City of York Council's education and training services for adults and young people have been officially rated as 'good' by an independent government body.

The Adult Learning Inspectorate (ALI) inspected York Training Centre and the Adult and Community Education Service in November last year. In a report published this month, the inspectors rated the quality of education and training provided by the two services as 'good' (grade 2), with the work carried out by the family learning team highlighted as 'outstanding' (grade 1).

The report emphasised the continuing improvement in both adult and community learning and work-based learning and the outstanding development of parenting skills on family learning courses.

Alistair Gourlay, head of adult and community education, said: "This is a fantastic outcome. These judgements and grades are as good as any local authority adult education service in the country. It is particularly pleasing because we are a small service, and our achievement is down to the dedication of our staff and the hard work they put in day in, day out. It is great to have the quality of our service acknowledged by the Adult Learning Inspectorate."

Christine Carlton, head of York Training Centre, said: "We are delighted that the inspectors have recognised the significant improvement in success rates of our apprentices since the last inspection in 2002. This is due to the hard work and enthusiasm of our apprentices and the dedication of our training and support staff."