Completing your apprenticeship

Gateway to completion

Once you’ve completed your on programme training you will go through gateway to completion. 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 your final assessment.

Apprenticeship assessment

Apprenticeship assessment is the process for you to demonstrate that you have acquired the knowledge, skills and behaviours (KSB’s) set out in the apprenticeship standard.

The assessment will be carried out by an impartial Assessment Organisation, which takes responsibility for the assessment of the apprentice against the requirements of their standard.

Your assessment

During your assessment you will complete the following:

This includes 2 components:

  • written project report
  • presentation with questions and answers.

After gateway, you will complete a 3000 word written project report based on a specific problem, a recurring issue or an idea or opportunity. It will include:

  • an introduction including an outline of the written project report aims
  • approach taken including research and risks as applicable
  • stakeholders involved and their roles
  • communication plans which have fed into the communication strategy
  • outcomes and impact of the written project report recommendations and conclusions

You will also prepare and deliver a presentation to an independent assessor, covering an overview of the project and its scope, actions you have undertaken, the project outcomes and how these were achieved. The presentation will last 15 minutes with questioning of around 25 minutes.

A 60 minute structured discussion with an independent assessor to provide the opportunity to demonstrate comptetance in the KSBs mapped to this assessment method (see the assessment plan for the mapping). It will assess your competence against the following themes:

  • Communication and campaigns
  • Organisation, structure, and strategy
  • Media and public relations
  • Team, performance, and objectives
  • Regulations and legislation

During your apprenticeship you will create a portfolio of evidence that will underpin this discussion. You will be able to refer to and illustrate your answers with evidence from your portfolio.

Top tips

Think

How will you take what you have learnt forward with you into your future work?

Challenge Yourself

You will need to deliver a presentation as part of your assessment. Look for opportunities to practice your presentations skills as part of your job role or in your apprenticeship seminars.

Be Proactive

Try to consider what sort of project you would like to get involved with as early as possible. Your coach will support you through this and will be able to answer questions about what you could select.

Keep up with PR news

Keep up to date with current affairs & PR industry news. Here are some useful sources.

Manage Your Time

Use an hour of your off the job time each week to update your OneFile journal weekly to log your off-the-job training and activities.

This will save you from undertaking a big job at the end when you need to reach your target to move into gateway to completion.