Manually uploading test results, scouring spreadsheets for apprentice credentials, and juggling multiple systems for end-point assessment.
If those sound like the struggles your EPA delivery teams are having, you aren’t alone.
Construction EPA Company – one of the UK’s leading end-point assessment organisations in construction and the built environment – was facing those challenges too… and it’s why they adopted epaPRO Assess to remove the traditional administrative barriers EPAOs face when examining apprentices as part of EPA.
For Construction EPA, improving the apprentice’s experience – and eliminating admin burden - was as simple as using risr/’s award-winning assessment technology within their existing EPA management platform, epaPRO.
We caught up with Ryan Williams, Construction EPA Company’s Customer and Services Manager, to learn how and why they did it.
Ryan, can you tell me a bit about Construction EPA?
Construction EPA Company is an end-point assessment organisation specialising in construction standards – we deliver over 20 standards, including bricklaying, carpentry, joinery, plastering and plumbing.
There is always a need for construction skills, and we have seen an increased volume of apprentices in EPA as a reflection of that.
What about your role?
I’m the Customer and Services Manager at Construction EPA Company, so, I manage the relationships we have with our clients and the 80-plus training providers we work with to ensure we’re meeting their needs.
That being said, I started at Construction EPA Company as a co-ordinator in the bookings team – making bookings on behalf of training providers in the system, arranging EPA with assessors, and co-ordinating gateway.
I have also worked on the training provider side, as an EPA administrator – so, I have seen EPA from many different angles, and I have dealt with the challenges first hand.
What were some of those challenges?
The main challenges we had at Construction EPA Company were related to facilitating the actual assessments. Admin burden was a major issue.
Before the tests could take place, we had problems with quickly and correctly assign credentials to apprentices. This was because it was a very manual process involving lots of spreadsheets and different systems, where we had to search each by apprentice and by standard.
This resulted in us having to complete multiple steps within our process before an apprentice could sit a test. In some cases, this was leading to higher waiting times, delays in EPA delivery for knowledge tests, and there was a greater risk that human error would occur.
Did you have any problems after the tests?
After the tests, we needed to manually upload results to our EPA management system. This meant having to upload results to the system one by one when they became available - and again, working between multiple systems.
With our volumes increasing, there could be a situation where, for example, 40 apprentices a day were sitting a knowledge test, creating a significant admin burden on our organisation, and the time it took to process them all wasn’t manageable as the company continued to grow.
That’s why we needed to change the way we facilitated these assessments.
Is that why you decided to start using epaPRO Assess?
Yes – prior to having epaPRO Assess, we already used epaPRO.
As Jasmin said when you last talked to her, epaPRO eliminated much of the admin burden and human error from other aspects of our EPA delivery, especially in terms of communicating with assessors… so we just needed to streamline exam delivery within a system we already had to reduce the number of additional systems we had to manage.
That’s why the Assess integration within epaPRO was a natural next step.
How has epaPRO changed the way EPA tests work at Construction EPA Company?
It has solved those critical challenges we had.
Assigning credentials for apprentices across all of our providers is a much more streamlined, system-driven process. Providers can retrieve the credentials themselves and apprentices can log on to the testing site, all without needing to go through our administrators.
When it comes to reporting, it’s entirely automated and pulls through results directly to epaPRO. At one of our client sites, the apprentice hadn’t even left the classroom and the result was on our system.
Previously, that would have taken a week. The difference is remarkable and our clients are delighted with the faster turnaround times for the results of our knowledge tests.
Has it changed the testing experience itself?
Yes, we currently run knowledge tests across all of our standards and both apprentices and providers have remarked at how user-friendly and intuitive it is to take tests.
It also improves reasonable adjustments where test-takers need them for extra time or other needs.
That’s a particularly good example of where the platform enables an instruction from a training provider to be fed through to our compliance team, which is then seamlessly implemented into the test platform. It lets us be much more responsive.
Lastly, how have you found adopting the platform – was it a simple process?
Working with risr/ and Skilltech was seamless. We had weekly meetings across the implementation phase where every member from our compliance, bookings and our delivery team could be involved.
They were very attentive to our needs, and every week they kept the project progressing. Even several months after implementation, we have reliable, quick contact with them through the epaPRO support portal.
It’s a credit that, whenever we do an induction call with our training providers, they are so complimentary about how user-friendly and easy-to-navigate the system is.
We would like to thank Ryan for his time.
Are you managing multiple assessment platforms for EPA admin and assessment delivery?
With the epaPRO assess integration, you can unite them: automating your most admin-heavy processes, whilst standardising and streamlining EPA delivery.
It’s the natural next step you need to grow your EPAO’s assessment offer, and it’s seamlessly integrated into epaPRO,
If you want to see how it can help you to save time and your apprentices to achieve even better outcomes, simply book a demo or message hello@epapro.co.uk to learn how it can transform your EPAO.
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