From Apprenticeship to Membership, one year on

One year on from our offer of End-Point Assessments (EPA), CIOB continues to offer exceptional support and guidance to apprentices, employers, and training providers. We focus on the whole EPA journey that an apprentice will undertake, with guidance on how to achieve a Distinction grade, right up to certification and beyond, where we invite them to become professional body members and join our Tomorrow’s Leader’s community.

Our ongoing commitment to raising the standards of apprenticeships was recognised by the Federation of Awarding Bodies (FAB), with our commitment and attention to detail resulting in CIOB winning the specialist End-Point Assessment Organisation (EPAO) of the Year award in 2023. We won’t rest on our laurels, however, as we believe that to maintain standards we need to keep enhancing and improving everything we do to provide the very best experience for apprentices.

2023 was a challenging year, with higher and degree apprenticeships being a relatively new pathway. An understanding of competence-based learning and assessment has been approached in various ways, with a focus on the apprenticeships mandated qualifications rather than competence-based learning. This was evident to us during some of the EPAs we facilitated, where some apprentices struggled to cover all requirements of the occupational standard. We identified gaps in skills, which were tracked back to focus being put on the higher national certificate (HNC) or degree, with less support to apprentices around competency-based requirements of the apprenticeship.

As a professional body, CIOB still remains at the forefront of apprenticeships, working to drive up standards in our sector and to provide reassurance to employers that professional body involvement supports confidence in the skills of the future workforce.

To support gaps in skills we have worked directly with employers, their apprentices, and training providers, to shift focus from HNC and degree qualifications back on to the primary programme of study, the competence-based requirements of the occupational standard. We took a supporting lead, ensuring that employers and apprentices recognised the importance of competencies and their final competence-based EPA. 

Our bespoke workshops and resources have been invaluable to this process, enhancing stakeholders' understanding of the occupational standard and minimal gateway and assessment requirements. Keeping apprentices motivated and informed on how to demonstrate their competencies was of primary importance to us. The potential of achieving professional body membership at the end of their apprenticeship was also a key motivator. 

Future plans

We continue to work directly with employers to ensure their apprentices are fully prepared for their EPA at the very start of their apprenticeship journey. This means apprentices' expectations of the demands and rigors of competence-based assessment are realised at the very start. Moreover, we are seeing a shift, with apprentices embracing the opportunity to demonstrate to a professional body just how good they are at the tasks associated with their job.

Our EPAO practices align to CIOB’s five-stage Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Charter:

1. Demonstrating visible senior leadership, by highlighting the benefits of diversity and inclusion in both internal and external messaging and action. 

2. Making a plan, including targets and actions needed to address under-representation, reducing identified pay gaps, and/or ensuring equitable development and progression for all. 

3. Shaping culture by prominently displaying messages that promote an inclusive culture and making it clear that inappropriate or discriminatory language or behaviour will not be tolerated. 

4. Being transparent, publishing an annual report detailing the progress made against CIOB targets, and setting out plans for the next 12 months. 

5. Being accountable, showing board-level accountability by assigning responsibility for CIOB’s Charter commitments to the CEO or a named Director. 

Our on-demand EPA film details the whole EPA journey, right up to certification and beyond. And our revised exemplar and top tips toolkits further enhance an understanding of the evidence and revision, required for a successful EPA outcome.

Finally, our team of EPA Coordinators, independent End-Point assessors and internal quality assurers continue to offer the very highest level of support, with guidance and fair comparable assessment decisions provided. 

Here’s what our apprentices have to say: