Good morning ,

We hope you are well and having a lovely week.

As part of the ongoing apprenticeship assessment reforms, assessment plans are being revised to reflect the new principles - aimed at streamlining assessment and increasing flexibility for awarding organisations.

Skills England has now published the first three new apprenticeship assessment plans for:

• Early Years Educator
• Assistant Accountant
• Data Technician

At this stage, these plans are not live, and there is currently no published notice period as to when they will go live for delivery. They are being published as illustrative examples to help employers, training providers, and assessment organisations prepare for future delivery. While they won't be available for live use just yet, they demonstrate the principles that will underpin revised assessment plans. In the meantime, current end-point assessments remain in place.

Next Steps

Once Skills England’s General Requirements and Ofqual’s revised regulatory framework are published, we expect Skills England to provide a further update with implementation details, including when apprentices can start being assessed under these new plans.

The Department for Education (DfE) has released a Funding Companion Document, which provides further clarity around overarching implementation timelines and operational expectations, including transfers of current apprentice eligibility.

Our current understanding is that the Skills England General Requirements document is expected to be published within the next few weeks. This document will provide further details on key aspects of the new apprenticeship assessment plans, such as assessment outcomes, grading and performance descriptors, and verification of behaviours.

Earlier in the year, Ofqual held a policy-level consultation on its proposed regulatory framework for apprenticeship assessment. This was part of a two-stage approach, with the second stage - a technical-level consultation - expected to launch towards the end of November. We’ll reach out nearer to the time to provide guidance and support you further.

Stay in the Loop

As part of our ongoing commitment to supporting you through these reforms, we'd like to invite you to a TQUK customer-only webinar where we'll cover:

• details of the new assessment plan format and how it's changed
• working with TQUK in the new era of apprenticeship assessment
• your questions.

Ahead of the webinar, please submit your questions here. There will also be a chance to ask them during the webinar, but asking ahead of time helps us prepare full and accurate answers and gives you a chance to get answers if you're unable to attend.

This will be a general session, and not standard-specific. Since the Early Years Educator (EYE) standard is one of the first three to be published, all EYE customers will be contacted directly this week with more information and details of our dedicated support offering for this standard.

Whilst the Level 2 Adult Care Worker standard is also included in the Skills England pilot for revised assessment plans, its updated plan has not yet been published alongside the others. Our understanding is that this is because the assessment plan is being revised in conjunction with a full review of the standard, meaning it will follow a separate timeline. We will continue to keep customers informed as soon as further details become available.

Kind regards,

Training Qualifications UK