This is a difficult time for apprentices, employers and providers of apprenticeship training, assessment and external assurance.
The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) has taken steps to try and ensure that apprentices can continue and complete their apprenticeship, despite any break they need to take as a result of COVID-19.
The government has taken a number of steps, including:
- introducing flexibilities to allow furloughed apprentices to continue their training as long as it does not provide services to or generate revenue for their employer
- allowing the modification of end-point assessment arrangements, including remote assessments wherever practicable and possible in order to maintain progress and achievement for apprentices
- allowing apprentices ready for assessment, but who cannot be assessed due to COVID-19 issues, to have their end-point assessment rescheduled
- providing assessment time frame extensions to apprentices whose gateway is delayed
- providing clarification on how to record breaks in learning so that funding is not unnecessarily disrupted
To read the full guidance for apprentices, employers, training providers, end-point assessment organisations and external quality assurance providers, click here.
For more information on the government’s COVID-19 guidance and the salary support for furloughed employees, which also applies to apprentices, click here.
For guidance on the delivery of assessment from the Institute for Apprenticeship and Technical Education (IFATE) click here.