The apprenticeship assessment system in England is entering a period of significant change. Rather than everything culminating in a single end point assessment, the reformed model introduces assessment at appropriate stages throughout the programme and sets clearer responsibilities for awarding organisations (AOs), training providers and employers. The intention is to create an approach that is more flexible, proportionate and reflective of how apprentices build and demonstrate competence, while maintaining the rigour the system depends on.
Having just returned from the Apprenticeships and Training Conference (ATC), it’s clear these reforms are front of mind across the sector. Many conversations focused on familiar challenges, including delays caused by end‑only assessment, overly prescriptive plans, and capacity bottlenecks. Allowing assessment throughout the apprenticeship is designed to address these issues, reducing waiting times and supporting more authentic, work‑aligned demonstrations of competence.
To help providers begin preparing, I’ve outlined nine key things you should be doing now, and why each one matters.
1) Engage early in assessment design and consultation
Under Ofqual’s approach, awarding organisations (AOs) must consult with assessment users – including training providers, and employers – when designing apprenticeship assessments. This marks a deliberate shift away from the rigid, one-size-fits-all design of some end-point assessments.
Your delivery realities matter, and they need to shape the new model. Early engagement will ensure assessments are workable, fair, and genuinely reflective of the occupation as it actually functions day to day. At NCFE, we’ll continue to bring providers and employers together as we develop assessment strategies so that practicality and high standards remain in balance.
2) Plan for on-programme assessment
The reforms move assessment away from a final “big bang” end-point assessment (EPA), towards assessing competence at the right time in the learning journey. This helps reduce end-stage backlogs that so often slow apprentices down, eases assessor pressure, and supports a more authentic, work-aligned demonstration of skills that better reflects learning progress.
Providers should begin mapping their curriculum to new assessment touch points, ensuring that teaching, practice, and assessment reinforce one another.
3) Understand the rebalanced roles and responsibilities
Responsibility is shifting in a way that should feel more intuitive for everyone involved and to ensure assessments feel more occupationally relevant and more efficient. In short:
- AOs will design assessments using streamlined, high-level plans
- providers may deliver and mark some elements under AO oversight
- employers will verify behaviours within workplace context.
Having early conversations with your AO will help you understand what they will assess directly, and what may be centre-marked under controlled conditions.
4) Strengthen IQA and manage conflicts of interest
With providers potentially marking some assessments, strong internal quality assurance (IQA) becomes essential. To meet the Centre Assessment Standard Scrutiny (CASS) approach, centres should evidence assessor and IQA competence, clear sampling and standardisation processes, consistent feedback, and action tracking, and strong record keeping and governance.
To support this, we’ll be providing comprehensive guidance materials, planned standardisation activities for any centre-assessed standards, and dedicated roadshows offering training, exemplars, and best-practice insights to help centres fully meet CASS requirements.
5) Prepare for streamlined assessment plans
Previously, overly detailed 30‑page assessment plans created unnecessary burden without always improving validity. Skills England’s streamlined plan format removes this excess prescription and focuses on the essential requirements for occupational competence, giving AOs – and centres – greater flexibility to design assessments that reflect real work.
Begin considering how your delivery can flex so the model works for your learners, your staff, and your employers, as well as focusing on broader outcomes, rather than step‑by‑step instructions. Keep an eye on emerging DfE and Skills England requirements and guidance, particularly around outcomes, sampling, timing and marking expectations.
6) Deepen your partnerships with employers
Employers now verify behaviours, drawing on their unique insight into workplace conduct and expectations. Providers should work with employers to co-create clear evidence expectations, templates, and schedules so that everyone shares the same picture of what “good” looks like, and so that verification is consistent, auditable, and fair. Strengthening these partnerships will also help improve the authenticity and relevance of other assessment elements.
7) Support apprentices through the transition period
As new, reformed assessment plans are introduced, there will be a period of overlap in which some cohorts continue under the current EPA model while new starters move to the reformed one.
Ensure you provide clear, cohort‑specific communications so apprentices understand their assessment route, timelines, and the support available to them. Keep an eye on AO updates – including ours at NCFE – as revised plans are released.
8) Invest in staff capability as roles and evidence requirements evolve
As roles, evidence rules and sampling expectations change, assessors will need to be upskilled on new outcomes, sampling strategies, marking expectations, and moderation approaches. Use AO guidance and exemplar materials as they become available, and align your CPD with updated assessment plans so teams remain confident and current.
NCFE has recently developed a workshop series in partnership with The Assessment Network at Cambridge to support this transition. These sessions focus on building practical, principled assessment capability – helping staff apply validity, reliability, and fairness in day‑to‑day decisions, strengthen moderation practice, and improve audit trails and malpractice processes.
The workshops offer a more cost‑effective and time‑efficient alternative to extensive TAQA (Training, Assessment, and Quality Assurance) qualifications, providing targeted skills development aligned to the new apprenticeship assessment reforms.
9) Stay agile as guidance continues to evolve
Further detail will continue to be released by DfE, Ofqual, and Skills England as the reforms progress. It’s important to remain responsive: subscribe to AO updates, take part in consultations, and ensure your internal governance is flexible enough to absorb iterative changes without disrupting learner progress.
And throughout all of this, NCFE will be here to support you during this period of change, offering tailored guidance and one‑to‑one consultation to help you implement the reforms smoothly.
We share regular updates to keep you informed of new requirements and developments, which you can access here.
