Preparing for Change: What Ofqual regulated EPAOs Need to Know About Assessment Strategies

This is the second article from Sarah Sutcliffe and Jackie Stark from ProAssess and Jacqui Molkenthin from JEML Consulting designed to support EPAOs/AOs understand the rapid and fundamental changes to End-point Assessment (EPA) and what it means for governance, resources, policies, strategies, and operation.

Our first article provided  an introductory overview to support the preparation for the move towards a Centre based model of EPA delivery.  Our second article introduces assessment Strategies and looks at how AOs can begin to develop them.  But before we get into the detail, it is important for the sector to be aware of the latest terminology: Apprenticeship standards are now occupational standards, end-point assessment is now apprenticeship assessment, and end-point assessment organisations are Awarding Organisations to Ofqual and Assessment Organisations to the DfE. 

What we know so far and how to prepare for the change

Based on the assessment principles announced in February, and the newly released Assessment Plan Structure, we know that assessment plans will be much shorter (approximately 2 pages) and high level, containing the minimal prescription of assessment required to demonstrate occupational competence. A good indicator of the new style assessment plans, based on the newly announced structure, can be found in the new foundation apprenticeships.

A quick overview is as follows:

1. There is no longer a defined gateway to EPA (this is because assessments can be both pre and post gateway)
2. KSBs have been replaced with technical knowledge, technical skills, and employability skills and behaviours, but only the knowledge and skills are formally assessed (the employer is responsible for verifying that each behaviour statement has been sufficiently demonstrated). The knowledge and skills have been grouped into ‘assessment outcomes’
3. Limited detail is provided around assessment methods, and it may or may not state who delivers the assessments
4. Grading criteria is not provided, instead it refers to performance indictors/performance descriptors. The new assessment plan structure from Skills England states that the assessment plan will describe the characteristics of a ‘pass’ and any other grades above a pass
5. No detail is provided around resits or retakes

The shrinking assessment plans will place greater responsibilities on AOs to design, develop, and deliver fit for purpose assessments, as they will be determining what is assessed, how, when, and by who, as well as creating the grading criteria / mark schemes in line with the performance descriptors provided in the assessment plan Such drastically reduced assessments plans, do provide flexibility for AOs, but they will also increase the risk to the quality and consistency of assessment across standards and AOs.  One of the methods that has been proposed by Ofqual to regulate AO ability to design, develop and deliver fit for purpose assessment is the use of assessment strategies. 

Assessment strategies do not form part of the Ofqual General Conditions of Recognition (GCoR) or the current EPA level conditions which means AOs that have solely delivered EPA may not have come across them.  But they are already used for some specific qualification types such as technical qualifications (TQs) and performance table qualifications (PTQs), which means that there is some information available that may help AOs to begin to develop their assessment strategies.  The Ofqual consultation sets out high level guidance in the content of apprenticeship assessment strategies and promises further guidance. Our advice would be to start working on a CASS and an organisation level assessment strategy now.  Even draft versions of these will prove to be really beneficial in demonstrating to Ofqual that you have the knowledge and resources (capacity and capability) to operate the new format of apprenticeship assessment.

Understanding Assessment Strategies

If you’re already approved as an Awarding Organisation, you’ll be familiar with making decisions about assessment methods and grading. But for many, creating a formal, documented assessment strategy, particularly one required for regulatory purposes, will be new territory.

An assessment strategy is a document an AO produces to explain and justify its overall approach to the design, development, delivery, and awarding of a qualification. Essentially it is the means by which an AO explains how it complies with regulatory requirements and justifies and articulates its overall approach, with underpinning evidence, to ensure that it is fit for purpose.  This includes measures that the AO will use to secure, maintain and enhance the validity of the qualification, and to keep the strategy under review.

It has been proposed by Ofqual that that AOs will be required to develop an assessment strategy covering each apprenticeship assessment they offer.  In order for an AO to develop an assessment strategy per apprenticeship assessment we strongly recommend initially developing an organisational-level assessment strategy, detailing your overall approach to the design, delivery, marking and awarding of qualifications. This organisation level strategy will support you to develop and adopt a consistent approach across your organisation to then create the tailored strategies for each apprenticeship assessment.    

Assessment Strategy Content 

Ofqual has proposed that assessment strategies for apprenticeship assessment cover:

• alignment with the proposed new Ofqual general purposes for apprenticeship assessment
  • Purpose A: Enabling the apprentice to acquire and demonstrate the knowledge and skills specified in the occupational standard, to reflect the level of competence required
  • Purpose B: Providing employers with reliable evidence of an apprentice’s attainment against the relevant knowledge and skills so they can have confidence that the apprentice has reached the expected performance standard and use the evidence to make employment decisions
  • Purpose C: Building the apprentice’s confidence in the workplace and motivating them to develop their occupational competence
• coverage of the relevant knowledge and skills in the occupational standard and of the assessment outcomes in the assessment plan
• setting assessments
• synoptic assessment (requiring the apprentice to identify and use effectively, in an integrated way, an appropriate and substantial selection of knowledge and skills from the occupational standard) 
• marking assessments, including the balance between centre and AO marking
• arrangements with centres and approach to Centre Assessment Standards Scrutiny (CASS)
• standard setting
• assessment conditions
• assessment availability
• resits and resubmissions.

Recognising that this is new to many AOs, and may be daunting, we will be providing further guidance and support on what an assessment strategy should include against each of the above requirements over the coming months.

By Jacqui Molkenthin from JEML Consulting, Sarah Sutcliffe and Jackie Stark from ProAssess