Glowing Ofsted report for USW police apprenticeships

Following a rigorous Ofsted (Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills) inspection of policing apprenticeships at the University of South Wales (USW), they have received the official judgement of ‘Good’ across the board, but also an ‘Outstanding’ judgement for Behaviours and Attitudes’.

On 1 April 2021, Ofsted took over the quality monitoring of all apprenticeships (up to and including level 7). This meant, for the first time, HEIs delivering apprenticeships in England came within the remit of Ofsted.

In May, Oftsed inspectors visited the University’s Treforest campus and four of their partner police force sites, reviewing the Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship (PCDA) and the Police Community Support Officer Apprenticeship (PCSOA).

The judgements are categorised into four areas, in addition to a separate grading for ‘overall effectiveness’, as well as a judgement for ‘Apprenticeships’.

USW’s Ofsted inspection results are:

• Overall Effectiveness: Good
• Quality of Education: Good
• Behaviours & Attitudes: Outstanding
• Personal Development: Good
• Leadership & Management: Good
• Apprenticeships: Good

The four possible gradings for each element are: Inadequate, Requires Improvement, Good, or Outstanding.

Dr Ben Calvert, Vice-Chancellor, said: “Congratulations to everyone who has worked so hard towards these outcomes – it was a real team effort involving not only areas across the University, but our external partners in police forces as well. To have such good outcomes on our first inspection is admirable and reflects the professional and high-quality delivery of our policing apprenticeships.

“This judgment comes on the heels of our exceptional QAA review and shows that those things that we control, we control with exceptional quality. This result also shows, in line with our 2030 strategy, how responsive and innovative we can be in working with our partners.”