Construction’s risk-based assessment foundations to be copied across sectors

A risk-based approach agreed with the construction industry will be extended to apprenticeship assessment reforms across all sectors, Skills England has confirmed.

The move means concessions secured by construction employers following months of lobbying are not unique to the sector. Skills England will assess each apprenticeship occupation according to its level of risk, allowing assessment requirements to be tailored across safety-critical sectors including engineering, manufacturing, food and drink, automotive, nuclear and life sciences.

A Skills England spokesperson told FE Week: “Risk profiling is an important part of the apprenticeship assessment reform process and will continue to be moving forward for all sectors.

“We have learnt a lot from our work with the construction industry on how we can deliver these reforms in a way that meets sector needs.

“There will not be a one-size-fits-all approach. Instead, we are looking at risk within each occupation to understand the nuances and how we can best support learners and employers.”

The government’s original reforms prompted opposition from a coalition of construction and built-environment organisations, which warned the changes risked “dumbing down” apprenticeships and allowing unqualified learners to pass.

A wider alliance of employers from the government’s industrial strategy priority sectors later lobbied ministers over concerns the reforms could weaken assessment across other safety-critical industries.

The reforms replace the end-point assessment model with new assessment plans that introduce sampling of knowledge and skills, give mandatory qualifications a stronger role in some standards and remove the independent assessment of behaviours.

Skills England paused the reforms for construction in December and established a construction taskforce involving industry bodies, the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), the Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS) and the Building Safety Regulator.

The taskforce this week said it had now agreed a methodology that uses risk profiling to tailor assessment requirements according to the level of occupational risk.

Occupational groups will be able to mandate assessment methods, reduce the use of sampling for higher-risk skills, set tolerance levels and align assessment plans with industry competence standards and card schemes where appropriate.

Skills England told FE Week it had adopted a risk-based approach throughout the reform programme, but said its work with construction had helped refine the model and improve consensus-building between occupational groups and government officials.

No special treatment

Rob Nitsch, chief executive of the Federation of Awarding Bodies, said the outcome reflected months of coordinated lobbying.

“Whilst it has been overly painful and taken too long to shape up, it is pleasing that we are now seeing a standard-by-standard approach across all sectors that reflects the risk profile of individual apprenticeship occupations,” he said.

“The construction taskforce has been a significant contributor to the wide-ranging alliance that has got us to this point; employers and apprenticeship assessment organisations, with support from the federation, have also stood up to ensure that we now have an approach that is safe and appropriate.”

England has around 700 apprenticeship standards. Around 300 have already begun or completed the assessment reform process this year, and the rest – including those deemed to be a safety-critical occupation – are due to start in the coming months.

Several employer bodies said they either expected or had already begun adopting risk-modelling approaches with Skills England.

Louise Cairns, chief executive of the National Skills Academy for Food & Drink, said her sector had not yet received formal confirmation but expected risk profiling to be applied.

“The food and drink sector is highly regulated and high risk in many occupations,” she said.

“Risk profiling should not be exclusive to construction but done for all sectors and occupations as a matter of course to retain the credibility of apprenticeships.”

However, she warned several food and drink assessment plans had already been reformed.

“My concern is we have already had several apprenticeship assessment plans go through the process, where if risk profiling was done I am certain Skills England would have allowed us to mandate more knowledge and skills. I will be going back to them to seek guidance.”

The Institute of the Motor Industry also welcomed Skills England’s confirmation.

“It is encouraging to hear that, prompted by enquiries from FE Week, Skills England is now committed to building on its work with the construction industry to ensure that safety-critical apprenticeships are fit for purpose for other sectors,” an IMI spokesperson said.

“We look forward to working with them to discuss how automotive apprenticeships must take into account the ever-increasing complexity of vehicles on UK roads – from high-voltage electric systems to connected digital technologies and emerging hydrogen powertrains.”

‘Skills England actually listened’

Meanwhile, Enginuity has spent recent months working directly with Skills England to develop a separate risk-profiling model for advanced manufacturing.

Chief executive Ann Watson said discussions began after employers feared engineering could become “the next construction” in terms of widespread employer concern.

“We did, I think very positively, get to a point where Skills England were actually listening,” she said.

Enginuity has since developed a model that allows employers and Skills England to jointly assess occupational risk before determining appropriate assessment methods for each standard.

Watson said highly safety-critical occupations, such as aerospace, would require robust assessment, while lower-risk occupations could justify greater use of sampling.

She added that the model had deliberately been designed so other sectors could adopt it rather than being limited to manufacturing.

Cogent Skills, representing nuclear and science employers, said Skills England had advised it was developing a risk-based approach and the sector anticipated the construction model would be rolled out more widely.

The organisation said employers now wanted clarity on how the approach would work in practice where apprenticeship standards span industries with very different levels of risk.

For example, engineering standards can be used in workplaces ranging from vending machine servicing to nuclear facilities, meaning any risk model would need to reflect widely differing safety requirements.