Understanding assessment plan versions for end-point assessment
Providing clarity for centres, providers and employers
Why we’re sharing this update
City & Guilds is committed to making apprenticeship delivery and end‑point assessment (EPA) as straightforward as possible for our customers. We understand that regular assessment plan version updates from Skills England, and how City & Guilds manages an update, may not always be easy to keep on top of.
The information below explains:
Two connected areas:
1. Frequent assessment plan updates by Skills England
Skills England updates apprenticeship assessment plans regularly. These updates are often incremental some are substantive while others may have incremental changes.
2. Assessment revisions and version management decisions by City & Guilds
City & Guilds reviews each new assessment plan version to confirm what it means for delivery, assessment, registration and support. Sometimes an update does not impact any of these areas. City & Guilds then decides how to respond and manage an assessment update.
How assessment plan versions work
Skills England sets the official version number for each apprenticeship’s assessment plan. Each assessment plan includes its own version‑control box, showing:
- version number
- earliest start date
- latest start date
City & Guilds relies on these Skills England assessment plan updates to determine whether a new version is needed. However, as Skills England publish assessment plan changes in advance of awarding organisations revising their assessments there can be a lag between a Skills England version and an assessment being available on City & Guilds systems.
When City & Guilds receives a revised assessment plan from Skills England, we review:
- whether the changes materially affect assessment
- the number of apprentices already registered on the current version
- customer demand
- timing within the wider apprenticeship reform programme
This review determines whether and when City & Guilds creates a new assessment version.
When new versions will be available
When Skills England publishes a new assessment plan, City & Guilds cannot open apprentice registrations immediately. Instead, we follow a structured process:
- Review the new assessment plan
- Assess the extent of change
- Evaluate apprentice numbers still progressing under older versions
- Decide whether to build a new EPA version
- Build the version in our EPA platform, Proficient - previously known as EPA Pro
- Release the version.
For substantive assessment plan changes this process typically takes 3-9 months.
Where changes are small or administrative (e.g., funding‑band updates), a new assessment version is not always required. In these instances, City & Guilds may not build a new version in Proficient.
We are entering a period of structural change to how the assessment of apprenticeships are approached.
Skills England has indicated that ‘reformed apprenticeships’ will use a new 2.0 versioning approach, with refreshed assessment plans expected through 2026 and beyond. City & Guilds therefore anticipates releasing new apprenticeship assessment plans aligned to the reformed assessment plans.
These means that any Skills England versions starting with 2.0 will be under the reformed apprenticeship assessment requirements. These will no longer be referred to as ‘end-point assessment’.
Providing visibility and clarity for providers in Proficient
Within our EPA administration platform, Proficient, all EPA versions that City & Guilds has made available are labelled and separated. This ensures providers can:
- select the correct version for each apprentice – determined by the date of registration of the apprentice
- understand which versions are open or closed
Versions being closed
As part of our regular review of EPA uptake, versions and regulatory requirements, certain older versions are being retired. When a version is due to be retired, customers need to adhere to the dates for registration and bookings.