Date: 19 Jan 2016

Serco's vocational services team, which recruits and trains apprentices across the organisation, has been awarded a 'Good' rating by Ofsted, England's education inspectorate.

A team of six inspectors spent a week examining the company's apprenticeship programme and visited sites across the country where Serco provides services including: Derriford Hospital in Plymouth; HMP Ashfield near Bristol; the Defence Academy at Shrivenham in Wiltshire; RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire; and its Customer Contact Centre in Bolton.

Inspectors judged Serco's vocational services team against a range of success measures including: leadership and management; quality of teaching; learning and assessment; and outcomes for learners.

Ofsted rated Serco as 'Good' across all areas and highlighted that clear and decisive leadership and management have led to significant improvements in quality and standards since their last inspection in 2014.

Inspectors praised Serco's 'highly knowledgeable and experienced' trainers and assessors and also noted that apprentices were 'highly regarded in the workplace' and 'highly motivated and ambitious to succeed'.

Serco is one of the UK's Top 100 employers of apprentices and part of the Skills Funding Agency's (SFA) Large Companies Unit, which comprises 40 of the largest apprenticeship/skills providers in England.

The company's vocational services team currently supports around 750 employees undertaking apprentices across Serco's UK business and a further 700 apprentices externally through its contract with the SFA.

Serco offers 25 different apprenticeships in a range of subjects - such as aeronautical engineering, custodial care, leisure, facilities management and business administration - reflecting the breadth of services that the company provides to government and the broader public sector.

Melanie Nicholson, Serco's Director of Skills said: 'In order to provide the very best services to government and the public sector, we need the very best people. Our apprenticeship programme has enabled us to recruit some exciting new talent into the business, as well develop the skills of our existing employees, and I'm delighted that it's been rated so highly. This reflects the investment we have made in vocational services at Serco, the hard work of our team, and the commitment and enthusiasm of our learners.

'The Government has made boosting the apprenticeship system a priority and we hope to encourage more employees and young people to consider apprenticeships as a valuable route to developing their careers. We will be using the report's recommendations to further improve our service and to aid preparation for new levy being introduced from April 2017.'

In 2015, Serco supported the launch of the UK's first-ever degree level apprenticeship in management. The new apprenticeship has been designed for employers by employers, with Serco leading a group of 40 employers and universities to develop the standards for this new qualification on behalf of the Chartered Management Institute (CMI).

For a full copy of the report, please visit: http://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/inspection-reports/find-inspection-report/provider/ELS/54333

Ends

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For more information, please contact:

Tracey Cobbett at Serco on 07590 779 327 or tracey.cobbett@serco.com

Serco Group plc issued this content on 2016-01-19 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 2016-01-19 13:43:05 UTC

Original Document: https://www.serco.com/media/pressreleases/serco-apprenticeship-programme-rated-good-by-ofsted