Completing Your Apprenticeship

Gateway

Once you’ve completed your on programme training you will go through gateway. This is where we agree with you and your line manager that you have acquired the knowledge, skills and behaviours set out in the Apprenticeship standard and are ready to undertake end point assessment.

End Point Assessment (EPA)

EPA is the process at the end of your program for you to demonstrate to a third-party assessor that you have acquired knowledge, skills and behaviours (KSB’s) throughout your training set out in the Apprenticeship standard.

The EPA will be carried out by an End Point Assessment Organisation (EPAO). The EPAO is an impartial organisation which takes responsibility for the final assessment of the apprentice against the requirements of their apprenticeship.

Your Assessment

The apprenticeship standard was revised in August 2022. Depending on when you started your apprenticeship, your EPA will be different. Please refer to the appropriate section below.

Assessment for apprentices who started before August 2022

During EPA, you will complete the following

The test will consist of 30 multiple choice questions, 5 from each of the following learning areas:

  • Political Environment
  • Programme and Project Management
  • Commercial Awareness
  • Consultation Process
  • Policy Delivery

The test will last 45 minutes.

The written policy exercise will focus on testing a range of knowledge and skills developed over theapprenticeship programme. The exercise will consist of 2 essay-style questions, based on fictitious scenarios and will be taken online under normal exam conditions.

One month ahead of the written policy exercise, the apprentice will receive a brief from the End Point Assessment Organisation explaining the format of the written exercise, but this will not include the specific questions to be answered.

90 minutes are allowed for the exercise. There is no word limit.

10 minute presentation to a brief set by an independent assessor that focuses on aspects of the policy lifecycle, followed by a Q&A (10 mins).

The question is set by the End Point Assessment Organisation and will focus on aspects of the policy lifecycle, including the development, implementation and evaluation phases of a policy. You will receive it one month in advance.

The presentation can be delivered in any format, with or without slides, video, supporting documents and/or speaking notes.

Immediately following the presentation, there will be a series of follow-up questions from the panel, based on the presentation. This will enable the panel to confirm understanding of the learning area and explore arguments in more depth.

A 50 minute structured discussion with an independent assessor to explore aspects of your work, including how it was carried out and to test your application of the knowledge, skills and behaviours in the standard.

During your apprenticeship you will create a portfolio of evidence that will underpin this discussion.

Resources for your End Point Assessment

There are templates and further docs available in OneFile under Resources/Policy Officer EPA preparation materials.

Assessment for apprentices who started during or after August 2022

During EPA, you will complete the following

This EPA method includes 2 component(s):

  • a project with a project output
  • a presentation with questions and answers.

A project proposal involves completing a relevant and defined piece of work that has a real business benefit. The project proposal may be based on one or a combination of the following:

  • a current or completed policy initiative
  • a new policy initiative
  • a significant change to an existing policy initiative
  • a policy influencing strategy
  • an implementation plan
  • a post implementation review
  • a strategy for consultation

The Project proposal will include:

  • a project introduction the scope of the project (including key performance indicators)
  • a project plan
  • project research and findings project outcomes and how these outcomes were achieved
  • recommendations and project conclusions.

The assessment method is the production of a project proposal, presentation and questioning. The project proposal is completed after the apprentice has gone through the gateway.

This will be created after you have gone through gateway, apart from the initial research to inform the project proposal scope. You will also prepare and deliver a presentation that will be followed by questioning from the independent assessor.

The presentation with question and answer session will last 45 minutes, with typically 20 minutes for the presentation and 25 minutes for questions.

A 90 minute structured discussion with an independent assessor to explore aspects of your work, including how it was carried out and to test your application of the knowledge, skills and behaviours in the standard.

During your apprenticeship you will create a portfolio of evidence that will underpin this discussion. It will typically contain 18 discrete pieces of evidence, mapped against the KSBs.

Resources for your End Point Assessment

There are templates and guidance documents available in OneFile under Resources/Policy Officer revised standard EPA materials (last updated 15.6.23).

Top Tips …

Plan your Content (for learners starting before August 2022)

For the written policy test, you have to cover all the criteria over the two essays, but you don’t have to cover the criteria twice! So you may find that one case study lends itself more to talking about consultation than commercial awareness in your first essay. You can then cover commercial awareness criteria in your second essay.

Be Effective

For your presentation, put the criteria you think each slide covers in the notes pane. That will help you to check you have covered all the necessary criteria by the end of the presentation. That also shows to the examiners what’s covered by each slide (they will have a copy of your slides in advance of your presentation).

Use your deductive skills (for starts pre Aug 22)

For the multiple-choice test, if you’re not certain on the correct answers, think carefully about the four answers presented and try to eliminate those which are clearly wrong. You’ll then be left with fewer answers, and can then apply logic to what would be the ‘best fit’ answer to the question.

Be Organised

For the professional discussion, you can bring your portfolio into the session, or have it on your computer in virtual sessions. It can be useful to use a detailed portfolio ‘contents list’ (such as the Portfolio Evidence Locator/Summary you’ll complete before submitting) to give you a quick, at-a-glance view of your evidence examples That will help you be ready to answer questions promptly.