Apprenticeships: Insights from our Independent End Point Assessors (IEPAs)
It's always good to get some insights from the people who undertake our End Point Assessments and Karen Egan, one of our Technical Advisors for ILM, had a discussion with some of the lead assessors in late June who shared the trends they are seeing in recent EPAs.
The focus was on two areas – portfolios and professional discussion (PD) at level 3 and 5.
IEPAs are finding that there can be a lack of evidence within the portfolios – specifically product evidence. Whilst the portfolios are not assessed, the IEPAs are finding that apprentices are struggling in their professional discussion to reference specific evidence to support them.
A good portfolio is concise with holistic pieces of evidence that the apprentice can draw on throughout their professional discussion. It should be easy for the apprentice to use throughout the discussion so they can keep the flow of the discussion going.
IEPAs are also finding that apprentices can lack structure in their answers. An IEPA will always probe further if the answer isn’t sufficient but, as this is a timed assessment and there is a lot to get through, it is imperative that apprentices are concise and structured in their responses. Apprentices may find it helpful to use a model to facilitate their response. STARR is a common one – Situation, Task, Actions, Results, Reflections.
As training providers will be aware, 100% of the pass criteria needs to be met to gain a pass and so being concise is imperative. The IEPA will be aware of the time and will move the discussion on to the next topic area to give the apprentice the best chance of achieving the EPA.