There are no pre-requisites for entry to the course, but delegates must be in employment and a minimum of GCSE English and Maths (or equivalent) is desirable. Delegates who do not already have management responsibility will need the support of their employer to be able to apply their learning in the workplace.

There are three key stages to the delivery of the apprenticeship:

• Training
• Gateway
• End Point Assessment

Training

The units in this qualification fall into seven broad areas. These are:

• Leadership and people management
• Use of IT and software
• Analysing and interpreting data
• Change and continuous improvement
• Internal and Stakeholder relationships
• Resource planning
• Legislation and regulation
• Equity, diversity and inclusion
• Risk Management
• Operational planning

Gateway

The Gateway is the opportunity for Employer, Apprentice and the Provider to sit down and agree whether the apprentice is ready to take their endpoint assessment. Clearly defined measures on how to determine readiness will be discussed and agreed at the start of the Apprenticeship. These include:

• Has the apprentice been on programme for a minimum of 12 months?
• Has the apprentice completed their Level 2 English and Math’s qualifications?
• Has the apprentice been assessed against all of the knowledge, skills and behaviours?
• Has the apprentice had the opportunity to take mock tests, practice interviews? 

End Point Assessment

The End Point Assessment (EPA) for the Team Leader/Supervisor apprenticeship is made up of two components:

• Presentation with question and answers 
• Professional discussion underpinned by a portfolio of evidence. 

The EPA will be carried out by an independent Apprentice Assessment Organisation (AAO) such as ILM.
 

The qualification is assessed by two methods:

Presentation with question and answers
The independent Assessor will choose a topic for the presentation based on the delegates job role and evidence presented. The apprentice will be given 2 weeks’ notice of the topic, and will then deliver a 20 minutes presentation on the chosen subject. After the presentation has been completed, the Independent Assessor will conduct a question and answer session of approximately 30 minutes. Typical topics for the presentation would be areas such as : Supporting a team through change, Solving an operational problem, Ways to reduce cost and improve efficiency, Managing a difficult situation or Implementing a performance management process.

Professional discussion underpinned by a portfolio of evidence
This is a two way discussion between the apprentice and the Independent assessor, lasting approximately 1 hour. This discussion is based on the evidence submitted in the portfolio and is the Apprentice’s opportunity to dazzle the assessor with their knowledge, skills and behaviour by demonstrating areas such as: Project management, Building a high performing Team, Organisation and governance and managing themselves.

The overall grading for the EPA is awarded as Pass or Distinction.

The government introduced the Apprenticeship levy as part of an initiative to build the skills and professionalism of the UK workforce, by encouraging employers to invest in staff development and training.

Read more