There is a wide range of available online resources - we've pulled together five key documents to help you get started. The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) has published the following pages: Introduction to End-Point Assessment Organisations Conditions for being on the register of End-Point Assessment Organisations Apprenticeship funding rules The Institute for Apprenticeships & Technical Education (IFATE) has developed an online database of apprenticeships that will prove key to your success. Furthermore, you can find key information on all standards approved for delivery -and their main components- on our free Apprenticeship Management Training Solution – ACE360 - you can request a demo to learn more on the subject by clicking this link : IFATE list of Apprenticeship Standards Finally, you can take a look through our website, where you can find a lot of information on how how to best optimise your data management processes and information transfer. ACE360 – List of additional resources

During the initial stage, you need make sure you have completed the following steps: Be registered with the Information Commissioner’s office Have read the assessment plan for the standard you are applying for Have been trading for a minimum of 3 months Have read the requirements for organisations on the register of end-point assessment organisations Further information from the ESFA about the process can be found here . The official guidelines state that the following elements need to be in place within 9 months of being accepted onto the EPAO register - however, many organisations prepare to have these in place well in advance of their first EPA. Our platform -ACE360- can provide key support in meeting these six requirements. Here is some information on the key areas that you need to know for your application to the register: 1. Administrative Systems ACE360 provides a complete end-to-end apprenticeship management solution, from registration of apprentices, the storing of gateway and EPA evidence, scheduling and booking of assessments and automatically connecting directly to the certification service. Your ACE360 Account manager will support you in setting up these processes and be available to support you through your whole EPA journey. 2. System Infrastructure Within your application there is a section on IT infrastructure – this will vary from organisation to organisation, based on your specific software. If you are an ACE360 user, you can use the information found here , to fill out the specific section as required. 3. Internal Quality Assurance Initially, as a new EPAO you may wish to consider conducting 100% Internal Quality Assurance (IQA) - this is completed at component level and then at an overall grade level. The IQA document can be an extended version of your assessment grading/marking sheet. This can vary greatly, depending on the standard, the type of component assessed, and the complexity of the assessment plan. If you are using a grading sheet, the IQA can take the form of an added column, with notes, signature, and name of assessor at the end of each section. As your assessors become more and more familiar with EPA and your organisation-specific processes, it is common to reduce the number of second reviews undertaken to a percentage sampling basis. This is usually based on a risk-analysis of each assessor; the higher the risk, the higher the number of assessments reviewed. It is recommended to conduct an initial assessment of any new assessor, and assign a risk scoring - this will allow you to determine what percentage you will need to sample in the short to long term - you may want to conduct a 100% analysis during an assessor's probationary period. If your assessments are face to face, or take the form of an online test with an invigilator, you may want to conduct random surprise visits. If the discussions/observations are recorded, you may also choose to review the recorded evidence and marking sheets/grading documents. You can use ACE360 to access all assessment-based grading decisions and evidence - once you review them, you can store supporting IQA decisions and evidence, in order to improve the quality of your assessments. Furthermore, by using our report section, you can monitor the percentage pass rate of each assessor, and alter your risk profile accordingly. 4. Policies & Procedures You will need to have established the following Policies & Procedures: Complaints and appeals policy Conflict of interest policy Consistency assurance for assessing a standard Data Protection Policy Employers liability insurance Fair access policy Internal audit policy Monitoring procedures Monitoring processes Prevent agenda policy Professional indemnity insurance Public liability insurance Safeguarding policy These documents may need to be shared with your connected Training Providers. ACE360 includes a Knowledge Base feature which you can use to store all your guidance documents and policies, making them easily accessible to your providers, employees and customers. 5. Communication Protocols It is important to develop a clear and consistent way of communicating with both employers and training providers – regular updates with key stakeholders are key to running a successful End-Point Assessment business. Apprenticeship training has many moving parts and everyone needs to be doing their part every step of the way, in order to deliver standards in a timely and efficient manner. ACE360 allows instantaneous transfer of information between various stakeholders, and further streamlines data management in a safe and secure manner. 6. Supporting Material for Assessments Training Providers frequently tell us that it is essential that they understand the requirements, policies, and procedures and expectations of their End-Point Assessment organisations. This allows you to better support your customers in providing the highest level of training and preparation for Assessment. You can provide your Training Providers with access to Generic and Standard-specific guidance.

FAQs Archive - ACE360

Q: How Do I Upload Records On ACE360?

We are happy to say there are 3 different options to upload records, ideal for different sizes of Organsations. Click here to read our blog piece highlighting which option may be best for you and your business! We generally advise that you don't delay until EPA, and buy tokens as soon as you can when you start using the ACE360 system to avoid holdups later on in the process. Doing so gives your EPA Organisations adequate time to plan their workloads ahead.

Q: 2021-03-01 - Summary of Release March 2021

Thank you for using ACE360, as part of our commitment to provide an industry leading platform that saves you time and money, we continuously review and update ACE360. This latest release focusses on improved reporting, exports and improving the resit process. During this release we have completed; Evidence Upload Dates (All Users) and time stamp – Improved visibility of when files are loaded to ACE360 Early Resit Process (EPA Users) – Improved flow for resits after failing one or more component ESFA API Improvements – Resits, retry and errors 24 new fields on the CSV Export (All Super Admin/Admin Users) - Improved Reporting and information from the CSV Export We hope you find these developments useful and we always welcome feedback how we can improve ACE360. Please email ideas and feedback to support@ace360.org Click here to download the user guide for the latest release - ACE360 - March 2021 - Latest Release

Q: Introduction - First Steps

You might think that getting on the register of EPAOs should be the first thing you need to do, but you might want to take a step back - it’s important not to rush the process. It is thought that over half of all first applicants fail the initial early-stage application, and are forced to redo it. So, it’s important to take your time, prepare well and go through the following checklist – it might help you save time and money in the long run.

How Do I Upload Records On ACE360?

We are happy to say there are 3 different options [Read more]

Scott Binnie2021-07-23T16:08:22+01:00July 23rd, 2021|Main FAQ|

When Should I Upload Records To ACE360?

Generally we recommend that Training Providers and Employers don't delay [Read more]

Scott Binnie2021-07-23T16:04:18+01:00July 23rd, 2021|Main FAQ|

2021-02-01 – Summary of Release February 2021

Thank you for using ACE360, as part of our commitment [Read more]

Robert Herriot2021-03-09T15:12:11+00:00March 9th, 2021|ACE360 Release|

2021-03-01 – Summary of Release March 2021

Thank you for using ACE360, as part of our commitment [Read more]

Robert Herriot2021-03-10T08:13:35+00:00March 9th, 2021|ACE360 Release|

Pathways and Options within ACE360

Some apprenticeship Standards have pathways within the Standard. In ACE360 [Read more]

Robert Herriot2020-08-17T16:52:32+01:00August 17th, 2020|

Introduction – First Steps

You might think that getting on the register of EPAOs [Read more]

Ilias Kiritsis2020-04-24T13:29:03+01:00April 15th, 2020|

Do your Research

There is a wide range of available online resources - [Read more]

Ilias Kiritsis2020-05-01T15:37:48+01:00April 15th, 2020|First Steps|

Understand the Market

A key component of starting out as an EPAO is [Read more]

Ilias Kiritsis2020-05-01T15:39:13+01:00April 15th, 2020|First Steps|

Applying to the ESFA

During the initial stage, you need make sure you have [Read more]

Ilias Kiritsis2020-05-01T15:47:12+01:00April 15th, 2020|First Steps|

Reasonable Adjustments

The Equality Act (2010) and various other pieces of legislation [Read more]

Ilias Kiritsis2020-05-01T15:45:38+01:00April 15th, 2020|First Steps|

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