In January 2019 Advance HE became the first organisation to be accepted onto the Register for End Point Assessment Organisations in association with the Level 7 Academic Professional Apprenticeship (L7 APA), a new standard intended to develop full competency in early career academics’ role as practitioners.
The Academic Professional Apprenticeship is a route for English higher education institutes to access Apprenticeship Levy funds to support costs of early career academic development. Academic Professionals undertake the core role and follow one of two specialist routes, teaching and supporting learning or undertaking research. The apprenticeship requires an independent End Point Assessment (EPA) to be carried out.
EPA has three components: a written submission, an observation of teaching practice (Specialist role in Teaching) or research skills (Specialist role in Research), and a professional conversation. Since January, we have worked closely with a reference group of training providers delivering the L7 APA, and recruited sector experts in apprenticeships and the assessments associated with the L7 APA, to produce detailed assessment guidance documentation. Our team of 34 Independent Assessors use the documentation, along with their collective wealth of knowledge, and diverse experience engaging with early career academic to deliver End Point Assessment (EPA) to higher education institutes.
As part of our EPA service, apprentices will be provided access to an online community for Academic Professionals (as part of the Advance HE Connect platform) as a place for academic professionals to share early career experiences, make use of additional resources relating to Fellowship and provide peer support for EPA. In addition to this, the service also includes:
- Receipt of the detailed assessment guidance we have produced
- Dedicated support for our online platform (“Smart EPA”) used for all assessment and feedback
- Membership to our Advance HE Connect Group, specifically for L7 APA employers and training providers
- Membership for apprentices to an Advance HE Connect Group, specifically created to generate a community of early career academics undertaking the L7 APA
- Access to assessment specific training webinars
- An “Advance HE – Academic Professional Award” for successful apprentices.
For more information on the Level 7 Academic Professional Apprenticeship, please visit
https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/end-point-assessment or contact us on endpointassessment@advance-he.ac.uk.