Here at Training Qualifications UK, we like to make sure you’re kept aware of all the most important goings-on in the world of End-Point Assessment. With that in mind, this week we look at the impact of the third national lockdown and our withdrawal from Retail standards.
Lockdown 3.0
Due to the latest government update enforcing a further national lockdown, we would like to confirm that we will not be undertaking any on-site End-Point Assessments until further notice.
Where an Apprentice may have already progressed through Gateway, having selected on-site as their preferred assessment method, our EPA Assessors will be in contact to discuss making arrangements to either undertake remotely or postpone until it is safe for on-site assessments to resume.
All alternative assessment methods pre-approved by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education remain in place and therefore, for the vast majority of our standards, we can continue to deliver 100% of the EPA remotely.
If you have any questions regarding the status of any assessments, please contact us directly and we’ll be happy to help in any way we can.
Hair Professional standard
Unfortunately, due to the latest lockdown, we are regrettably unable to conduct any End-Point Assessments for this standard at present. We encourage you to continue to progress any “EPA ready” Apprentices through Gateway so we can verify all required Gateway evidence and seek to allocate an EPA Assessor as soon as it is permissible for salons to reopen and it is safe for our Assessors to conduct the assessment.
Once we are able to allocate an Assessor, we will ask you to complete and submit an Onsite Assessment Declaration Form to confirm that the proposed assessment location meets any current government guidelines.
Retail standards
We have submitted an amendment to the register of End-Point Assessment Organisations to withdraw our EPA services for the following three standards:
- Level 2 Retailer
- Level 3 Retail Team Leader
- Level 4 Retail Manager
This decision has been made following a business review of all our products and services across our End-Point Assessment offer, and we have resolved to focus our resource in other sectors. We will therefore not be accepting any further registrations for this suite of standards. Centres with active registrations have been contacted directly.
Should you be considering adding Retail to your own delivery plan and/ or require the services of an approved End-Point Assessment Organisation please refer to the list of ESFA approved EPAOs, which can be found here.
Covid FAQs
We would also like to confirm that we have updated our FAQ section following the announcement of the third lockdown.
