Qualifications

Our on-programme qualifications offer, including Functional Skills in Maths and English, will help you support your apprentices by providing a structured learning programme that helps them develop the relevant knowledge, skills and behaviours and the ability to apply these in their work context.  

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Our on-programme qualifications offer is specific to the individual standard and not all standards will include an on-programme offer from Pearson. This is because the apprenticeship standards may or may not have a qualification that is mandatory for apprentices to achieve as part of their apprenticeship.

Mandatory qualifications 

Some apprenticeship standards mandate a qualification for all apprentices to complete as a part of the on-programme learning and development. A mandated qualification may be:

  • competence-based, covering the full standard

  • technical-type, covering primarily the knowledge and transferable skills of the standard

  • small award size qualification that provides the knowledge and/or skills to meet a specific regulatory requirement

For any apprenticeship standard where we offer a mandatory qualification, we have clearly signposted this on the on-programme page of an apprenticeship standard. For example:

View the on-programme offer for Adult Care Worker Level 2 Apprenticeship

Optional qualifications

Where a qualification is not mandated as part of an apprenticeship, employers and training providers can still choose to use one to help to deliver the on-programme training. 

Standard-specific optional qualifications:

We are developing optional qualifications specifically based on the apprenticeship standards that are aimed at supporting employers and training providers in training, developing and assessing apprentices.

These include:

  • qualifications mapped to the knowledge and transferable skills of the standards and designed to specifically support off-the-job training
  • qualifications mapped to the full standards, covering all the knowledge, skills and behaviours and designed to support both off-the-job and on-the-job training

Existing mapped qualifications:

For some standards, where a standard-specific qualification is not available, training providers and employers still have the option to offer existing regulated qualifications that have been mapped to show coverage of the apprenticeship standards.

We have clearly signposted on our website whether our optional qualification offer for an apprenticeship standard includes a standard-specific or an existing mapped qualification. For an example of an optional qualification:

View the on-programme offer for Team Leader/Supervisor Apprenticeship

Why choose Pearson's standard-specific optional qualifications
Benefits for training providers and employers:
For training providers and employers, our optional qualifications:
  • Provide greater breadth and transferability to the on-programme learning and help create the foundation for learners to develop and demonstrate relevant work-based skills and behaviours 
  • Provide you with detailed, unitised content and help you implement a sound structure for delivery to ensure that apprentices achieve high-quality, transferable outcomes  
  • Offer content that is mapped to the apprenticeship standards, giving you the confidence that learners are developing the knowledge, skills and behaviours  (KSBs) needed to carry out their job
  • Include recommended assessments for the knowledge units, therefore reducing the assessment burden. In addition, guidance on assessment is provided for skills-based units
  • Allow you to use successfully completed assessments to support gateway sign-off, making the process less onerous for learners and employers
  • Provide supporting evidence to meet the 20% off-the-job training requirement
Benefits for apprentices

For apprentices, our optional qualifications:

  • Enable them to develop the technical concepts, principles, standards and practices related to their job role in a coherent but flexible way to meet their needs
  • Give them the opportunity to explore relevant behaviours and learn how they can develop and nurture these in the workplace
  • Help develop their ability to apply their technical knowledge and skills to their employment context
  • Provide them with an opportunity to gather evidence that, in some apprenticeships, contributes to EPA, e.g. portfolio-based interview and professional discussions
  • Include assessments designed to support their readiness, plus boost their confidence for EPA
  • Allow them to attain a recognised qualification that can support entry into employment or access to progression opportunities in the event they do not achieve the apprenticeship certification