Recent changes mean that employers are now leading on developing the standards and assessment processes for their apprentices. Apprenticeship Trailblazers are groups of employers who are working together to design new apprenticeship standards for occupations within their sectors.

This is the result of a major Government reform to Apprenticeships outlined in The Future of Apprenticeships in England: Implementation Plan, which is the Government's response to the Richard Review. The reform gives employers the responsibility for standards and assessment approaches.

This is an excellent opportunity to develop workers with the right skills, but it’s also a big responsibility.

Developing an assessment approach

Developing an assessment approach can be a complex exercise. It needs to provide enough information to guide those designing assessments, but still allow for innovation and flexibility. An assessment approach is not the actual assessment although it may recommend broad parameters for assessment like whether assessments should be practical or written.

Some key considerations when developing an assessment approach include:

• How close to the end of the Apprenticeship will the synoptic, end-of-learning assessment take place?  Within the last month?  Three months after completion?  Six months?
• How long will the assessment last? – Will it take place in a single day or over a period of time? It is important that all apprentices are asked to demonstrate competence within the same timeframe.
• Where will the assessment take place?  Does it have to be in a real workplace a, simulated environment, a training centre or virtually (which also contributes to government targets for online learning). This depends on what is practicable for the employer and apprentice and what assessment resources are required.

The assessment approach will set the direction for all employers — large, medium, and small — but capability to deliver assessment may differ across an industry. Trailblazer groups will therefore also have to consider how quality assurance of resources will be carried out.

At the heart of all assessment is the learner — in this case the apprentice. Assessment should be meaningful and allow apprentices to feel this is an opportunity to showcase their skills and abilities.

Assessment is an important learning tool. It shows us what we can do, how much we know and what we need to achieve to get to the next level. 

As Apprenticeship Trailblazers begin to develop assessments for their industries, reference to three core principles will help confirm that standards are being met.

Three core principles of assessment   

One

An assessment must assess what it is meant to assess. For example, if you want to know if a person can make something you don’t ask them to write about it. Writing about it would only indicate that they know how to make it, but it would not demonstrate that they can make it.

Two 

Each occupation and industry will have a single standard, creating the potential for thousands of apprentices in different workplaces to be assessed, over time, to that one standard. Therefore, an assessment must be able to be repeated each time against that one standard.

Three

Assessment must be fair to every apprentice who takes it. All must have an equal chance of demonstrating competence to the standard, and assessment design and delivery must facilitate this. This means the assessment must be achievable and pitched at the right level for the competences being demonstrated.

SQA has developed a series of materials including video and white paper resources to support employers and Apprenticeship Trailblazers.

Find out more at www.sqa.org.uk/trailblazers