Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that apprentices are not affected by the transition to the provision by Ofqual of external quality assurance of apprenticeship end-point assessments through the regulation of end-point assessment organisations.

Simplifying and strengthening the way we conduct external quality assurance of endpoint assessment organisations (EPAOs) will help to ensure that EPAOs are consistently delivering high quality, fair and reliable endpoint assessments for apprentices and their employers.

To ensure a smooth transition to the new arrangements we are working closely with Ofqual, EPAOs and the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education. Throughout the transition process our primary aim is to minimise any disruption to apprentices or employers. We are maintaining effective quality oversight of end point assessments in the interests of all stakeholders, including apprentices and have, for example, extended the overall transition deadline to December 2022 to minimize any disruption and will work with any EPAO that fails to achieve the required standard in order to deliver a bespoke plan which priorities the quality of the apprenticeship experience.

We actively manage the register of EPAOs to ensure there is sufficient coverage of EPAOs for all apprenticeship standards and apprentices and continue to do so throughout the transition.