Suffolk Chamber first to achieve degree apprenticeship assessor status

Suffolk Chamber of Commerce has become the first chamber in the country to be accredited for the assessment of Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeships.

Degree level apprenticeships involve learners completing a course with a college, university or other training provider and then being assessed by an independent “end point” organisation, in this case Suffolk Chamber.

The University of Suffolk approached John Dugmore, chief executive at Suffolk Chamber, to encourage the business organisation to become an end point assessment organisation, something never previously achieved by any other chamber in the UK.

Robert Turnbull, Suffolk Chamber’s programme leader for SFEDI, the qualification awarding organisation for enterprise, developed and created the necessary documentation and marking schemes which then formed the basis of a success application to the Skills Funding Agency.

Suffolk Chamber can now conduct the end point assessment for the Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship, a degree level apprenticeship offering the added professional accolade of Chartered Management Institute Chartered Manger Status on completion.

Mr Turnbull said: “This widens further the enterprise support we can give which now includes the leaders of tomorrow.”

Mr Dugmore added: “This achievement demonstrates Suffolk Chamber’s ongoing and hands-on commitment to improving the skills of our workforce here in the county and indeed across the country.”

The role of accredited end point assessment organisations, a status created as part of reforms of the apprenticeship system in the UK, is to ensure that all apprentices are assessed to a consistent standard.

Employers of apprentices can select an accredited organisation to conduct the independent end-point assessment of their apprentices from a public register.

The wider objectives of the Government’s reforms are to increase the quality and quantity of apprenticeships available and to help address the skills shortages faced by some sectors, by ensuring significant numbers of the higher quality apprenticeships that employers increasingly require.