On 1 April the Adult Learning Inspectorate will, together with the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted), become responsible for inspection of all government-funding work-based learning, including FE college provision, the New Deal scheme, adult and community learning and the LearnDirect initiative.

Up to 5 million learners will have their courses inspected by the ALI, which is based in Coventry and is headed by Chief Inspector & Chief Executive David Sherlock, former chief inspector of the Training Standards Council.

With two organisations coming together to work on inspection, it was recognised a common standard was needed for them both to work to, and this has developed into the Common Inspection Framework for inspecting Post-16 Education and Training. The framework sets out the principles of inspection, how inspections will be carried out and how evaluation should be applied to the inspection of indvidual providers. In February OFSTED announced the names of the first five Further Education colleges it will be inspecting under the new arrangements.

The ALI website, although not particularly visually inspiring in TrainingZONE's opinion, gives access to copies of the framework itself, draft guidance for using it and a sample mock inspection report. The site is still under development, and when complete will include information on training activities and ALI-related events.