The Digital and Technology Solutions Specialist Integrated Degree Apprenticeship is used by software companies of varying sizes to develop their employees and gear them towards management. It requires apprentices to meet Knowledge, Skill and Behavioural requirements across business and change management, professional competencies, leadership, technology management and software engineering.

Simon was employed by Sheffield Hallam University to create an end-point assessment process to assess these from the Government standard. Using our software engineering and academic experience, we created a standardised and rigorous assessment process using the following approach:

• Adheres to the Government standard. The Government standard specifies in broad terms how the assessment process should work and what stipulations should be followed. We follow this as best we can to ensure consistent grading across course providers.
• Consistent and fair. We ensure consistency and fairness through internal and external moderation, standardisation and a rigorous grading process with clear and actionable feedback if required.
• Scalable and adaptable. We follow a continuous improvement process each year to improve the process and ensure that it continues to meet the Government standard. We have produced clear onboarding documentation and since starting the EPA process, Simon has trained and onboarded two additional assessors using a training program that he created.
• Automation and project management. We have automated the process where possible to allow the assessors to focus on grading rather than admin tasks. We use Trello to track apprentices through the process, with clear transparency for the Sheffield Hallam teaching team.