Apprentices: Assessments

(asked on 19th February 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will publish the outcome of (a) capability and (b) capacity assessments of awarding bodies undertaken by his Department to assess whether those bodies can offer mass volume remote testing of apprentices’ functional skills in maths and English between now and April 2021.


Answered by
Gillian Keegan Portrait
Gillian Keegan
Secretary of State for Education
This question was answered on 1st March 2021

The majority of respondents agreed to the proposal outlined in the consultation and the decision is that all efforts should be made to allow Functional Skills learners, including apprentices, to take an assessment in line with public health measures or remotely where possible. Where assessments cannot take place on public health grounds or remotely, teacher assessed grades will be made available. There is currently no regulatory provision to award Functional Skills qualifications through teacher assessed grades until Ofqual introduce their regulatory framework, but the expectation is that all efforts should be made to deliver assessments in the first instance. The department sought clearance from Cabinet in developing the policy approach to awarding all Vocational and Technical Qualifications in light of the consultation.

Since September 2020, Ofqual has been working with the department to support awarding organisations to deliver Functional Skills assessments to apprentices, including the development and roll-out of remote solutions. We understand from Ofqual that of the eight awarding organisations that offer on-demand reformed Functional Skills qualifications, six have fully rolled out remote invigilation. Those awarding organisations that currently deliver remote invigilation have not reported any capacity or capability issues; however, they are not currently operating at full capacity due to low demand. Even where awarding organisations offer remote invigilation, learners will only be able to sit assessments if they have access to the relevant IT equipment and software. The two remaining awarding organisations are currently piloting remote solutions on a small-scale and have made remote invigilation available on request. Ofqual continues to monitor delivery of remote assessment and has recently published information on the types of assessment offered by all Functional Skills awarding organisations: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/awarding-of-functional-skills-in-2021.

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