Become an End-Point Assessor

Supporting new entrants to your industry by being involved in the assessment of their apprenticeship programme is a good way of giving something back to your sector.  It also helps you develop your own professional practice.  Being an End-Point Assessor is a flexible arrangement which is ideal for fitting around an existing job or other roles.  It is usually undertaken on a freelance basis but can also be an income generating opportunity for your service area, if for example, you work in a local authority and have approval to be an Assessor as part of your job role.

As an End-Point Assessor you are required to:

• Participate in standardisation activities to ensure a consistent approach to End-point Assessment
• Maintain a good understanding of our policies and procedures
• Provide assessment outcomes within 5 working days
• Have access to reliable IT equipment and an undisturbed location as assessments are generally undertaken remotely

Being an experienced assessor is advantageous and having current occupational expertise and knowledge is also important.  This can be evidenced through your current role and ongoing CPD.

We can support you to gain the Undertaking End-Point Assessment qualification if you don’t already hold an Assessors qualification, such as:

• D32 Assess candidate performance
• D33 Assess candidate using different sources of evidence
• A1 Level 3 Award in Assessing Candidates’ Performance Using a Range of Methods
• A2 Level 3 Award in Assessing Candidates’ Performance through Observation
• (TAQA) Level 3 Award in assessing competence in the work environment
• (TAQA) Level 3 Certificate in Assessing Vocational Achievement

Being organised and meeting timescales is also important.  Sometimes timescales are detailed in the Assessment Plan and assessments have to be carried out within set deadlines. 

Commitment is also important.  Clearly sometimes emergencies crop up but the apprentice will be preparing for their assessment so your commitment to carry out the assessment you have agreed to conduct is necessary.  Similarly, if you are unable to carry out an assessment offered to you, please just say so and we will offer it to another Assessor.

Evidence of your ongoing CPD is essential so that you can evidence how you are maintaining your own occupational competency with up-to-date industry experience that is directly linked to the standard(s) you are assessing.

We hold annual standardisation events which you must attend and participate in to ensure a consistent approach to End-Point Assessment.

Initially, all your assessment decisions are checked and verified and as part of this process you will need to ensure any actions/improvements are met within agreed timescales and to the required standards.  As time goes on, and your experience develops, we work on a RAG rating and the number of your assessment decisions that are checked and verified is reduced as you become more established in the role and we become confident in your assessment decisions.

Firstly, check below to see the Standards for which we have a need for assessors

Then, if there are Standard(s) listed below that fit with your occupational knowledge and competence, you should view the Assessment Plan and let us know how your background and experience meets the requirements laid out in it for the Standard(s) you want to assess.  Be clear about how you meet the generic assessment requirements, including any qualifications you have in both assessing and linked to your sector/industry.  Standards and their associated Assessment Plans can be found here:  https://www.instituteforapprenticeships.org/apprenticeship-standards/?

We will then have a telephone interview with you which is our opportunity to find out more about you and your opportunity to find out more about being an Assessor.

Once you have been approved, we will ask you to complete:

1. An online tutorial about End-Point Assessment
2. An online, generic tutorial about us and how we work as an EPAO
3. An online tutorial introducing you to our main policies and procedures
4. An online, technical webinar specific to the Standard(s) you will be assessing

Once you have been assigned your first assessment, we will:

1. Set you up on our EPA portal
2. Ask you to submit a signed Assessor agreement to the EPA portal (this is re-issued every year)
3. Asl you to submit any relevant certificates to the EPA portal
4. Ask you to submit a Profile document to the EPA portal (again, we ask you to check and upload this once a year)
5. Ask you to submit a CPD record to the EPA portal (we will ask you to do this 3 times a year)
6. Arrange a one-to-one video call with you to show you how to use our EPA portal to access documents uploaded by the apprentice and how you upload your assessment decision
7. We may also ask you to carry out a shadowing activity prior to being assigned apprentices so that you can observe an assessment taking place. Sometimes this may be an actual assessment but more often we will ask you to review a recording of an assessment so that you know what to expect and can see an experienced assessor in action.