A Derby company training hundreds of apprentices is officially one of the country’s very best providers after being judged ‘Strong’ in every area by Ofsted.
Nine Dots Development, which provides apprenticeship training for businesses across England in a range of areas including AI, HR, management, digital, data analysis and marketing, received the glowing report under Ofsted’s new framework launched in November 2025.
Instead of single word judgements, Ofsted now scores educational providers in five separate areas: Inclusion; Leadership and Governance; Achievement; Curriculum and Teaching; Participation and Development.
The judgement puts Nine Dots among the highest scoring few per cent of the country’s 1440 providers registered to deliver apprenticeships by the Department for Education. Of those to have been judged under the new framework, very few have achieved ‘strong’ in every area.
The report contained detailed praise for Nine Dots’ apprenticeship provision with a team of five inspectors – who visited in June this year – impressed by how well apprentices were supported in achieving their best and applying their newly acquired skills in the workplace.
The report said:
“Apprentices are extremely satisfied with their training and the environment in which they work. They look forward to their workshop sessions and attend very well. They feel comfortable to share experiences and network with like-minded professionals, which broadens their knowledge. Apprentices especially value the interactive and interesting workshop content as well as the wide range of high-quality resources and online learning tools. Apprentices are rightly impressed by their coaches, whom they find to be experienced, friendly and highly constructive.
“Coaches have high expectations for their apprentices and demonstrate a strong commitment to helping them to achieve their goals. Apprentices especially value the way that their coaches skilfully help them to apply theoretical concepts to real work scenarios. This rapidly develops and deepens their understanding. Outside of group workshops, apprentices benefit greatly from extremely effective individual coaching and support. Their coaches get to know them very well as individuals. Apprentices report that this is both motivating and immensely supportive.
“Apprentices have access to a very wide range of pertinent resources to support their wellbeing. They undertake thought-provoking and highly relevant wider learning activities, such as discussions about equality and current affairs. This enables them to use this understanding in their job roles as well as in society more broadly. Apprentices make strong progress and achieve highly, because of the close links that coaches maintain with their employers and the excellent individual support that they experience. They are able to expertly apply what they learn in their workplaces. Their employers likewise recognise that apprentices become more skilful and confident over time, contributing positively to their organisations. Apprentices, for example, now handle challenging workplace situations more effectively, including managing difficult conversations and independently completing annual reviews.”
Nine Dots Development was started 11 years ago by childhood friends Jordan Burke and James Davison, with the mission of making the UK the best place to work in the world through its wide range of programmes designed to help workplaces run smoothly through effective and supportive training.
At the time of the report, the company was training 377 apprentices in companies across England. It also provides courses in HR, leadership and management to businesses around the world, including Scania, BAE Systems, Fred Perry and Associated Press.
This year the company has seen huge growth in its newly launched digital apprenticeships including a highly popular course in AI.
“We are absolutely delighted with our latest Ofsted report judging us to be strong in all areas. We are very proud of the work we do here at Nine Dots and it’s testament to the hard work of every member of the team that we have received this judgement. The new Ofsted framework allows for a far more detailed and nuanced picture of our work and we couldn’t be happier with the report.”
James said:
“The world of apprenticeships is moving quickly all the time and our team of trusted coaches are expertly placed to provide the very best training to our learners. Our newly launched AI and digital apprenticeships have been absolutely flying this year and we are delighted to see businesses approach cutting edge topics such as AI by investing in the appropriate training for their staff. Thank you to every member of the Nine Dots team for their hard work in achieving this great testimonial from Ofsted.”