Assessment & EPA
On-programme assessments
During your apprenticeship you will be required to complete a range of assessments. These might include:
- reports
- practical write ups
- examinations
- presentations
- creating a portfolio of evidence from activities undertaken at work
Each apprenticeship Standard has a different assessment plan. Your Trainer will inform you about yours.
We understand that this can feel daunting but your Trainer is there to support you.
Exams
Some units within some apprenticeships require you sit externally set exams at the Training Centre. If you have to take Functional Skills Maths or English you will sit nationally-set external exams.
We will assist you to prepare for external assessments, and provide you with the opportunity to experience mock exams and practice sessions.
Portfolio of evidence
You will collate a portfolio of jobs you have done in the workplace. These jobs will show the knowledge, skills and behaviours you have developed throughout the apprenticeship. This portfolio will be specific to your apprentice’s role.
We help you to compile your portfolio of evidence and ensure it has been cross referenced correctly.
As you prepare your work for submission always remember it has to be about your job and what you do. It is okay to use the word ‘I’, after all you are being assessed on what you do and how you do it.
Support
We are committed to achieving equality of opportunity in the assessment process. You have completed initial assessments and completed a personal and social development self-assessment during your induction. You may have individual requirements for several reasons and reasonable adjustments can be put in place to accommodate your requirements.
Should you feel that you have additional needs or require additional support, or just find external assessment or exams situation stressful, please speak to your Trainer as soon as possible.
End-point assessment (EPA)
You will have your skills, knowledge and behaviours evaluated at the end of your apprenticeship by undertaking an End Point Assessment.
This will be undertaken by an external independent assessor, not your trainer.
Each apprenticeship Standard has its own assessment plan which deals with the criteria required to successfully achieve your apprenticeship and the grade you may receive.
Assessments may include methods such as: workplace observations, project work, portfolio, reports, practical assessment, professional discussion, interviews, presentation, and multiple choice tests.
Throughout your programme, your Trainer will discuss your progress and agree targets to stretch and challenge your learning and maximise your potential.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism occurs whenever you dishonestly present someone else’s work as your own.
Plagiarism occurs when you
Use unacknowledged direct copying from the work of another person, or the close paraphrasing. This applies to copying both from other learners’ work, the work of staff or from published sources such as books, reports, or journal articles. Plagiarised material may originate from any source. This includes using AI to produce your work.
- Use of quotations or data from the work of others is entirely acceptable and is often very valuable provided that the source of the quotation or data is given. Failure to provide a source or put quotation marks around material that is taken from elsewhere gives the appearance that the comments are ostensibly one’s own. When quoting word-for-word from the work of another person, quotation marks or indenting must be used and the source of the quoted material must be acknowledged.
- Paraphrasing when the original statement is still identifiable and has no acknowledgement is plagiarism. Taking a piece of text, from whatever source, and substituting words or phrases with other words or phrases is plagiarism. Any paraphrase of another person’s work must have an acknowledgement to the source. It is not acceptable to put together unacknowledged passages from the same or from different sources linking these together with a few words or sentences of your own and changing a few words from the original text: this is regarded as over-dependence on other sources, which is a form of plagiarism.
- Direct quotations from an earlier piece of the learner’s own work, if unattributed, suggests that the work is original, when in fact it is not. The direct copying of one’s own writings qualifies as plagiarism if the fact that the work has been or is to be presented elsewhere is not acknowledged.
- Source of quotations used should be listed in full in a bibliography at the end of the piece of work and in a style required by the learner’s curriculum area.
- Coursework (including assignments, essays, skills assessments, and management reports) must be the learner’s own work unless in the case of group projects a joint effort is expected and is indicated as such. Learners must acknowledge assistance given from fellow learners, staff, and work-based mentors to avoid suspicion of plagiarism.
- Major plagiarism is a serious offence and will result in the disciplinary process being invoked i.e., over 5% of the final script identified as someone else’s work.
In deciding upon the penalty Derwent Training will consider factors such as the stage of the study, the extent and proportion of the work that has been plagiarised and the apparent intent of the learner. The penalties that may be imposed range from a minimum of a zero mark for the work (with or without allowing resubmission), the downgrading of a result, reporting to the awarding body, to disciplinary measures such as temporary or permanent exclusion from the apprenticeship.
