Ofqual Fines EAL £150,000

Ofqual has fined Excellence, Achievement & Learning Limited (EAL) £150,000 for serious and repeated failures in the delivery of apprenticeship qualifications.

As a result, apprentices were assessed against the wrong standards. In some cases, this involved skills relevant to workplace safety. EAL also failed to manage incorrect results properly.

EAL admitted a series of failures across its assessment delivery, results management and appeals handling. These included assessing learners against the wrong version of an assessment plan, and failing to correct incorrect results in line with its own procedures. EAL also failed to follow its appeals policy in a way that guaranteed impartiality.

EAL’s failures meant some apprentices were certified without being tested on skills potentially relevant to workplace safety.

A total of 44 learners were directly affected by being assessed against the wrong version of the assessment plan.

A total of 44 learners were directly affected by being assessed against the wrong version of the assessment plan. Of those, eight had their certificates revoked. A further 13 learners were affected by failures in EAL’s appeals process.

An audit carried out by Ofqual following the incidents found serious weaknesses in EAL’s systems. EAL could not show it had proper control over how it corrected incorrect results, or how it made sure learners were assessed against the right assessment plan. Ofqual also found only limited assurance that EAL’s appeals process worked as it should.

EAL reported the issues to Ofqual and has co-operated with Ofqual’s investigation. For the majority of learners affected by the assessment material errors there was no impact on progression and there is no evidence that the outcome of any appeal was changed as a result of the failures identified.

EAL has since set out to Ofqual the steps it will take to prevent these failures recurring, and Ofqual will check that EAL delivers on these commitments.

Amanda Swann, Ofqual’s Executive Director for Delivery, said: “EAL’s failures were serious, repeated and preventable. Learners on these qualifications must be able to trust that their assessments are properly designed and delivered, and that if something goes wrong, it is handled correctly.

“EAL has co-operated with us and invested in putting things right. But this fine reflects how significant these failures were and our commitment to holding awarding organisations to account when their systems let learners down.”

EAL has set out to Ofqual the steps it will take to ensure these failures do not happen again. Ofqual will check that EAL delivers on those commitments.