Tri-partite reviews: a signature pedagogy for police education

All apprenticeship training providers are required to conduct regular tri-partite reviews by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) as a matter of funding rules compliance. Tri- partite reviews, as the name suggests, involve three parties, the learner (apprentice), an employer representative who is supporting the learner and a tutor who is supporting the learner as a provider of apprenticeship training collectively reviewing learning progress. Since April 2021 Ofsted have undertaken responsibility for inspecting all apprenticeship training including apprenticeships at levels 6 and 7 (with the exception of apprenticeships related to initial teacher training). Ofsted’s interest in tri-partite reviews is in their impact on the progressive acquisition and application of the knowledge, skills and behaviours in association with other factors of an apprenticeship (such as apprentice’s own personal goals or the ongoing development of functional skills) which are identified at the start of the programme. Tri-partite reviews are used as an important source of evidence during Ofsted inspection because they are a key means of ensuring that the quality of provision is meeting the needs of both the apprentice and the employer.
However, the provision of tri-partite reviews is not solely a matter of compliance, it is also a key determinant of the quality of apprenticeship training. This research project is intended to contribute to the development and dissemination of good practice with regards to the provision of tri-partite reviews for the benefit of learners, employers and providers.

Copyright © the authors 2021
This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution International (CC BY 4.0). To view a copy of this licence, visit (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0). For reuse or distribution, please include this copyright notice.