Hugh Baird College

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings

This is a good provider Governors and senior leaders promote a highly inclusive ethos where learners are tolerant of each other.

Learners embody the college values of 'respect for those around you, respect for yourself and respect for the college'. Senior leaders and managers ensure that close collaboration with local partners and employers results in a well-planned, coherent curriculum that meets the needs of local people and employers in Sefton and Liverpool, as well as the priorities of the wider Liverpool City region. Achievement rates for learners have risen over the last three years.

Leaders and managers have improved outcomes for learners on courses including hairdressing, be...auty therapy and business. Achievement is now high for learners aged 16 to 18, learners with high needs and adults. Learners enjoy an extensive range of enrichment activities and meaningful work experience.

Many learners and apprentices achieve extra qualifications and certificates. These opportunities further develop their practical, personal, social and employability skills very effectively. Learners benefit from highly effective pastoral guidance and support, which means that they remain on their course.

Learners develop good practical skills that prepare them effectively for work. Full-time learners on 14 to 16 programmes, who often have complex social, emotional and behavioural issues, make good progress in their vocational and GCSE lessons. In a minority of lessons, lecturers do not take into account learners' or apprentices' starting points to plan learning that challenges the most able to make the progress of which they are capable.

Leaders' and managers' strategies to improve the quality of apprenticeships are not successful. Consequently, apprentices do not make the progress of which they are capable, particularly in electrotechnical apprenticeships and those who study at the subcontractor, Absolute Training Solutions. Attendance to lessons in several courses is too low.

Information about the provider

Hugh Baird College is situated in Bootle in the south of the borough of Sefton in Merseyside. The college has three sites throughout Merseyside. The vast majority of learners attend the main college campus in Bootle.

The college recently acquired South Sefton College and now offers a range of A-level courses at this site. A very small minority of learners with high needs attend Thornton College. The college provides education and training for around 4,000 learners and apprentices.

It provides courses from entry level to level 4 in a range of subjects. The largest subject areas are construction, building services, hairdressing and beauty therapy, creative arts and media, and sport. Hugh Baird College subcontracts with Absolute Training Solutions to deliver fenestration apprenticeships.

Approximately 274,300 people live in the local authority area of Sefton. Around one third of the working-age population have qualifications at level 4 or above. This is slightly below that of the North West region and 6% below the national average.

The proportion of learners in the local authority area who achieve English and mathematics GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 is slightly below the regional average and slightly above the national figure. Levels of unemployment in the local authority area of Sefton are similar to regional and national averages and currently stand at 4.6%.