South and City College Birmingham

South and City College Birmingham is a large general further education college with eight campuses, serving 3,850 young people, 4,809 adults and 349 apprentices, including 135 learners with high needs. Many learners come from some of Birmingham's most deprived communities. Safeguarding standards are met, and inspectors found a welcoming, inclusive and respectful culture where learners and apprentices generally feel safe and well supported. The college performs to expected standards in several important areas, including inclusion, its contribution to meeting skills needs, adult learning achievement and curriculum, and provision for learners with high needs. Leaders work well with employers and stakeholders, invest in industry-standard facilities, and have brought about swift improvements in high-needs provision. However, provision is uneven and several significant weaknesses remain. Leadership and governance, apprenticeships, young people's achievement and participation, and adult participation require further improvement. Attendance is too low for both young people and adults, despite a range of strategies, and too few young people make progress in GCSE English and mathematics. Apprenticeship achievement is too low, too many apprentices complete late, written work is not consistently strong enough, and careers guidance for apprentices is limited. Governors also do not receive consistently accurate apprenticeship information, which weakens their scrutiny. Teaching is mostly effective and curriculums are generally well planned, but there are inconsistencies in a few areas, including revisiting prior learning, challenge, feedback and oversight. The report's next steps focus on improving attendance, apprenticeship completion and grades, apprentice careers guidance, GCSE progress, governor information, support for learners with barriers, employer links and professional development.

Strengths

• Safeguarding standards are met, with an open culture where concerns are identified, acted upon and managed.
• Learners and apprentices feel safe, respected and part of a welcoming college community.
• A supportive and inclusive culture meets the needs of diverse learners from areas of high deprivation.
• Staff quickly identify individual needs and mostly use support plans effectively to remove barriers.
• Disadvantaged learners receive practical support, including help with travel costs to college and placements.
• Care-experienced learners are well supported through designated teachers and strong work with external agencies.
• Leaders work effectively with employers and stakeholders to align curriculums with regional skills needs.
• Investment in industry-standard equipment, including a hydrogen bus and retrofit houses, enriches construction and green energy training.
• Adult learners, many of them disadvantaged, achieve their qualifications and develop valuable new knowledge, skills and confidence.
• Adult learning curriculums meet local skills needs and provide pathways for ESOL learners into vocational areas.
• Provision for learners with high needs has improved swiftly and prepares learners well for further study, employment or volunteering.
• High-needs staff are well qualified, use specialist training and provide accessible support and assistive technology.
• Most learners with high needs attend well, behave respectfully and make progress towards personalised targets.
• Teachers typically plan well-sequenced curriculums and use effective assessment and feedback in many areas.
• Apprentices develop useful knowledge, skills and behaviours and apply them successfully in the workplace.
• Staff feel valued, workloads are manageable, and professional development includes coaching and advanced practitioner support.
• Learners benefit from a well-planned tutorial programme, careers advice and opportunities such as sports clubs and cultural events.
• Apprentices are positive and respectful and learn in safe, supportive environments.

Areas for Improvement

• Leaders' actions to improve attendance rates for young people and adults have not had the desired impact; too many learners do not attend routinely or arrive on time.
• Governors receive inconsistent and insufficiently detailed apprenticeship information, limiting effective scrutiny and challenge.
• Too few young people make progress in GCSE English and mathematics, and very few achieve grades 4 to 9 or improve their grades.
• Overall achievement for young people remains just below the national rate, and improvements to some individual courses have not had an impact.
• Apprenticeship achievement remains too low, with too many young apprentices not achieving and too many completing beyond the planned timeframe.
• Apprentices do not routinely produce work of a high enough standard, and teachers do not provide constructive feedback to help them improve.
• Too many apprentices are unclear about the grades they could achieve, and careers advice does not help them understand wider sector opportunities.
• Leaders have insufficient oversight of apprenticeship teaching and training quality, and reports lack detailed information and targeted actions.
• Teaching is inconsistent in a few areas, including limited revisiting of prior learning, insufficient challenge, over-support and unclear activities.
• In GCSE English, learners do not routinely correct errors and continue to make the same mistakes.
• Learners on level 1 and level 2 courses do not have the opportunity to participate in work placements.
• Work with employers needs strengthening in a few curriculum areas.
• In a very few instances, curriculum adaptations for adult learners with barriers to learning are less effective.
• A very few learners report that poor peer behaviour is not always dealt with effectively enough.
• Too few apprentices use the wider learning resources available to them.
• Leaders do not have sufficient oversight of teaching in a very few areas, resulting in inconsistencies.
• Too many adult learners do not attend their courses often enough, despite managers knowing the reasons for non-attendance.

• Primary Schools
• Secondary Schools

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What is South and City College Birmingham's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for South and City College Birmingham is Needs attention, from an inspection in June 2026.

When was South and City College Birmingham last inspected by Ofsted?

South and City College Birmingham was last inspected in June 2026.

What age range does South and City College Birmingham cover?

South and City College Birmingham for pupils aged 14 to 99.

Where is South and City College Birmingham?

South and City College Birmingham is at 129 Floodgate Street, Digbeth, Birmingham, West Midlands, B5 5SU.