Independent end-point assessment of apprenticeships is a key feature of the apprenticeship reforms. Under these new arrangements individual employers and training providers select a registered End-Point Assessment Organisation (EPAO) to undertake their end-point assessment.
These EPAOs have been approved to undertake end-point assessment (EPA) against a specific apprenticeship Standard and in accordance with the specific Assessment Plan.
For the apprentice, employer and other stakeholders, it is critical that end-point assessment is consistent and comparable. This means that regardless of which EPAO is selected and regardless of which individual assessor conducts the assessment, employers and apprentices can be confident that the assessment decision will be the same and will be valid.
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Our role, as External Quality Assurance provider for Rail Apprenticeships, is to reassure employers and apprentices that the end-point assessment market-place is functioning as intended and provide them with confidence in the quality and validity of the end-point assessment service they select.
Our aim is to safeguard the end-point assessment market-place for Rail employers and apprentices by ensuring the validity, consistency and comparability across the different end-point assessment providers.
We strive to be a critical friend and trusted partner in our work by offering the appropriate balance of support, challenge, confidentiality, understanding and insight to End Point Assessment organisations.
By fostering continuous improvements and working across End Point Assessment organisations we can also provide first-hand intelligence on how standards and assessment plans are working in practice, and how those working with the standards, or are responsible for refreshing them, can build on what has gone before.
The documents below set out our blueprint for external quality assurance.