The ALI report, published at the end of last month, said employers were positive about the level and standard of the training provided by the Berkshire-based organisation, and the practical skills acquired by learners.
Chiltern Training, established in 1993, offers foundation and advanced modern apprenticeships in early years care, management, and customer services. At the time of the inspection earlier this year there were 67 foundation modern apprentices and 111 advanced modern apprentices studying early years education care and education.
Most of the 28 students on the management training programme had progressed from early years programmes at NVQ Level 2 and 3 and were employed in a range of posts from nursery room leaders to deputy manager and manager positions.
The inspectors found the quality of learning in early years care to be satisfactory, but said it was unsatisfactory in management. Learners in early years care gained good skills and their achievement rate for NVQs was deemed to be good, but the completion rate for modern apprenticeship frameworks was poor.
Further, only 4 per cent of the management trainees who started in 2000-01 had completed the full modern apprenticeship framework. Sixty-four per cent had achieved the NVQ Level 3, but most did not complete the key skills.
Further, the inspectors found that trainees were asked to produce too much written work and opportunities to observe them with children were not taken.
The report is on the website www.ali.gov.uk.
