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We have received a number of accolades for the quality of our performance:

• We are proud to have achieved outstanding Ofsted (the body which inspects the provision of all government funded training) results in February 2008.
• We were awarded the highest possible grade (Grade 1) across all areas including Leadership & Management (including equality of opportunity), Quality of Provision and Overall Effectiveness.
• There are two case studies about FCT on the QIA Excellence website. These are in recognition of the best practice areas identified by Ofsted. Read the entries here.
• We were awarded Grade 1 for both Leadership & Management and Quality of Provision, and Grade 2 for Equality of Opportunity in an Adult Learning Inspectorate (the body which inspected all post-16 provision of all government funded training up until 2006) inspection in March 2005.
• FCT earned an overall Outstanding score in 2008 as a result of taking part in the pilot of the Framework for Excellence, a performance assessment system which now applies to education and training providers across the further education (FE) sector.
• We have the Investors in People award which proves our commitment to developing and updating our staff.
• We have Beacon status for our achievements on the provision of work based learning apprenticeship programmes.
• We were placed in the top third of the ‘Fast Track 100’ companies in 2005, a business competition organised by the Sunday Times and Richard Branson of Virgin.

Above all, our highest accolade is that we keep our clients! This is not something that can be demonstrated by a certificate or award, our clients keep coming back to us because we have met their needs in the past and have proved reliable.

In addition we have achieved the following:

• Over 10,000 NVQs have been awarded to candidates in the rail industry.
• 83% of all Rail Transport NVQs and 100% of all Rail Operations (Supervisory) in the UK (City & Guild figures 2008) have been delivered by FCT.
• Comprehensive NVQ delivery systems and approaches have been delivered in:

  Rail Transport Operations
  Engineering
  Learning and Development
  Management
  Customer Service
  Health and Social Care

Here are just some of the comments we have received from our clients:  

“… feedback from the learners on my project highlighted that every single one of them felt that they had been especially lucky to have the best assessor, and the encouragement and support that they had received from this particular assessor had been a special "one off" thing. My feeling was that with several assessors involved such consistency was no accident, but an example of excellent quality.”  

Tania Murrell of the Hillingdon Association of Voluntary Services, commenting in 2007 on a successful Management and Learning and Development programme delivered by FCT to the voluntary sector.

Trefor Williams, apprentice training manager at Westinghouse Rail Systems, feels that the regular in-depth learner reviews which are held every 10 weeks as part of FCT’s work based learning apprenticeship programme “…are crucial because they enable the apprentices to see the progress they are making and puts them in charge of their own learning.”

“One of the best, if not the best, in my entire career.” An astounding comment made by Peter Blackwell, Chef National Verifier for Engineering at City & Guilds, as he observed the assessment of Lee Wickham, Westinghouse Rail Systems Apprentice by John Varney of FCT.

FCT’s excellent result in the ALI Inspection in 2005 prompted Iain Smith Head of Engineering and Technical Skills at London Underground to write congratulating Lara Newson Managing Director of FCT. He said: “This has affirmed what we at London Underground have known for many years; that Four Counties Training is the leader in your field. It is for reasons such as this that we felt able to enter into a ten year strategic partnership with you.”