Building Behaviours for EPA

Behaviours are mind-sets, attitudes or approaches needed for competence.. Whilst these are innate or instinctive, they can also be learnt. Behaviours tend to be transferrable and similar across a majority of apprenticeship standards. as part of your End Point Assessment you will need to demonstrate how you have built your behaviours over the duration of your apprenticeship.

The purpose of end point assessment is to judge how apprentices applied the knowledge, skills and behaviours they acquired during their apprenticeship. It isn’t enough to say “I know the theory” or “I showed my adaptability.” To achieve the marks, apprentices must actively demonstrate that they have the skills and behaviours detailed in the standard and have applied them in their role.

6 Ways to Demonstrate Skills and Behaviours in End Point Assessment:

1. Talk about yourself

Write or speak in first person. This means saying “I” and not “we”. By doing this, you put emphasis and weight on what you singularly did to apply your knowledge, skills and behaviours against the apprenticeship standard.

If your team were involved in a task, make sure to highlight your role. For example:

“My team were tasked with… I volunteered to …”

“I was assigned task X and I immediately started brainstorming ideas and researching…”

“The manager’s decision was to X and this was based largely on the research I carried out…”

2. The End Point assessor doesn’t know you

Remember that the assessor doesn’t know you or your organisation. They don’t see your skills and interactions – all they can grade you on is what you tell them. This is why it’s essential to clearly state what you’ve done to meet the demands of the standard. Spell everything out, and don’t assume anything is obvious – if you don’t say it, the assessor can’t grade it.

3. Mirror the assessment plan

Don’t be afraid to use phrases directly from the assessment plan to describe your skills. For example, if the criteria says “Demonstrates their ability…”, mirror this and say “I demonstrated my ability to… by…”

Not only does this help you meet all criteria, it also draws the assessor’s attention to where and how you demonstrated that skill.

4. Ask yourself what and why

It can be difficult to understand what is meant by ‘applying’ your skills and behaviours, so for each one ask yourself what you demonstrated and why.

For example, if the assessment criteria says: “Selects the most appropriate communication channels”

A poor answer would be: “I chose to communicate with my team by email.”

This doesn’t tell the assessor why.

A much better answer would be: “I applied my knowledge of marketing theory and determined the most effective way to communicate with my team was by email. This is because every staff member has access to email and past use has shown a high response rate. Marketing theory also shows that for a formal communication, written information is more easily remembered than verbal communication.”

5. Key phrases to show skills and behaviours

Below is a list of phrases to help you demonstrate your skills and behaviours.

WHAT?

These phrases will help you show what you did. “I…”

Organised Coordinated Researched Adapted Analysed Improved Presented Supported Influenced Networked

Streamlined Planned Delivered Managed Motivated Volunteered Communicated Evaluated Implemented Budgeted

WHY?

As we’ve described above, you need to say why you took the decision or action you described. These phrases may help.

Because By Reviewing Due to In order to Based on Following

our WHY might be based on a number of factors, such as:

Theory (name it) Experience Past Customer behaviour Manger's instructions Company Policy Industry knowledge

Company processes and procedures Sector knowledge Relevant technology Options available

Project requirements Trends Efficiency

6. Adding depth to achieve a distinction

To achieve a distinction, apprentices should take it one step further. You’ve demonstrated what you did and why, now describe how this will affect what you do in future.

Always refer to the distinction criteria detailed in the assessment plan to see what is required for your standard.