The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education on Friday announced a new temporary flexibility that enables apprentices to take their End Point Assessment (EPA) ahead of receiving their calculated Functional Skills Qualifications (FSQ) later on in the summer.
The flexibility enables apprentices, who would otherwise be stuck at gateway pending their calculated FSQ, to pass through gateway and take their EPA.
This flexibility, which has immediate effect, applies to all apprentices due to take an FSQ test and receive a result between 20 March and 31 July, that are:
- deemed by their training provider to have the required level of functional skills and sufficient evidence to demonstrate this to receive a calculated FSQ pass; and
- have reached gateway and are deemed to be occupationally competent and ready to progress to sit their EPA.
This temporary measure supports qualifying apprentices to complete their EPA without undue delay. Apprentices will only achieve their apprenticeship once they have passed EPA and received their FSQ pass. Training providers will therefore be expected to provide prompt confirmation of the apprentice’s FSQ calculated results to EPAOs once these have been awarded.
More guidance to support employers, training providers and EPAOs to implement the flexibility and to ensure that apprentices get their certificate to confirm completion once they have passed both their EPA and their FSQ will follow.
