On 4 August 2020, the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (@IfATechEd), announced the next steps for the external quality assurance (#EQA) of end-point assessment. This announcement marks a significant move from EQA being delivered by 4 types of organisation as chosen by the employer group designing the standard (employer led, professional body, IfATE or Ofqual), to EQA delivered by Ofqual (or the Office for Students for integrated degree apprenticeships).

I have been working with a number of new end-point assessment organisations, over the past few months, helping to set up their service. An interesting part of those discussions and developments has been how to cost and price end-point assessment, so I thought I would share a list of 10 things to consider when modelling costs and determining the price. The list is not exhaustive, but it is not designed to be, it is designed to get you thinking, and I hope you find it helpful.

End-point assessment organisations (EpAOs) are subject to external quality assurance (EQA), and there are currently 4 types of EQA provider (employer led, professional body, Ofqual or the IfATE). The recent IfATE Consultation proposes that all EQA is delivered by Ofqual for non-integrated degree apprenticeships, and by the Office for Students (OfS) for integrated degree apprenticeships.

In June 2020 I carried out a short survey of EpAOs, asking what they would find most valuable from an EQA provider. The survey was completed by 50 EpAOs (17% of all EpAOs), and the overwhelming response was advice, support, and the sharing best practice, alongside, responsiveness, sector expertise and adherence to the IfATE EQA framework. Read on to find out more.

Over the last 2-3 months there has been a huge amount of effort by employers, #EpAOs, External Quality Assurance (#EQA) providers and the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (@IFAteched) to identify flexibilities in the delivery of end-point assessment (#EPA) to enable EPA to continue in the midst of Covid-19.