In February, the Department for Education announced several upcoming changes to apprenticeship assessment. The removal of functional skills requirements for apprentices aged 19+ was implemented immediately, while other changes are being introduced more gradually.
The first new apprenticeship assessments were the seven Foundation Apprenticeships published on 29 April. Unlike ongoing revisions to existing apprenticeships, these feature both a new apprenticeship standard and a new-style assessment plan.
Five existing standards were selected to pilot the reformed approach, which revises the assessment plan without changing the apprenticeship standard. In October, Skills England published three as illustrative examples, with no confirmed start dates yet. These include Assistant Accountant, where the mandatory Level 3 Advanced Diploma becomes the sole assessment, and Early Years Educator and Data Technician, which share similarities with the new Foundation Apprenticeships but with some notable differences.
What we are seeing includes:
- Reference to “General Requirements for Apprenticeship Assessment”, which are yet to be published, although this guidance from the DfE currently contains additional requirements.
- Assessment organisations and training providers are not required to assess behaviours; employers will have to confirm they have verified the behaviours before certification can take place.
- Assessment organisations set all assessments.
- Assessments may be designed to allow a centre to mark them, subject to quality assurance checks carried out by the awarding organisation.
- One assessment method is mandated – for example, in Data Technician, a ‘simulated task’ is mandated.
- Further assessment methods are listed, which an awarding organisation may choose to use.
- Only the knowledge and skills that are in bold must be assessed in every version of the assessment; others knowledge and skills may be sampled.
- Apprentices may be assessed at any appropriate point during their apprenticeship – this is no longer an end-point assessment.
These changes mark a significant shift from the end-point assessment approach. We are monitoring developments and expect additional updates as new guidance and revised assessment plans are published.
The “Changes to apprenticeship assessment, 2025 to 2026 Guidance” mentioned above also provides some limited information on implementation timelines and arrangements for apprentices to transition from old to new assessment plans. Other guidance includes verification of behaviours by employers and overall assessment design with links to the three revised assessment plans currently available: Assistant Accountant, Data Technician and Early Years Educator.
This Guidance is likely to continue to be updated, so it is worth bookmarking this DfE page and checking back regularly. We will also report the main changes and updates to this Guidance in future Newsletters.
