Teaching Assistant
Level 3
A Teaching Assistant Assessment Organisation is an approved company responsible for providing apprenticeship assessments in the Education Support sector. As an assessment organisation, we ensure that apprentices meet the standards and competencies outlined in the relevant apprenticeship standards.
What the Role Entails
Teaching Assistants work in primary, special, and secondary education across all age ranges, supporting pupils with special educational needs and emotional vulnerabilities. Their primary role is to assist the class teacher in enhancing pupil learning, either in groups or individually, ensuring pupils understand the work set, know their learning objectives, and stay on task to make progress. Promoting self-belief, social inclusion, and high self-esteem is integral to a learner’s wellbeing, along with ensuring pupils thrive in a positive, nurturing, and safe environment.
Components of the Teaching Assistant Assessment
Order of assessment methods
The assessment methods can be delivered in any order. The result of one assessment method does not need to be known before starting the next.
Performance in the Assessments determines the overall grade of:
• Fail
• Pass
• Merit
• Distinction
Professional discussion underpinned by a portfolio of evidence
In the discussion, an independent assessor and apprentice have a formal two-way conversation.
The apprentice can refer to and illustrate their answers with evidence from their portfolio of evidence. It gives the apprentice the opportunity to demonstrate their competency across the KSBs mapped to this EPA method.
The professional discussion must last for 90 minutes and consist of at least 10 questions.
Observation with Questions
In the observation with questions, an independent assessor observes the apprentice in their workplace. The apprentice completes their day-to-day duties under normal working conditions. This allows the apprentice to demonstrate the KSBs mapped to this assessment method through naturally occurring evidence. The independent assessor asks questions as explained below. Simulation is not permitted during the observation.
The observation and responses to questions must be assessed holistically by the independent assessor when they are deciding the grade.
The total duration of the observation assessment method is 110 minutes and the time for questioning is included in the overall assessment time. The total time for the observation element is 90 minutes. The time allocated for questioning is 20 minutes. The independent assessor must ask at least 4 questions. Follow-up questions are allowed.
Simple, Easy-to-use Online Platform
Our platform (epaPRO) is user-friendly and offers a one-stop solution for registering apprentices, engaging with the team, accessing resources, and monitoring progress.
Dedicated
Co-ordinator
Once your apprentice is registered, you'll have a dedicated co-ordinator to assist you with any queries you may have
Free Resits/
Retakes
Steadfast Assessment provides free resits for online assessments in line with the requirements of the relevant assessment plan.
Detailed
Feedback
All our assessments are undertaken remotely unless face to face is specifically required by the relevant assessment plan.