Measuring the Quality of EpAOsIn this article Jacqui discusses ideas and options around developing public facing metrics to measure the quality of EpAOs, and to support employer / provider choice .For years a significant number of end-point assessment organisations (EpAOs) have been calling for a national measure of quality, and if you go back as far as 2019, there was the intention to publish reports on the quality of EPAOs (Page 23 of the 2019 EQA framework “ The institute can share the outcomes of reviews with relevant bodies and plans to publish reports or elements of them at some point in the future ”). Well, 4 years on a lot has been learnt, a few evaluation reports have been published, but there is still no indication of a set of public facing measures around the quality of individual EpAOs.The external quality assurance (EQA) providers for EPA are Ofqual and the OfS. The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) EQA framework states that EpAO compliance with the Ofqual / OfS Conditions provides a “ first indication of assurance on each EPAO”. Compliance essentially means that the organisations are delivering in accordance with the rules (Conditions) that have been set by Ofqual / OfS, providing a level of assurance for the customer / public confidence.Compliance supports consistency, but it does not assure quality. To assure quality, tangible measures are required that allow for benchmarks to be established and comparisons to be made of performance across EpAOs. Quality measures can arguably lead to greater customer focus, innovation, and better outcomes, so should these be the second indication of assurance on each EpAO? In this article, I explore some ideas around potential measures.HOWEVER, BEFORE I BEGIN, I WOULD LIKE TO ADD A FEW CAVEATS TO MY THOUGHTS:1 It could be argued that some of these measures may not be about quality, but they could still be used by customers to help make an informed choice;2 Some measures would only be effective on an apprenticeship by apprenticeship basis, whereas others would be effective at an EpAO level;3 There will always be times where things may be out of control of the EpAO, so no measure can be perfect;4 No single measure will provide a guarantee of quality, data can be ‘manipulated’, the perception of quality may be subjective, and there will always be ‘exceptions to the rule’;But we should not shy away from using a range of measures to indicate the quality of EpAOs, if it is in the interests of customers, stakeholders and EpAOs.DATABoth the ESFA and Ofqual collect a lot of EPA related data, but provide very little information publicly on EPA, despite there being lots of data publicly available on training providers. To get a true data picture of apprenticeships you should be able to see the entire lifecycle of an apprenticeship, which includes both the training and the end-point assessment. For example:- The ILR collects a range of data on EpAO selection, dates, price, outcomes and achievements (refer to my later points around value for money and outcomes)- Ofqual collects data on EPA outcomes, appeals, complaints, malpractice, and other key areas- Ofqual carries out thematic monitoring (looking at specific issues across all EpAOs), and technical evaluations (review of EpAO EPA materials), all of which are valuable indicators of quality.VALUE FOR MONEYI do not believe that price is an indicator of quality, however, I do believe that there is a lack of transparency of pricing in the marketplace. For example, I have seen examples of hidden extras for things that I believe should be part of the core price, and EpAOs not being clear in their public pricing about who is responsible for providing tools, equipment and facilities for EPA (for example an EpAO may appear cheaper but when you get into the detail they expect the employer or provider to supply the materials, equipment and facilities for the EPA).Should there be an agreed framework on th...
