The brief
City & Guilds wanted a greater understanding of the market for apprenticeship End Point Assessment (EPA) by commissioning research into the competitor landscape for key sectors of growth in which they operate.
City & Guilds wanted to explore the views of decision-makers at apprenticeship training providers who are responsible for appointing an End Point Assessment organisation (EPAO), to understand the perceived strengths and weaknesses of City & Guilds and their key competitors, as well as what training providers would like to see from an EPAO.
The approach
Shift took a qualitative approach for this project, as City & Guilds needed to gain an in-depth understanding of the needs of different customer types, in order to identify potential areas to improve City & Guilds’ EPA offer and position them as a strong competitor to other organisations
We conducted 3 mini focus groups and 2 paired in-depth interviews with participants working in a range of roles within training providers, colleges and universities in the UK.
The value
From our research, a number of themes emerged that were not specific to any one EPAO, but rather areas for improvement around the EPA process in general. Our research highlighted opportunities for City & Guilds to demonstrate and communicate the benefits of their approach to EPA, whilst addressing customer challenges by developing additional support services.
Our findings enabled City & Guilds to develop resources for their internal teams to fully understand the competitive market in the context of their roles and to position and develop their own EPA offer.
