An adult learning centre in Blackburn is making insufficient progress in two categories according to an Ofsted report conducted on July 17.

Recently opened Enterprise4All, based on Appleby Street, Blackburn offers a remote independent learning in digital marketing skills and website development.

Aimed at learners who are unemployed, wishing to change careers or those who are self-employed they are provided with digital skills to improve their business or learn digital skills to enter the job market.

They work in partnership with many government organisations, community groups, private businesses, stakeholders involved in designing a suitable curriculum for its users.

Bootcamps run for eight weeks, and training is conducted online with learners having the option to attend a weekly ‘drop-in’ session face to face.

At their initial monitoring visit the educator was graded insufficient in designing and delivering relevant adult learning provisions and ensuring that learners benefit from the education in preparation for their intended job role.

However, Ofsted found that the company did not develop a sufficiently ambitious enough curriculum and did not carry out robust assessments at the start of the course.

The report said: “Leaders have not fully developed their systems and processes to support them to focus sufficiently on the key priorities for improvement. Many of the weaknesses identified in the quality improvement plan remain.

“Leaders do not put in place training to develop trainers’ teaching skills. They do not use the outcomes of observations to provide targeted actions and support. This means that trainers do not know how to improve their teaching skills.”

New staff have been recently acquired to deal with the issue, but it was too early for inspectors to see the impact of this.

Ofsted did praise the planning of the curriculum, which was provided in a chronological order and offers the foundational knowledge before moving on to more complex topics.

However, they criticised the fact that they were not sufficiently recapped from previous sessions or use assessment strategies to check what learners know and can do and left gaps in attendees’ knowledge.

The report stated: “Trainers do not use information about learners to establish what they already know and can do. They do not plan activities to ensure that learners with prior knowledge and skills make sustained progress from their when they started the course.

“Most trainers use their industry experience to explain key concepts clearly. Learners appreciate the new knowledge and skills that they gain because of the training that they receive.

“Learners who are self-employed, describe how the skills that they have gained have made a positive impact to their business.”

Safeguarding was considered to have experienced reasonable progress to ensure that effective safeguarding arrangements were in place.