Changes to apprenticeship assessments

We’re temporarily adding flexibility to apprenticeship assessments, to help support apprentices with completing their assessments. These changes involve us working with the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IFATE) and the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual).

External Quality Assurance Providers (EQAPs) are still responsible for making sure that assessments are consistent and high quality.

What you can do

Assessment dates can be changed if they cannot take place because of coronavirus.

If the apprentice has a time limit for their end-point assessment before they enter gateway, you can pause the assessment for up to 12 weeks. If an end-point assessment organisation (EPAO) pauses an assessment, they must contact their EQAP to let them know. The training provider must record this break in the ILR.

You can now sign off the gateway period remotely. You must agree this with all of the following:

• apprentice
• employer
• training provider

The EPAO can also contact the EQAP to check whether: 

• a remote assessment can replace the face-to-face assessment
• they can change the assessment to use different methods
• they need to change the end-point assessment to a later date than what’s in the assessment plan

The EQAP must check all changes to the assessment method with IFATE. The changes cannot lower the quality or overall intention of the assessment. 

View IFATE’s end-point assessment changes.

Last updated on 30 March 2020 10:00