Every apprentice must meet the assessment requirements of their occupational standard before they can achieve the apprenticeship. How those requirements are assessed is changing, and during 2026–27 both the established end-point assessment model and the revised apprenticeship-assessment model are in use.
The model being replaced: end-point assessment
Under the established model, an apprentice completes their training, their employer and provider agree they are ready – the point known as the gateway – and they then sit an end-point assessment (EPA) carried out by an organisation independent of both the employer and the provider. What the assessment involves is set by the standard: it might combine a practical observation, a professional discussion, a portfolio, a project or a written test.
The model replacing it: apprenticeship assessment
Revised assessment plans introduce a more flexible model. The key changes:
- Timing. Assessment can now take place at any stage of the apprenticeship, rather than only at the end.
- Terminology. “End-point assessment” becomes “apprenticeship assessment”, “end-point assessment organisation” becomes “assessment organisation”, and “gateway” becomes “gateway to completion”.
- Who does what. Assessment organisations design all assessment materials and quality-assure them, and remain independent of training delivery. Training providers may deliver and mark some assessment elements, where the revised assessment plan allows it. Employers verify the behaviours an apprentice has demonstrated in the workplace.
That third point is the substantive one. It is no longer accurate to say that an independent organisation carries out the whole final assessment: independence now sits in the design and quality assurance of the assessment, while some delivery and marking may sit with the provider where the revised plan allows it.
Which model applies?
Standards move across in phases. Most revised assessment plans have around a six-month lead-in between publication and going live; standards with mandatory qualifications have about three months; complex standards are handled case by case. The existing version of a standard stays available for new starts until its revised version goes live, so both models are running side by side.
So the honest answer for any individual apprentice is: check the assessment plan for their specific standard and version on the Skills England website. There is no single date on which everything changed.
Where assessment sits in the statistics
Assessment is the boundary between two of the three published rates. Note that these are statistical definitions about learning aims, not descriptions of the assessment process itself.
| Rate | How DfE calculates it | England, 2024/25 |
|---|---|---|
| Retention rate | learning aims completed ÷ leavers | 66.7% |
| Pass rate | learning aims achieved ÷ aims successfully completed | 98.1% |
| Achievement rate | programme aims achieved ÷ number started | 65.4% |
The national pass rate was 98.1% in 2024/25: among learning aims recorded as successfully completed, the great majority were achieved.
Why that matters more than it sounds
The QAR data suggest that non-completion accounts for far more non-achievement nationally than non-achievement among successful completers. Around 33.3% of leavers in 2024/25 were not recorded as completing their learning aims.
They do not, however, tell us why individual apprentices did not complete. Job changes, redundancy, programme length and how well an apprentice was matched to the standard are all plausible explanations, and the achievement-rate tables establish none of them. What they establish is where in the programme the shortfall sits, not its cause.
The practical implication is still useful: when an achievement rate looks low, “is the assessment too hard?” is unlikely to be the productive first question.
If an apprentice does not pass
Resits and retakes are possible, and the rules are set by the individual standard and its assessment plan, including how soon a resit can happen and whether it can achieve a higher grade than a pass. An apprentice in this position should ask their provider for the rules of their specific standard and version, because they genuinely differ – and differ again between the old and revised plans.