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Apprenticeship standards are changing: what should training providers be preparing for?
There is a lot happening in apprenticeships at the moment.
In our last blog, we looked at the withdrawal of government funding from several apprenticeship standards and what that could mean for employers trying to develop their people.
But funding isn't the only thing changing. Skills England's latest apprenticeship revisions and adjustments report shows a significant programme of change across apprenticeship standards in England. Assessment plans are being revised, new versions are being introduced at different times, some standards are undergoing wider changes and others are being considered for retirement.
For training providers, this isn't necessarily a reason to start rewriting your curriculum tomorrow. It is a reason to know exactly which versions you're delivering, what's coming next and whether your existing curriculum and learning journey will still do what they need to do.
What's actually changing with apprenticeship standards?
One of the most important things to understand is that this isn't one big rule change being applied to every apprenticeship at once. A large proportion of the activity currently taking place relates to apprenticeship assessment reform.
The government is moving away from the model where summative assessment is concentrated into a separate end-point assessment at the end of the apprenticeship. Under the new approach, apprenticeship assessment can take place at different stages of the programme where appropriate.
Providers may also be able to deliver and mark some elements of assessment where the individual assessment plan allows it, employers will verify the required behaviours demonstrated in the workplace, and assessment organisations will continue to have responsibility for assessment materials and quality assurance.
The new assessment plans are also intended to reduce unnecessary duplication and make assessment more proportionate. But exactly what changes will depend on the individual apprenticeship.
Being listed within the Skills England tracker does not automatically mean that all of the knowledge, skills and behaviours within an occupational standard have changed.
That's why providers need to look at each new version individually rather than making assumptions about what the reforms mean for every programme they deliver.
I've been around long enough to remember the old NVQs
I've been working in apprenticeships long enough to remember delivering the old apprenticeship frameworks, when we generally just referred to what we were delivering as the NVQ. Or, as it was sometimes rather unkindly joked about, the "not very qualified".
My role back then was predominantly assessment.
I would visit apprentices in their workplace, observe them doing their job, ask questions, gather evidence, assess their competence against the qualification criteria and move on to the next unit.
There was learning happening, of course, and delivery varied between providers, qualifications and sectors. But in my own experience, the role was heavily weighted towards assessing what somebody could demonstrate rather than delivering a carefully designed programme of teaching and learning.
There was no independent end-point assessment in the way we later came to know it under apprenticeship standards. Frameworks typically relied on qualifications and assessment throughout the programme to demonstrate that the apprentice had achieved the required outcomes.
When standards and end-point assessment arrived, the model changed significantly.
Now things are changing again. But I don't think we should see the latest reforms as simply taking us back to the old framework days. If anything, I think they make the quality of the curriculum and the learning journey even more important.
Don't let assessment become the curriculum
This is probably the part of the reforms that interests us most as learning designers.
An apprenticeship curriculum shouldn't simply be a list of knowledge, skills and behaviours with some resources and assessments attached to them. There needs to be a learning journey.
Knowledge introduced early in the programme should provide foundations for what comes later. Skills need opportunities to develop through practice. Important themes should be revisited in different contexts and with increasing complexity. Workplace learning needs to connect with what is being taught rather than feeling like something happening separately.
Assessment then needs to sit within that journey in the right places.
If a revised assessment plan allows particular assessment to happen during the programme, providers need to understand not only what is being assessed but whether the apprentice has genuinely had the teaching, learning and workplace experience needed to be ready for it at that point.
Mapping everything to a standard is important. Designing the journey that gets somebody there is something different. For me, that's one of the biggest things providers need to protect as these reforms are introduced.
Don't let bringing assessment back into the programme turn the programme back into being all about assessment!
Version control could become a very practical problem
There is another, slightly less exciting issue that providers need to be preparing for: version control. Revised apprenticeship standards and assessment plans are being introduced in stages rather than everything changing on the same date.
That means providers may find themselves with existing apprentices continuing under one version while new apprentices begin on another. Those versions could have different assessment requirements, learning resources or programme documentation.
Providers therefore need to know exactly which apprentices are attached to which version and make sure the correct curriculum, resources, assessment information and staff guidance are being used.
This isn't just an administrative problem. If a tutor is working from an outdated scheme of work or preparing an apprentice for an assessment method that has changed, it can have a very real impact on the learner experience.
Construction providers have a lot to keep an eye on
Construction and the built environment feature heavily within the current programme of apprenticeship development and revision. Standards across areas including bricklaying, carpentry and joinery, electrical installation, plumbing and heating, roofing, scaffolding, groundworks, construction site supervision, building services and facilities management appear within the wider pipeline.
That does not mean every construction apprenticeship programme needs changing now.
It does mean construction apprenticeship providers should have a clear process for monitoring the individual standards they deliver and reviewing revised versions as they are published.
Construction programmes often involve significant practical development and workplace learning, with employers, trainers, assessors and apprentices all contributing to the journey.
If the timing or method of assessment changes, providers need to consider what that means across the whole programme.
Does practical learning happen at the right point? Are apprentices getting enough opportunity to practise before assessment? Do employers understand their role? Are trainers preparing learners for the revised requirements? Do existing resources still support what the apprentice actually needs to demonstrate?
For providers delivering several construction standards, reviewing and implementing those changes consistently could become a significant curriculum project in itself.
Some apprenticeship changes will go further than assessment
It's also important to distinguish between an assessment-plan revision and a broader revision to an apprenticeship standard. Some standards are being looked at more widely. Depending on the individual apprenticeship, that could have implications for areas such as occupational content, mandatory qualifications, programme duration or funding.
Other standards may eventually be retired or replaced.
These changes can have much bigger implications for delivery and potentially for the commercial viability of a programme. The important thing is not to assume that every entry on the Skills England tracker means the same thing. Check the individual standard. Check the version. Check the assessment plan. Check the implementation date.
Then work out what actually needs changing.
What should apprenticeship providers be doing now?
There is no need to panic and start rebuilding programmes simply because a standard appears on the tracker.
There is, however, plenty providers can do now to make future changes much easier.
Start by identifying every apprenticeship standard you currently deliver and exactly which version is being used. Make sure somebody has responsibility for monitoring revisions and implementation dates rather than relying on individual tutors or curriculum teams to spot changes.
When a revised standard or assessment plan is published, compare it directly with the version you're currently delivering and look at the impact across the whole learner journey.
That review should consider:
what has actually changed within the standard or assessment plan
whether the existing curriculum still covers everything required
whether anything needs to move within the learning journey
whether apprentices are being prepared for assessment at the right point
how workplace development aligns with the revised programme
which resources, assignments or digital learning need updating
what tutors, coaches, assessors and employers need to know
whether old and new versions will need to run alongside each other
Only once you understand the impact should the rewriting begin.
Use the change as an opportunity to look at the whole learning journey
There is a temptation whenever a qualification or apprenticeship changes to open the existing scheme of work, update the mapping, replace a few resources and consider the job done. Sometimes that genuinely will be enough. Sometimes it won't.
We've both delivered and designed apprenticeship programmes, and one thing we've learnt is that mapping every requirement doesn't automatically create a good curriculum.
An apprentice still needs to understand what they're learning, practise it, apply it in their workplace, receive feedback, revisit important concepts and gradually build towards occupational competence.
That's particularly important as assessment becomes more integrated into the programme again. The relationship between what is taught, when it is taught, how it is applied and when it is assessed needs to make sense.
The standard tells us where the apprentice needs to end up. The curriculum is what gets them there.
Preparing for apprenticeship change
s with Emblem
At Emblem Training Solutions, we support apprenticeship and training providers with curriculum design, programme redevelopment and digital learning.
As revised apprenticeship standards and assessment plans are published, we can help providers compare old and new versions, identify curriculum and resource gaps and understand what the changes actually mean for the learning journey.
That might involve a complete curriculum review, rebuilding schemes of work, updating individual learning resources, developing new eLearning or simply providing an independent review before changes are implemented.
Because not every revised standard needs an entirely new programme.
But every provider needs to know what's changed before deciding that it doesn't.
Need support adapting to apprenticeship changes?
Whether you need a full curriculum review or simply an independent pair of eyes on a revised standard, we can help you work out what needs to change and what doesn't.
From curriculum mapping and learning journey design to updated resources and digital learning, we'll help you turn the new requirements into a programme that works for your apprentices, tutors and employers.
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