Innovate Awarding fined £185k after centre certificated learners in 24 hours

An awarding body that failed to investigate suspected malpractice at a training provider until it registered and certified more than 100 learners in less than 24 hours has been fined £185,000 by Ofqual.

Innovate Awarding has now revoked almost all of the 851 level 3 business administration certificates issued to learners at one of its centres between 2023 and 2024, following a probe by the qualifications regulator.

Ofqual said Innovate failed to carry out adequate approval checks, monitoring or investigations, and did not review certificates already issued despite evidence the centre had been registering and certificating learners improperly for “many months”.

FE Week understands the centre, which Ofqual names only as ‘centre A’ in its notice of fine today, is EPIC Graduate School Ltd, based in east London. The company has not responded to requests for comment.

Innovate first raised concerns about the centre on 18 January 2024, after 130 learners were registered and certificated within a day, and removed its direct claim status. The qualification has 580 hours of total qualification time.

Innovate later sanctioned the centre, ended its relationship with it and closed its investigation, after the centre said on 31 July 2024 that 108 learners awaiting certification had been withdrawn.

But that investigation looked only at the 108 learners and did not consider the 851 already certificated through the centre, Ofqual said.

Innovate only widened its inquiry to those learners after discussions with Ofqual in February 2025. It completed the revocation of 847 of the 851 certificates, which Ofqual said were “wrongly awarded”, in August 2026, more than two years after concerns first emerged.

Innovate will also pay £15,000 of Ofqual’s costs on top of the £185,000 fine.

EPIC Graduate School, based in Forest Gate, east London, is a training provider set up in 2021. According to the company’s website, it offers privately funded courses in business administration and emergency first aid at work, alongside testing for door supervision and CCTV operatives.

‘Reckless rather than merely negligent’

According to the penalty notice, issued today following a final decision by Ofqual’s enforcement panel on 2 October, Innovate Awarding missed “numerous opportunities” to prevent the centre’s malpractice and showed a “reckless” disregard of its own controls for preventing potential qualification fraud.

But by the time a wider inquiry was launched in March 2025, after Ofqual flagged concerns about the initial investigation, learner records and contact information were “unavailable” and the opportunity to gather evidence “had largely been lost”.

In its comments on aggravating features of the case, the exam regulator said Innovate Awarding could “easily” have avoided the breaches by taking basic steps before approving the centre, when monitoring it, and after indications of malpractice came to light.

It added: “There were widespread system and controls issues, and a disregard of established processes and policies which appeared reckless rather than merely negligent.

“Although there were flaws with [Innovate Awarding’s] policies at the time, it appears likely that adverse effects would have been avoided had it followed those polices.”

‘Large scale’ impact

Innovate Awarding’s failures to identify malpractice also had a “large scale” impact due to more than 800 certificates which can be used as evidence of English language competence remaining valid for a “prolonged period” before being revoked.

Ofqual said the awarding business breached several of its own policies, including awarding the centre direct claims status, which allowed the centre to claim certificates without external quality assurance approval, after only 30 working days and samples of four learner portfolios.

Innovate’s own policies required at least 12 months of monitoring before awarding this status, and a review of ten learner portfolios.

The centre’s approval was also given “without adequate independent verification” of evidence, which included external quality assurance reports that contained “clear anomalies”, and limited assessment of risk indicators such as “links to sanctioned centres, phoenix organisations or connected businesses.

Innovate Awarding failed to recognise or escalate “significant warning signs” including an April 2024 external quality assurance report that identified learner evidence that appeared to be “several years old”, was “lacking authenticity”, used incorrect names, and “redacted” documents, Ofqual said.

The centre exceeded its annual learner registration forecast of at most 250 within about four months and “frequently” registered and certificated within one or two days, despite the business administration qualification requiring 580 hours.

Ofqual said Innovate Awarding did not routinely monitor its registration data and only escalated concerns about the centre when “exceptionally high” learner volumes appeared in January 2024.

‘No concerns’

During the investigation, Innovate said it had “no concerns” about the centre because it “responded promptly to requests and made payments on time”, according to the notice.

Ofqual also found “weak data management, record keeping and oversight”, including a lack of accurate and auditable records.

Amanda Swann, Executive Director for Delivery at Ofqual, said: “The value of qualifications depends on public confidence that they are awarded fairly and earned legitimately.

“Innovate Awarding failed to respond effectively to serious concerns raised about qualifications delivered through one of its centres. Weak controls increased the risk of qualification fraud and allowed certificates to remain in place despite doubts about whether some learners had genuinely met the qualification’s requirements.

“These are significant failings that undermine trust in qualifications and warrant a substantial financial penalty.”

Rob May, managing director of Innovate Awarding, said the company acknowledges Ofqual’s notice about “historical compliance matters from 2024”.

He added: “When concerns were raised, Innovate took action to investigate the matter, reported it to Ofqual and cooperated fully throughout the regulatory process. We are no longer working with the training provider concerned.

“Since the issues were identified, we have implemented a range of enhancements to our compliance, governance and quality assurance processes to strengthen oversight across the organisation.

“Our priority remains delivering high-quality services and maintaining the confidence of our learners, customers and stakeholders. We are committed to continuous improvement and meeting the standards expected by the regulator.”