Apprentices should expect simpler and “streamlined” assessments under Ofqual’s proposed reforms, the chief regulator has said.
Sir Ian Bauckham gave a keynote address at AELP’s annual conference on Monday, days after the assessment watchdog published consultation proposals to scrap end point assessment requirements and allow providers to do some assessments in-house.
He claimed his reforms were “about adjusting and improving the system, making it more streamlined” and “increasing simplicity”.
End point assessments have brought “lots of benefits in terms of reliability, trustworthiness, rigor and esteem,” Bauckham said.
“But it’s also brought some problems, and those problems include complexity, levels of duplication, repetition and in some cases, too much burden and delays on getting assessments.
“All of that has accumulated to cause some levels of frustration among both apprentices and training providers.”
The regulator was keen to stress that reforms didn’t necessarily mean wholesale upheaval for apprentices, particularly on programmes where assessment is already working well.
Charlotte Bosworth, group chief executive of Lifetime Training and until recently managing director of assessment organisation Innovate Awarding, told the conference: “If the learner experience is where it needs to be, if the quality is right, if you believe the time, cost and effort that is being spent and if the assessment is absolutely right, don’t change it”.
Bauckham replied: “What these reforms are intended to do is put in a correction that brings things back to the middle and address some of those concerns, but absolutely not throwing the baby out with the bath water”.
Ofqual’s consultation closes August 27, 2025.
It follows the government’s revised assessment principles for apprenticeships announced earlier this year.
One of those new principles was allowing training providers to do some of the assessment of their apprentices themselves. Currently, all assessments must be done by awarding organisations (AOs) and must take place at the end of the apprenticeship programme. New assessments will be able to take place during, rather than at the end, of an apprenticeship.
The current system of end point assessments has come under criticism in recent years. Training providers have complained about high costs and bureaucracy. And crippling assessor shortages in some sectors have left apprentices waiting months longer than planned to complete their apprenticeship, leading to dropouts and low achievement rate scores for training providers.
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