Shared responsibility: how AOs and employers can work well together

Skilltech Solutions explores how awarding organisations (AOs) can navigate reforms and work better with employers to deliver high-quality assessments. 

 Reforms are redefining apprenticeship assessment, and the responsibilities within it. They are reshaping the dynamic between employer and awarding organisation, and assuring the quality of qualifications by tying results closer to workplace performance. 

Employers now take a more active role in assessing behaviours, which is formalising the connection between workplace performance and qualification outcomes. 

For awarding organisations, this shift is an opportunity to strengthen their role at the heart of assessment quality. The sector needs their expertise in validity, consistency, and evidence more than ever. Employers may now hold part of the process, but it’s the awarding organisation who should define what good looks like, ensure fairness across different workplaces, and maintain confidence in the apprenticeship system. 

This evolution isn’t about stepping back, it’s about walking alongside employers and working together. The best awarding organisations are already developing new ways to share responsibility without compromising on quality, with steps like joint assurance models, co-designed assessment materials, and clearer, faster communications. When those partnerships work well, everyone benefits: employers feel supported, apprentices feel understood, and outcomes feel fair. 

Stronger partnerships will strengthen assessment quality, and the awarding organisations who embrace that will help shape a more joined-up, collaborative apprenticeship system as reforms come into full force. Here are some of the ways that awarding organisations can focus on that partnership and collaboration in the months ahead. 

Be clear about roles 

When everyone knows who’s accountable for what, results are cleaner, feedback is faster, and apprentices are treated consistently across every employer. Plus, both sides can focus on what they do best. 

Awarding organisations bring assessment structure. That consistency and comparability offer assurance that assessment is fair, accurate, and objective. 

Employers see how apprentices behave and perform ‘on the ground’, allowing them to see lessons and skills applied in the real world. 

The key is to make that clarity official in agreements, templates, communications, and reviews.  

A shared platform brings that clarity. Manage end point assessments with software like epaPRO, and both parties can have a common ground to work on and a portal through which to collaborate.  

Build shared assurance, not extra layers 

Quality assurance is about partnership, not policing. 

Shared responsibility can only work when quality assurance feels shared too, so instead of duplicating checks, awarding organisations and employers can agree a single way of working, with one framework for how evidence is captured, moderated, and reviewed. 

That could include shared templates, short standardisation sessions, or joint moderation before results are issued. When assurance is built together, it protects everyone’s reputation. Employers get transparency, AOs maintain oversight, and apprentices get a fair, consistent experience. 

epaPRO integrates business and assessment tools for seamless management of the learner journey, and timely and effective communication. 

Focus on the apprentice experience  

Keep the apprentice experience front and centre with clear instructions, plain language, and predictable timelines. 

Clarity, fairness, and support requires employers and AOs to stick to clear instructions, plain language, and predictable timelines. It also means avoiding local variations that confuse or disadvantage some learners. 

A consistent experience doesn’t just protect quality; it builds trust in the whole apprenticeship system.  

Make moderation part of the rhythm 

Real examples of what ‘good’ looks like keep everyone on the same page. 

Drift and misalignment in standards can happen between any organisations, but regular reviews across employers protect consistency, fairness, and comparability. When there are borderline cases, open discussion keeps AO and employer unified and confident. 

Perform moderation as an ongoing habit, rather than something to fix after results are challenged. 

Keep communication simple and open 

Use a common system, and you will spend less time chasing, correcting mistakes, and coordinating partners. 

Admin is often where shared responsibility falls apart, and it is easy to lose track when key information is scattered across emails, spreadsheets, and documents. Digital systems like epaPRO help by giving everyone the same view, with templates, evidence, moderation records, and outcomes all in one place.  

The goal isn’t to replace relationships with technology, but to give those relationships the structure they need to work smoothly. 

Strengthen partnerships and know your value 

Shared responsibility doesn’t mean less value for AOs; it means a different kind of value. The sector still needs AOs’ expertise, impartiality, and quality standards. What’s changing is how that expertise is applied: not as a distant verifier, but as a partner in shaping the future of apprenticeship assessment. And that’s something only AOs can do well. 

 If you’re looking to streamline, future-proof and improve your processes in line with reforms, make sure you have a platform that can support your vision for change. Book a demo for epaPRO with our team to see the difference Skilltech Solutions can make to your organisation.