Measuring Apprenticeship Standards Performance
The move from Apprenticeship frameworks to standards has been in progress for a few years. We see the first significant volume of learners going through the endpoint assessment process and completing their programmes. From a quality assurance perspective, there now needs to be a period of reflection, and some analysis needs to be conducted on how well the programmes have been delivered and how successful they have been.
Apprenticeship Standard Outcomes
As anyone delivering apprenticeship standards will know they are made up of outcomes – skills, knowledge and behaviours. The standards have offered greater flexibility in how apprenticeships are delivered. They also set out what employers in that industry need from their staff. Colleges and training providers will have spent a lot of time creating new standards-based apprenticeship programmes but have not yet had the opportunity to review them. Stedfast is designed as an outcomes assessment tool that allows organisations to review their performance against any type of outcome set. The outcomes assessment process is shown below:
Reviewing Apprenticeship Programmes
Using Stedfast, teams of staff involved with apprenticeship standards-based delivery can review their performance against the learning outcomes of the skills, knowledge and behaviours. An outcomes assessment plan is created using the criteria in the apprenticeship standard. The plan owner can then work with their team to identify how performance against each learning outcome will be measured. Each measure is then allocated to a staff member who can add their findings and identify any actions for improvement.
Improvement Plan
The process of an assessment plan is to identify the outcomes, define measures and targets, review and add findings and then to complete the process, staff need to add actions so that improvements can be made. Each assessment plan has its own Action plan. The action plan is the area where delivery teams are able to plan and implement the improvements for each programme. It becomes the focal point that staff can review on an ongoing basis.
Stedfast Outcomes Assessment
The outcomes assessment feature is a really powerful tool for anyone involved in education and training. It is a centralised quality assurance system that allows organisations to review performance against the:
Strategies
Compliance requirements
Programme learning outcomes