Skills England Publishes Operational Rulebook for Reformed Apprenticeship Assessment

The new requirements document sets out how assessment organisations must build apprenticeship assessment plan, and brings the generic performance descriptors for Levels 2 to 7 into public view.

Skills England has today (19 June) published its Requirements and guidance for apprenticeship assessment, the document that assessment organisations (AOs) must follow when designing apprenticeship assessment plans (AAPs) under the reformed system. It replaces Skills England’s withdrawn interim guidance and puts operational detail behind the assessment principles the Department for Education set out in February 2025.

The publication is accompanied by two annexes: definitions of the available assessment methods, and, significantly, the generic performance descriptor tables for Levels 2 to 7. Together, they give the sector the first full view of the architecture that the revised plans will be built on.

A new plan architecture

Under the reformed model, AAPs are built around assessment outcomes, broad statements describing how an apprentice demonstrates occupational competence, with each knowledge and skill statement mapped to a single outcome. AOs then design assessments that fully cover every outcome.

Sitting alongside these are the new performance descriptors, which set the level required for a pass and a distinction across six categories: applied knowledge, applied skills, regulatory and procedural awareness, communication and collaboration, information use and decision making, and responsibility and autonomy. There is one generic set for each level from 2 to 7, refined per occupation. Skills England stresses these are not marking grids, apprentices are not assessed directly against them, but a shared reference point to support comparable outcomes across different AOs.

The guidance also formalises content sampling, allowing AOs to assess across the full range of knowledge and skills over time rather than testing every statement in every version, provided all mandatory content and all assessment outcomes are always covered.

One mandatory method, plus options

Each AAP will specify a single mandatory assessment method that must appear in every version of an assessment, with AOs free to select additional methods from a defined list spanning demonstration and observation; interview, professional discussion and Q&A; written assessment and project; and portfolio, showcase and journal. The intent is to guarantee one common feature across every apprentice’s assessment while leaving AOs room to design proportionate approaches.

Confirming the wider reforms

The document also pins down detail on changes already signalled across the past year:

• Grading is pass or distinction, with the merit grade removed. Skills England says inconsistent use of merit across standards created problems of fairness and clarity, and that standardising grades addresses this.
• Employers alone verify behaviours, drawing on existing supervision and review processes, and behaviours do not count toward the grade, though a certificate cannot be issued without employer confirmation that all required behaviours have been demonstrated.
• Mandatory qualifications are mapped to one of three models, ranging from an MQ providing the sole assessment to apprenticeship assessment running alongside it.
• Degree-apprenticeships may use the degree as the sole assessment, graded pass or fail at apprenticeship level while the degree retains its own classification.

These build on the February 2025 principles and the subsequent funding-rule changes, which had already introduced the shift from end-point assessment to flexible “apprenticeship assessment”, renamed “gateway” as “gateway to completion”, and opened the door to providers delivering and marking some assessment.

What happens next

The reforms are being rolled out on a standard-by-standard basis, with revised plans going live by occupation on the Skills England Apprenticeship Finder and existing EPA plans remaining in use until replaced. Apprenticeship assessment is regulated by Ofqual and, for degree-apprenticeships, the Office for Students, through their respective regulatory frameworks. Skills England says today’s document will be reviewed regularly, with any future changes developed in consultation with the sector.