PAL Partners with Association of Apprentices
We are thrilled to announce that PAL has partnered with the Association of Apprentices (AoA), an apprentice-led community committed to supporting apprentices and organisations involved in apprenticeship delivery. The Association of Apprentices provides access to advice and guidance, helps apprentices build a lifelong professional network and creates opportunities for professional development. Apprentices that are registered with PAL will be eligible [...]
Join us at the AELP National Conference 2022
We are delighted to announce that PAL will be attending the AELP National Conference on the 27th and 28th of June 2022. Come and see our exhibition stand (stand 35) to find out about all of the latest exciting developments at PAL. In addition, Paul Kelly, PAL's Qualifications Director will be delivering a workshop on day one for conference delegates [...]
PAL Takes Best-in-Class Award at Inaugural FAB EPA Awards
Further to our recent post about being shortlisted as a finalist at the inaugural Federation of Awarding Bodies EPA Awards, we are absolutely thrilled to share that PAL was judged to be the winner of the Multi-standard EPAO of the Year (SME) category. All category winners and those organisations judged as highly commended will be entered into the FAB [...]
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 [...]