Capella Associates Resources

Overview

For full detail, please see: Quality practitioner / Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education   

All apprentices must take an independent assessment at the end of their training to confirm that they have achieved occupational competence. Rigorous, robust and independent end-point assessment (EPA) is essential to give employers confidence that apprentices completing an apprenticeship standard can actually perform in the occupation they have been trained in and can demonstrate the duties, and knowledge, skills and behaviours (KSBs) set out in the occupational standard.

This L4 programme is assessed through 2 sections:

Assessment Method Requirements

Work Based Project Presentation

The project will be a contextualised work-based project report of 4,000 words. A tolerance of plus or minus 10% is allowed. Appendices including references, pictorial representations, diagrams etc will not be included in this total. It should be based on an area of operation that the apprentice works in. 

The work-based project report will be reviewed for evidence that the knowledge, skills and behaviours assigned to the work-based project are inherent in the apprentice’s practice. It should cover their use of different analytical development techniques in the workplace. These must include:

• identifying and producing key findings and judgements in assessments
• how they identified gaps and opportunities for further analysis
• how they engaged with stakeholders, their own organisation and other interested parties

The project should explain the apprentice’s own critical thinking in both their analysis and generation of their overall findings and recommendations. The content of the project must enable the KSBs mapped to this assessment method to be met.

As a minimum all projects must include: 

• Introduction
• Background
• Aims and Objectives
• Research and Methodology
• Approach taken
• Stakeholder engagement
• Risks to consider
• Outcomes
• Discussion of findings
• Impact of the project
• Business implications
• Measure of success
• Conclusions
• Recommendations

The project must map, in an appendix, how it evidences the relevant KSBs for this assessment method. 

The apprentice will be required to document their understanding and actions and to highlight the consequences of those actions, enabling them to demonstrate their understanding of commercial pressures, and the application of their thinking and problem-solving skills. This will form part of their findings and recommendations. 

This will last for typically 35 minutes (+10% at the discretion of the independent assessor).

Work Based Project Presentation - Questions and Answers

Apprentices will prepare and deliver a presentation that appropriately covers the KSBs assigned to this  method of assessment. The independent assessor will ask questions in relation to the KSBs following  the presentation. The presentation with questions will be based on the work-based project and will cover the following:

• A summary of the project report and an explanation of the apprentices’ role and level of responsibility.
• The outcomes of the project, the project tools used, and how risks were mitigated to ensure required outcomes.
• The challenges of the project and an explanation of how and why specific techniques have been selected and used within the project.
• The practical application of relevant knowledge, skills and behaviours whilst undertaking the project.
• Recommendations moving forward to meet business needs including solutions identified and reasons why some options were not feasible.
• Lessons learned and a critical evaluation of the approach and outcomes documented by the project. 

The independent assessor will ask a minimum of 5 questions at the end of the presentation. The questions will be drawn from a question bank supplied by the EPAO, to confirm the independent assessor’s understanding of the presentation and how it demonstrates the relevant KSBs. 

To deliver the presentation, the apprentice can choose presentation format that suits them and their organisation this should use any of the following recognised formats: 

- Presentation slides 

- A3 summary reporting 

- Flip charts 

- Work products 

This will last for typically 25 minutes (+10% at the discretion of the independent assessor).

In total, the Work Based Project Presentation will last around 60 minutes.

Professional Discussion

A professional discussion is a two-way discussion which involves both the independent assessor and the apprentice actively listening and participating in a formal conversation. It gives the apprentice the opportunity to make detailed and proactive contributions to confirm their competency across the KSBs mapped to this method.

The professional discussion must last for 60 minutes. The independent assessor has the discretion to 

increase the time of the professional discussion by up to 10% to allow the apprentice to complete their 

last answer.

During this method, the independent assessor must combine questions from the EPAO's question bank

and those generated by themselves.  

The professional discussion will be conducted as set out here:

• Evidence must be captured using documentation produced by the EPAO. The independent assessor will ask a minimum of 10 open questions taken from an EPAO’s question bank and those generated by the assessor based on the portfolio. Follow up questions can be used to draw out further evidence.
• The apprentice should be encouraged to refer to their portfolio of evidence during the professional discussion to support their responses. 
• The independent assessor should have a minimum of 15 days to review the contents of the portfolio prior to the professional discussion in order to generate appropriate questions.

Overall Grading Matrix