is equivalent to General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) grade C or above. The main areas inspected were computing and information and communication technology (ICT), construction, engineering (electrical, electronic and manufacturing), tourism and hospitality and the essential skills of literacy and numeracy. The college’s provision of priority skills training funded by the Department’s Jobskills (residual), Training for Success and ApprenticeshipsNI programmes, were not inspected. Prior to the inspection, students were asked to complete a confidential questionnaire to ascertain their views of their experiences at the college. During the inspection the inspectors interviewed groups of students, held discussions with members of the executive management team, heads of faculty, heads of school, course team leaders, managers with cross-college responsibilities and employers. They also reviewed self-evaluation reports of the priority skill areas, minutes of course team meetings, strategic and quality assurance documentation and a sample of student coursework across the areas inspected. A total of 47 lessons were observed. 1.4 ‘Circular FE 11/08’, required the six colleges of further education in Northern Ireland, to submit to the Department, a self-evaluation report for the provision of priority skill areas at level 2, and a Whole College Quality Improvement Plan, along with their College Development Plan for 2008-11. They were also required to include in their submission statistical information on student enrolments and levels of achievement for each priority skill area at level 2. This information was used by the inspection team to compare the performance of the Northern Regional College in each priority skill area, against the average for all colleges in Northern Ireland. 1 1.5 The Northern Regional College has satisfactory provision of level 2 technician and craft courses in most of the priority skill areas inspected. All of the college’s provision in construction at level 2 is concentrated in Training for Success and ApprenticeshipsNI. The college also delivers effectively an on-line GCSE in construction in 13 local post-primary schools. The college provides full-time courses in each of the other curriculum areas inspected including the Edexel First Diploma courses in engineering, in information technology (IT) practitioners, and travel and tourism. It also provides a good range of National Vocational Qualifications (NVQ) at level 1 and 2 in hospitality, at the Ballymena, Ballymoney and Newtownabbey campuses. In tourism and hospitality, the students also have good opportunities to achieve additional qualifications. Most of the students enrolled on the priority skills area level 2 programmes have mainly low entry qualifications, with a majority not having achieved grade C or equivalent in English or mathematics. In addition, a small number of students have been identified as having additional learning support needs. The college offers good opportunities in further education and training for students in each priority skills area, from level 2 to further and/or higher education and employment. 2. SUMMARY OF MAIN FINDINGS 2.1 In the areas inspected, the quality of the education and training provided by the college is satisfactory; the strengths outweigh the areas for improvement in the provision. The inspection has identified areas for improvement in leadership and management, achievements and standards and the quality of provision for learning, which need to be addressed if the needs of all of the students are to be met effectively. The Education and Training Inspectorate will monitor and report on the college’s progress in addressing these areas for improvement. 2.2 The main strengths are the: • good arrangements to support individual course teams in the self evaluation process, and the good start made in the development of an appropriate quality assurance and quality improvement planning process; • good participation by most staff in a range of internal and external professional development opportunities; • strong links with post-primary schools through the college’s good collaborative working arrangements with ten area learning communities; • good or better standards of students’ work in almost all of the courses inspected; • overall average achievement rate for priority skills areas at level 2, at 68%, which is 7% above the Northern Ireland average; • excellent progression rates at 90% to further education, training or employment for students in the level 2 priority skills areas of computing and ICT, engineering, and hospitality and tourism; 2 • good quality of the provision in engineering and hospitality and tourism; and • good or better quality of the teaching and learning in almost all (85%) of the lessons observed. 2.3 The main areas for improvement are: • the need for leadership and management of the priority skills areas at level 2 to address the limited opportunities for curriculum teams to share good practice, and to plan and develop the curriculum on a whole college basis; • the poor level of support provided by a small number of staff members for some students; • the wide variation in the quality and maintenance of the accommodation and learning resources across the college, including access to specialist resources; • the poor success rates in the essential skills of literacy and numeracy; • insufficient focus on employability skills and links with industry across most of the priority skills areas provision at level 2; • inadequate impact of the college’s pastoral care policies on a minority of students • poor use of information and learning technologies (ILT) to enhance teaching and learning and to support the development of students’ independent learning skills through the use of the college’s virtual learning environment (VLE); • lack of a further education curriculum offer at level 2 in the priority skill area of construction; and • lack of clearly defined careers education, information, advice and guidance (CEIAG) in all curriculum areas, including the focused use of electronic-Individual Student Learner Agreements (e-ISLA) to engage students more effectively in their own learning and inform them about their progress. 3 PART TWO: OVERALL QUALITY OF PROVISION 3. LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT 3.1 Since the formation of the Northern Regional College in 2007, the priority for the Director and the Governing Body has been the development of the college’s management and organisational structure. It is planned that the structure will be completed, with senior lecturers in post by June 2009, and remaining support staff in post by September 2009. Currently, the executive management team comprises