Apprenticeship assessment FAQs
Here you'll find answers to your frequently asked questions about apprenticeship assessment.
We offer two models for apprenticeship assessment. These are:
NCFE Combined: Relevant assessments assessed by an appropriately qualified centre, with a requirement for Internal Quality Assurance (IQA), and NCFE carries out External Quality Assurance (EQA) sampling help to ensure consistent and reliable assessment decisions.
NCFE Assessed: All assessments to be undertaken by NCFE where a centre does not wish to adopt NCFE Combined model or does not have the required competence or resource available.
Where both options are available, centres can select the most appropriate model at apprenticeship standard level.
Yes. You must gain approval at standard level through the apprenticeship assessment approval process to deliver centre assessment.
To add standards to your NCFE Combined agreement, contact your relationship colleague. They will send you an Additional Standard Approval Form. After approval, we'll send you an updated Agreed Standards List. Once signed, the additional standards will appear in Proficient. If you select the NCFE Combined model, it applies to all learners on that standard.
For further information please see NCFE Apprenticeship Assessment Approval Policy.
Assessors delivering apprenticeship assessment on behalf of NCFE do not need an assessor qualification or equivalent. However, they must be occupationally competent in the subject area they assess and understand the qualification requirements, assessment criteria, and evidence requirements.
Further guidance can be found in the centre’s guide to delivery of apprenticeship assessment, which can be found on Proficient.
We have also 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.
IQAs must be occupationally competent in the subject area that they are quality assure and hold, or be working towards a recognised IQA qualification such as the Level 4 Award in the Internal Quality Assurance of Assessment Processes and Practice, or a legacy qualification such as V1 or D34.
Where an IQA qualification is being worked towards, all quality assurance decisions and activities must be countersigned by a qualified IQA until the qualification is achieved.
We charge an upfront registration fee of up to 15% of the full apprenticeship assessment fee for each apprentice.The remaining fee will be charged once the apprentice is booked in for their first assessment.
Please note that the overall apprenticeship assessment fees are reviewed annually and are subject to change. Although the registration fee is determined by the overall fee, the amount charged when the first assessment is booked will be subject to the current Apprenticeship Assessment fee.
Further information can be found in our Apprenticeship Assessment Fees and Charges policy.
Proficient is our apprenticeship assessment registration and administration portal.
Apprentices must be registered on Proficient for a minimum of 90 days before they are due to sit their first assessment. This allows us to forecast capacity and ensure that we have the availability to deliver or quality assure your apprentices.
This step-by-step guide details how to register your apprentices, put them through Gateway, set up new users for the platform, and more.
If NCFE is delivering the assessment, please submit a booking request through Proficient, and we’ll be in touch within five working days to offer available assessment dates. You'll receive an assessment date within four weeks of your request.
You should request Gateway to Completion through Proficient once the apprentice has:
- completed all on-programme requirements
- completed their assessments
- received their final grade
- passed the appeals window.
Full instructions on how to do this are available in our Proficient user guide.
Once the apprentice has completed all programme requirements, including any apprenticeship assessments set out in the apprenticeship standard and our standard-specific specification and guidance materials, and the tripartite meeting has taken place, the employer must verify that the apprentice has demonstrated the required behaviours.
You must then complete the Gateway to Completion checklist in Proficient. You do not need to upload evidence at this stage. However, you must retain all supporting evidence and make it available if we request it as part of an audit.
We conduct sample audits to verify that centres hold the required evidence. If we select an apprentice for audit, we’ll request the relevant evidence when you submit the Gateway to Completion request. You must be able to provide this evidence upon request.
If we do not select the apprentice for audit, we’ll review the Gateway to Completion request and approve it where appropriate. We’ll then claim the apprentice’s apprenticeship certificate within five working days of approval.
Certificate claims are submitted to the Department for Education (DfE) five working days after the overall grade is released, and the appeal window has closed. The DfE advises that certificates can take up to 20 working days to arrive.
Our resources are stored on Proficient, which hosts various support materials for all things end-point assessment. This includes:
- assessment platform guidance
- apprenticeship assessment operational handbook
- general guidance
- standard-specific walkthrough webinar for centres
- standard-specific walkthrough webinar for apprentices
- links to previous webinars
- policies and procedures
- Proficient user guide and bulk upload templates
- standard specific guidance
- regular updates through newsletters.
If you select the NCFE Combined model, you’ll have access to the guide to delivering apprenticeship assessment, recorded standardisation sessions for each apprenticeship assessment component, NCFE marking records, and ‘how to’ guides.