The Department for Education (DfE) and the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) issued further information about Apprenticeships during the coronavirus outbreak on 25th March 2020.
The guidance can be seen at this link. Below you will find a summary, along with advice on how we can support you.
Remote delivery and e-learning
The guidance confirms that the ESFA is supportive of remote delivery and e-learning, where it is practicable.
Many of our standards already permit the use of remote assessment practice (a full list can be seen here) and where needed we are working with EQA bodies to permit minor further adjustments to enable other assessments to also continue.
Providers should keep engaging with us if they have any such queries.
Additional assessment time
If the Apprentice cannot be assessed due to issues relating to coronavirus, an additional 12 weeks can be applied to standards where assessment plans prescribe a set period for EPA.
Breaks in learning
Where breaks in learning are less than four weeks, Providers are not required to formally record this.
However, where breaks in learning require more than four weeks, Providers must formally record this. This may be applied at the point of Gateway if the Apprentice’s EPA is not able to be completed.
This break in learning can also be applied part way through EPA. This would allow assessments which are still able to take place remotely to continue and then apply the break in learning after their completion. Once it is possible, the remaining assessments can take place at a later date.
Further information is provided in the guidance linked at the top of this email.
Progression to Gateway
We recommend progressing Apprentices to Gateway with us, even where it may not be possible to commence assessments.
This will enable us to review and verify Gateway evidence and undertake any relevant pre-planning that is able to take place, reducing any further delay to assessments which may not be possible at this current time.
We hope this will relieve any concerns around bottle neck pressures of assessments once companies start to return to business-as-usual. In such instances it may not be appropriate for us to at such times allocate a specific End-Point Assessor.
Hair Professional
We are not able to conduct any onsite assessments for the Hair Professional standard. Therefore a break in learning would need to be applied at point of Gateway.
We have set up an FAQ page on our website to provide further information on our response to the coronavirus outbreak.
If your question isn’t mentioned on this page, please get in touch by calling us on 03333 583 344 or emailing epa@tquk.org
