Read Fay Edwards, Head of Learning and Development, SW Councils interview for FE News, the news Channel for the future of education.
The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (@IFATEched) recognised that there was concern that Ofqual’s criteria for recognition regulation might place unnecessary burden on small or niche providers, or those who only wish to offer end-point assessment.
Given this concern, it was felt that it would be helpful to small and/or niche end-point Assessment Organisations (EpAOs) to hear from an EpAO that has successfully been through the Ofqual recognition process.
Fay Edwards,, kindly agreed to be interviewed to share the experiences of South West Councils on their Ofqual journey.
Read the full article on FE news.
Fay’s Top Ten Words of Wisdom:
- Speak to someone who knows the Ofqual process and understands end-point assessment
- Make use of all the resources and help available such as Ofqual webinars, feedback meetings, videos
- Speak to others who have gone through the process – find a similar size/context EpAO and talk to them about their approach
- Create a matrix master document to plot every criteria and your evidence so that you do not miss anything
- Be clear about every step-by-step action: what is done, who by, why them, when, how does it fit in with other processes
- Make sure your policies support each other and do not conflict or contradict each other
- Do some research about reliability and validity of assessment methods
- Prepare for the panel interview by knowing the detail of your policies
- Ensure the leadership of your organisation, in our case the Corporate Management Team and our Governing Body, are fully committed as the process requires a lot of resource investment, which was particularly challenging for us as a small not-for-profit organisation
- Celebrate your achievement when you gain recognition
For m re information on SW Councils’ experience or services as an EpAO or to chat to Fay please email EPA@swcouncils.gov.uk