Accelerate People’s Approach to Apprenticeship Reform

Reform is everywhere

Is it better to decorate your house room-by-room, or move out and gut the place all at once? The former means less disruption at any one time, a chance to learn from the room before, but it takes a long time; the latter requires extensive planning, is more expensive up front and feels like a shock.

With apprenticeship reform, the government has decided to gut the place:

• No English and maths requirement for over 19s

• Off-the-job training hours changed (then un-changed for dozens of standards)

• Shorter duration apprenticeships

• Foundation apprenticeships

• Growth and Skills Levy

• Assessment reform

• Funding reviews in 2026

And mostly, it feels like extensive planning wasn’t even started, let alone finished. In our sector, we always work brilliantly with what we’ve got, even if that’s not very much, so that’s what we’re doing. As we’re an assessment organisation, we thought we’d focus on assessment reform in this piece, outlining how we see it and what our plans are.

Assessment reform in detail

The aims are ‘simplification’ and ‘flexibility’. While those two things can sometimes be harmonious, often they’re not. Adding flexibility means more options. More options means more to think about. More to think about is more complicated, not simpler.

EPA has been around for about seven-years. In the sectors in which we operate, employers understand it, providers understand it and apprentices perform well in it. It feels like we’re in the flow of a strong, independent, valid and worthy assessment model – a problem that didn’t need fixing.

But fix it we must. So, what’s changing in apprenticeship assessment? Well, there are new principles:

• More design and delivery flexibility

• Assessment will be more proportionate and remove duplication

• Assessment plans will allow assessment to take place on programme

• Training providers will be able to deliver elements of the assessments, where appropriate

• Assessment plans will be rewritten and condensed down to two-pages

• Employers will be in charge of confirming behaviours have been met

The most important principle here is the first one. New apprenticeship assessment plans will contain much less detail on what the assessment methods should be and what they should specifically assess. AOs like us will have license to develop as we see fit, bound, of course, by our General Conditions of Recognition.

This isn’t a bad thing: AOs are the assessment experts and will be permitted to work with employers and providers to design assessments that are appropriate and proportionate.

There are some questions to answer, though – all well-articulated by almost every assessment organisation in various forums:

• How will Ofqual standardise between assessment organisations when the assessment methods will be so different?

• How will the apprenticeship brand be affected if assessments on the same standards are different / less rigorous between AOs?

• Can occupational competence be guaranteed across the myriad assessment methods that will be available?

• Are we creating a ‘race to the bottom’, where price will be driven down at the expense of rigour?

• Are providers set up to assess on programme? If not, are we adding cost into the process when the intention is the opposite?

• How will niche apprenticeship standards survive if EPAOs that deliver them cannot adapt to the increased assessment design requirements?

• How will we involve employers in assessment design without becoming pests? Multiple assessment organisations will be asking them for the same feedback multiple times.

Accelerate People’s plans

As always, Accelerate People are looking forwards, not backwards.

We have an excellent team of product developers, skilled and qualified in assessment design. We’ve recruited a head of governance to lead our transition from EPAO to assessment organisation. We’ve drafted our processes that allow centres to assess on our behalf, including our Centre Assessment Standards Scrutiny Strategy (CASS) strategy. And we’re involved in any and every workshop, webinar, advisory group, conference, consultation and special interest group we can get into.

Most of all, because it’s us, we’re using technology to make things quicker and better. We recently launched our own external assessment platform, AP Gateway. AP Gateway is already set up to handle multiple different types of assessment, including the upload of learner work, with centre access for marking and QA.

We’re advising the DfE on the safe use of AI in assessment, having generated masses of data via our own implementation of its use in our business.

We expect to co-design assessments with our training providers. The vagueness of new plans certainly allow flexibility, if not simplicity. Meeting individual provider needs by collaborating on assessment design is a no-brainer for us, while keeping our regulatory obligations in mind. We’re excited to take a deep dive into what works for providers and employers, bringing it all together with technology so that it works for everyone.

Questions remain about implementation, not least because no assessment plans have yet been officially released (aside from Foundation Apprenticeships), but the policy direction has been set. At AP, we’ve got our architects drawings, our project plans and our sledgehammer: we're ready. We’re really excited about responding positively to policy and look forward to shaping the future of assessment for apprentices.