The Institute for Apprenticeships has launched a ‘community energy specialist’ apprenticeship. The scheme is which is a level 4 qualification and is aimed at any organisation working with community energy, such as community energy groups, local authorities, housing associations and energy companies.
Further details of the standard and the assessment criteria can be download here.
The apprenticeship needs an organisation to act as an endpoint assessor (EPA). The organisation will be responsible for assessing the apprentice against the standard and signing off their qualification. Apprentices cannot start until there is someone to sign them off at the end. The main criteria to be an EPA is three years’ knowledge of the community energy sector.
The role of an EPA requires time and commitment, as any organisation involved would need to identify suitable individuals and become accredited via the full approval process with the Education and Skills Funding Agency, however, an accredited organisation would be able to charge organisations to assess their apprentices and therefore potentially recovering costs and developing an income.