PHILIP BRAIN ASSOCIATES LIMITED

Once an apprenticeship program has been completed, the apprentice must pass an independent End Point Assessment in order to be awarded the apprenticeship. It is the responsibility of the Employer and not the Training Provider to select and contract with EPAO. However it is the Training Provider who has the responsibility to pay for the EPA out of the final 25% of funding made available by the Education & Skills Funding Agency (ESFA).

 

Because of the collaborative nature of these arrangements, it is a good idea to source your choice of EPAO well in advance so that all contractual arrangements can be put in place and to also ensure that your choice of EPAO is entirely independent of you as an employer; and the apprenticeship program delivery supplied by your choice of Training Provider.

 

The Institute for Apprenticeships & Technical Education (IfATE) insist that EPA is independent in order to remove all conflicts of interest. To ensure your EPAO is independent, the IfATE have produced the following guidance:

​

“Employers can choose any organisation listed on the register against the apprenticeship standard being taken by their apprentice… Unless the assessment plans states otherwise employers cannot select their apprentices’ training organisation to be the end-point assessment organisation”.

​

 Also in connection with End Point Assessment, the IfATE states:

“An independent assessor must not be employed by the same organisation as the apprentice or by their training provider”.

​

Clearly independence is a core principle of End Point Assessment which ensures that the robust rigour and credibility of apprenticeship training delivery is upheld. It is imperative to make sure your EPAO is independent of apprenticeship delivery as failure to do so will undermine the credibility of the initiative, invalidate the apprenticeship program and could result in financial penalties imposed by the ESFA.

​

EMPI Awards offer EPAO for Apprenticeship Standard Mobile & Static Plant Operator (ST0144) and Road Surfacing Operative (ST0693) Click the links for more details. To ensure our independence we do not engage in Apprenticeship Training delivery either as a Training Provider or Subcontract Training Provider and neither should your choice of EPAO. To find out more, please drop us a line using the contact form or feel free to browse our website.

​

Click the button below to view our public documents including our End Point Assessment Specifications