Since the Richard Review of Apprenticeships was published in November 2012, apprenticeships in England have shifted from frameworks to standards. From an awarding organisation perspective, this has seen a role transition from external quality assurance (EQA) of mandatory framework qualifications to direct delivery and internal quality assurance (IQA) of assessments, independent of training providers.
For peripatetic assessors and IQAs this has seen a substantial change in their employers, from training providers to end-point assessment organisations (EPAOs). As a result, apprenticeship commentators have watched providers investing less in maintaining an assessment and IQA resource. This makes sense, given both roles have been undertaken by the EPAO.
Additionally, EQA moved to be the responsibility principally of OfS and Ofqual, with industry-specific organisations picking up assurance roles for niche standards within their purview. So, EPAOs have had little reason to establish and maintain an EQA resource for their apprenticeship service.
However, during National Apprenticeships Week in February 2025, the Department for Education (DfE) and Minister for Skills announced reforms with an overarching aim of simplifying the system, avoiding duplication and making assessment more flexible and effective.
Amongst the new Apprenticeship Assessment Principles was the facility for training providers to be able to deliver some assessment. However, the assessment organisation still retains responsibility for setting and quality assuring the outcomes in this situation. In simple terms, where training providers deliver assessment, they will be undertaking the assessor and IQA roles, with assessment organisations undertaking the EQA role.
Where an apprenticeship is not fully covered by a mandatory qualification, an assessment organisation, or awarding organisation where the assessment is regulated by Ofqual, must assess a substantial portion of the assessment. Consequently, an assessment organisation will be assessing and IQAing the assessment they deliver, but EQAing the assessment the training provider delivers. Their emerging challenge is to fulfil all three roles within the context of a single product.
Taken collectively, the new apprenticeship environment poses a number of related questions.
- Do training providers have access to trained and experienced assessors and IQAs, especially at the points where they want to use them?
- Do assessment organisations have access to trained and experienced assessors, IQAs and EQAs at the points where they want to use them?
- How will conflicts of interest be managed by training providers and assessment organisations, particularly in niche occupations if everyone is potentially fighting to use the same peripatetic contractors?
There is additionally the dilemma of whether individuals in these roles need to hold, or be working towards, a formal qualification appropriate to their role. In the move from frameworks to standards, there has been declining sector-wide pressure for the need to be formally qualified, such as holding TAQA qualifications.
It will be interesting to see which way assessment organisations go. Some may insist on individuals being qualified as part of positioning the credibility of their offer within a competitive market, or because it mitigates risk within the context of their assessment strategy. Others may take the view that it is simply an added complication or expense where there is no external pressure or requirement for individuals to be qualified.
Moving forward, the apprenticeship assessment reforms will only command confidence if they are underpinned by robust, transparent and risk-based assurance. The distinction between IQA and EQA will not disappear, but it will become more integrated within the role of the assessment organisation.