PAL Shortlisted as Finalist for Inaugural FAB EPA Awards
We're absolutely delighted to announce that PAL has been shortlisted for the Federation of Awarding Bodies EPA Awards 2022! The awards ceremony celebrates the achievements of end-point assessment organisations over the past year and will take place at FAB's EPA 2022 Conference on the 19th of May. PAL is a finalist in the Multi-Standard EPAO of the Year (SME) [...]
Catherine Large’s speech: Annual Apprenticeship Conference 2022
Ofqual's Executive Director for Vocational and Technical Qualifications, Catherine Large OBE, delivered a speech at the Annual Apprenticeship Conference 2022. The speech illustrates Ofqual's vision and makes clear their intended approach to collaborative and cooperative working to pursue apprenticeship programme excellence. Ofqual will be robust in its regulations of End-Point Assessment Organisations and is keen to engage and learn from [...]
Maximising the Benefits of Professional Discussion and Minimising Threats to Validity
This White Paper will review the use of Professional Discussion (PD) as an assessment method and will include an insight into the findings of published academic research, in particular a study by Ahmed, Pollitt & Rose (2009). What is Professional Discussion? This use of PDs has become increasingly significant in End-Point Assessment (EPA) either as a discrete component with [...]
IfATE COVID Flexibilities and Temporary Discretions
The Institue for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) has updated the guidance on the use of flexibilities and temporary discretions for End-point Assessment. For PAL clients, this means: - Temporary discretions that were due to be switched off at the end of February (Retail standards) can now be utilised until midnight on the 31st of March 2022. There has [...]
Reminder: Assessment Flexibilities and Temporary Discretions
End-point Assessment Arrangements for 2022 At the onset of the COVID 19 pandemic in May 2020, the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) introduced a range of assessment flexibilities and temporary discretions to ensure that apprentices were able to progress through EPA safely and complete their programme. The assessment flexibilities relate to all apprenticeship standards. The temporary discretions [...]
Updated Assessment Plans: ST0228 Commis Chef AP02 / STO227 Chef De Partie AP02
Overview The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) has recently published the revised standards and assessment plans for STO227 Chef de Partie and STO228 Commis Chef. The latest version of each assessment plan replaces the previous version, and the plans set out more focused assessment methods and a clearer grading system. The information below provides an overview of [...]
ESFA Best Practice Guides for End-point Assessment
The ESFA has published three guides to support high-quality end-point assessment for apprenticeships. Each guide is specific to either the apprentice, employer or training provider. Contents include how best to prepare for end-point assessment and important information about resits and retakes. The links to the documents can be found below: Apprentice Guidance Employer Guidance Training Provider Guidance [...]
IfATE Publish ‘Raising the Standards’ Guidance
The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education's Apprentice Panel has launched its own guidance, Raising the Standards. The guidance, created by apprentices for employers and training organisations, provides information and advice on how to deliver a quality apprenticeship programme. The document can be found on the IfATE website here.
Assessment Document Update
From the 1st of August, we will be implementing some changes to our assessment documentation. This will begin with a new streamlined version of the Overall Summary record, which is used to communicate results and feedback to apprentices, employers and training providers. Initially, the following standards will be affecting: Adult Care Worker ST0005 Lead Adult Care Worker ST0006 The [...]
Key Updates – Apprenticeship Funding Rules
Clarification Version of the Apprenticeship Funding Rules – Key Points to Note The ESFA recently published the clarification version of the 2021/2022 funding rules. The clarification version is effectively a first draft of next year's rules. Below is a summary of the most important changes for training providers: 1. Dialogue with the EPAO must commence at least 6 months [...]
Updated 30/06/2021 – Functional Skills EPA Flexibilities
Update - As published in the ESFA Update document from the 30/06/2021: "The temporary suspension of the requirement for level 2 apprentices to work towards and attempt level 2 Functional Skills has been extended to include level 2 apprentices with a planned end date on or before 31 December 2021. For all apprentices with a planned end date beyond 31 [...]
Leader in Adult Care – Minor Assessment Plan Change
There has been a minor change to the end-point assessment plan for the Leader in Adult Care Level 5 standard. The latest version of the assessment plan is AP02 and can be found here. The change is as follows: The previous version of the assessment plan (AP01) stated: The observation will typically last for 75 minutes comprised of 60 [...]