Colleges are calling for the power to carry out assessments of their own apprentices instead of relying on external bodies after new research suggests assessor capacity is causing lengthy delays.
Forty-three per cent of colleges claim to have waited three months or longer for apprentices to receive their end-point assessment (EPA) once they have reached gateway and 82 per cent have experienced delays of more than a month.
Nearly all (94 per cent) said the availability of an assessor contributed to the delays, according to data obtained through an Association of Colleges (AoC) survey shared exclusively with FE Week.
But the body representing end-point assessment organisations (EPAOs) warned the findings were “at variance with broader-based research” conducted by Ofqual, while another expert said allowing colleges to mark their own homework would reduce trust and confidence in the apprenticeship system.
Capacity concern
Apprentices have had to pass an EPA to fully achieve their apprenticeship since 2017.
The assessments are carried out by independent and regulated EPAOs, chosen by the apprentice’s employer or training provider.
FE Week understands the government is concerned that the cost, complexity and limited capacity of EPAOs is hampering apprenticeship completion and achievement rates.
In a drive to cut red tape, ministers announced last month that colleges and training providers will soon be allowed to sign off on parts of their own apprentices’ assessments.
College bosses want the government to go a step further and bring EPA fully in-house.
Natalie Wilson, vice-principal for curriculum and skills at Luminate Education Group, said: “The current system places impractical pressures on colleges, particularly within the current funding environment. Empowering colleges to be more closely involved in the delivery of EPA could improve the experience for apprentices while also reducing the financial and administrative pressures on colleges.”
Report author Clare Barker, a senior policy manager for skills and industry at the AoC, said: “The delays identified … make a compelling case for colleges to take charge of their own EPAs, to break down barriers to apprentices’ career progression ensuring they can complete in a timely, straightforward manner.”
But experts warn that allowing colleges to conduct every aspect of EPA is risky.
Simon Ashworth, the deputy chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, agreed there were issues around capacity, leading to delays “especially around the peak demand periods between April and July”. Providers and employers “should be able to contribute towards EPA”.
However, allowing institutions to mark their own homework would decrease “trust and confidence”, he said.
Accuracy doubts
Rob Nitsch, the chief executive of the Federation of Awarding Bodies, which represents many EPAOs, cast doubt on the accuracy of the AoC’s findings.
He pointed to Ofqual research, presented at this week’s Apprenticeships and Training Conference, which showed 78 per cent of an unspecified number of EPAOs did not consider that the “availability of assessors impacts on the timely delivery of assessment”.
“The implication that there would be betterment if colleges delivered assessments is not substantiated by the evidence contained in the [AoC] report; for example, there is no analysis of how college-delivered EPA would address the shortcomings,” Nitsch said.
He added that the “evidence on the ground” is that AoC’s recommendation “does not represent the views of all apprenticeship providers, including colleges, nor does it properly consider the preference employers have for independent assessment”.
Colleges were responsible for just over 58,000 (17 per cent) of the 340,000 apprenticeships starts in England in 2023-24. AoC’s data on EPA delays was based on responses from 83 colleges.
‘A challenge we would be happy to address’
Chris Todd, the chief executive of Derwentside College, said that bringing EPA in-house “would be challenging to deliver in the short term” , but was a “challenge we would be happy to address”.
“The key to successful implementation here is to agree a manageable transition and timetable for the change, allowing colleges to develop their capacity prior to implementation.”
The AoC also used Individual Learner Record (ILR) data, submitted by 170 colleges, to find the cost of EPA to colleges has been consistent at 13 per cent of their apprenticeship income for the past three academic years.
In 2023-24 apprenticeship payments to colleges totalled £261.3 million and EPA cost was £34.2 million.
However, the AoC said the true cost was likely to be a higher percentage because of the cost of resits and the additional physical resources required that were not taken into account by the ILR data.
Latest Ofqual data shows that 90 per cent of all apprentices pass their EPA at the first attempt.
AoC’s survey found 34 per cent of colleges worked with 11 to 20 EPAO and 11 per cent worked with 21 or more, which “creates additional administration burden”.
Todd argued that EPA should be scrapped altogether as it was “not necessarily needed or wanted by many employers”.
“It’s very expensive to operate, you only have to look at some of the awarding bodies to see that their profit margins have risen (and continue to rise) as a result of the growing volume of EPA activity. This is all money that is going outside of the sector and away from learners.
“If EPA was removed, we could move back to an assessment regime more akin with what we do in other provision types, at a fraction of the cost, and with little impact on quality.”
A DfE spokesperson refused to say whether the department would consider allowing colleges to conduct their own EPA.
In terms of availability it varies from standard to standard, in that some EPA’s are easier to obtain that others. Again with capacity – yes if you look at the availability of EPAO’s across the whole year it looks like there is capacity – but it when we are all trying to book them in the same 3 or 4 month period that the issues occur.
The very fact that FE Colleges are held accountable for overall Apprenticeship achievement has always raised my eyebrows, particularly given we are at the mercy of EPAO’s, who often lack resource and more so in niche areas! Fully qualified vocational staff deliver the Knowledge, Skills and Behaviours alongside our ever hard working employers. To suggest the same fully qualified vocational staff are not capable of administering an End Point Assessment or worse still, to think we cannot be trusted to do so beggars my belief!
Given that Colleges deliver less than 20% of apprenticeships, yet seek to influence and control the assessment of apprenticeships, surely that is also an eyebrow raiser.
There are good reasons that College’s don’t have a larger share of the apprenticeship market, which is because they are not geared up to understand industry need. They can’t, their mix and balance of subjects is too broad. They can’t possibly have employer links and deep understanding of the skills needs of all industries.
Even demonstrating that classroom based delivery meets employer needs is unproven. All that happens is that employers cite a need, courses are put on and it’s assumed supply has met demand. There is no tracking of whether learners go into jobs in their studied field. It’s not difficult to see why there are persistent skills gaps alongside the furious scratching of heads!
24/25 Starts
Private sector 75,550
General FE 32,440
Other LA’s and HE 22,940
Thats not 20%, compared to Private (58%) 42% and colleges have industry lecturers.