SWE EPA: An Introduction | by Esgrid Sikahall

So, you are enjoying your apprenticeship. Excellent! You may be in the midst of your 12-week Bootcamp, or you may have completed your Bootcamp and have started your Back-End or Front-End pathway modules. You also may have begun to do work with your team in your new role. 

Whatever stage you're at, you’re here because some questions have begun to arise. You know that to complete your apprenticeship you need to go through something called an End Point Assessment or EPA for short. But what is an EPA?

Don’t worry, you’ve come to the right place. Here we’ll give you a one-stop tour of all EPA-related things and what you can do to prepare for the EPA. The goal of the article is not to be exhaustive but to give you a map. All information here comes directly from your apprenticeship standard, the assessment plan from the standard, and from Accelerate People, Multiverse’s End Point Assessment Organisation (EPAO).

But First… Remember Gateway? The Portal to Your EPA

Your End Point Assessment is the assessment stage of your apprenticeship, typically lasting 6 months. The portal to this stage is called Gateway: a meeting between you, your manager, and your coach where you all make sure that every requirement for your apprenticeship has been met up until that point. These requirements include that:

• You’ve kept 100% of your OTJ, 
• You’ve got evidence of English and Maths GCSEs or equivalent (Functional Skills),
• You’ve got a completed Portfolio, 
• You’ve got a title and a 500-word summary of a Work-Based Project you’ll complete after Gateway.
   

You’ve gone through Gateway, so now what? Your EPA has two main parts. Their names are (surprisingly) Assessment Method 1 or AM1, and Assessment Method 2 or AM2. In this article, we won’t go into too much detail since they have their own shiny articles. The goal here is to show you where they fit together as a part of your EPA.

AM1: Work-Based Project with 1hr Q&A

In a nutshell, what is AM1? It is a two-part assessment:

1. A 4500-word Work-Based Project report, based on a 9-week Work-Based Project you carry out after Gateway.
2. A 1-hour Q&A with an independent assessor about your Work-Based Project report.

Both the report and the Q&A are part of the assessment; both count towards AM1 and both will be assessed. Together they will get one of three marks for your AM1: fail, pass, or distinction.

AM2: Professional Discussion Underpinned by Portfolio

And what is AM2, in a nutshell? It is one assessment: A 1-hour discussion underpinned by your Portfolio with an independent assessor.

Note that the longest piece of written work you’ll carry out throughout your apprenticeship is your Portfolio. To repeat, since it is crucial, the 1-hour discussion is underpinned by your Portfolio. This means that even though the Portfolio itself isn’t assessed, the discussion is completely based on your Portfolio. AM2 is also marked as fail, pass, or distinction.

Here’s a visual to summarise AM1 and AM2 as parts of your EPA:

But When Am I doing AM1 and AM2?

Great question! I’m glad you asked. Make sure you’re guided by your coach when Gateway approaches so you know what to focus on both before and after Gateway.

You should start working on your Portfolio as soon as you finish your Bootcamp and begin to produce work at your workplace. Your first ticket or task could be turned into your first piece of evidence. You’ll need 10 smaller pieces of evidence or 3 to 4 bigger projects (or anything in between). Please refer to the specific AM2 article for more detail on how a piece of evidence should be structured.

Also, make sure you discuss your Portfolio in your 121s with your coach and make sure that your manager understands that you’re collecting evidence in order to have a Portfolio which will underpin AM2 of your EPA. 

Once Gateway is on the horizon - roughly after 15 months after starting your Bootcamp - your Portfolio must be near completion and you should be putting together a title and a summary of a Work-Based Project you’ll complete after Gateway.

The EPAO (Accelerate People) gives the following timeline from Gateway onwards (note that on the first point, we focus only on the EPA-relevant aspects of Gateway):

1. Gateway: submit 1) Work-Based Project title and summary, and 2) Portfolio
2. Professional Discussion underpinned by Portfolio (AM2) is booked within 10 days of gateway submission.
3. EPAO confirms the suitability of your Work-Based Project title and summary within 10 days of gateway submission.
4. Start work on AM1. Your Work-Based Project is a 9-week project, usually taking 7 weeks to complete, and 2 weeks to write the report.
5. AM1, part 1: within 9 weeks of confirmation of the suitability of your Work-Based Project you submit your Work-Based Project report.
6. AM2: The 1-hour professional discussion underpinned by the Portfolio happens at least 10 working days after the submission of the report, on the same day as the AM1 part 2. 
7. AM1, part 2: The 1-hour Q&A happens. You’ll usually have a 20-30 mins break in-between sessions. You’ll normally book 2.5 hours including the break for both sessions.
8. Your final results will be sent to Multiverse and to your employer within 10 working days.
9. Your certificate will be sent to your Employer.

Your EPA results can be either fail, pass, merit, or distinction. Where you land depends on the outcomes of both AM1 and AM2. You have to pass both AM1 and AM2 to pass your EPA. Failing either of them means failing the EPA. 

Each assessment method focuses on different KSBs (knowledge, skills, and behaviours), so you cannot compensate in one assessment method for something that was not present in the other. Please make sure you check out the articles on AM1 (Part 1, Part 2) and AM2  (Part 1, Part 2)  to see which KSBs are assessed in each assessment method.

Re-sits, Re-takes

If you happen to fail the EPA - which means failing either AM1 or AM2 or both - you will be offered a re-sit or a re-take, depending on your employer. You will resit or retake only the failed assessment methods. 

The difference between a re-sit and a re-take is that a re-sit doesn’t need further training and a re-take does. Therefore, a re-sit is taken within 2 months of the EPA outcome notification and a re-take is taken within 4 months of the EPA outcome notification. An important thing to remember is that you have a maximum of 6 months to do the resits or retakes after the EPA outcome, otherwise the entire EPA will need to be re-sat or re-taken.

So, What is an EPA?

Let us take a breather! I know there’s a lot to take in. But remember that doing things step by step can break down the big problem into manageable chunks. 

If someone were to ask me “Ok, but what is the EPA?” and I had to describe it in a few sentences, I would say this: It is the last stage of the apprenticeship. It comprises two assessment methods: AM1, which includes two assessed parts, a Work-Based Project report and a 1-hour Q&A; and AM2, a 1-hour Professional Discussion underpinned by a Portfolio.

This visual guideline summarises the EPA stage:

From the team of coaches, we wish you all the best in your apprenticeship and we hope this article will allow you to navigate your apprenticeship effectively.

Make sure to check out the whole SWE EPA series:

• SWE EPA: An Introduction
• SWE EPA: AM2 Professional Discussion & Portfolio Overview
• SWE EPA: AM2 Portfolio Structure
• SWE EPA: AM1 Work-Based Project and Q&A Overview
• SWE EPA: AM1 Work-Based Project Report Structure

Esgrid Sikahall is a Software Engineering coach at Multiverse.