SFJ Awards have recently been announced as one of six finalists to be shortlisted for the national FAB Awards, recognising the achievements of End-Point Assessment Organisations (EPAOs) throughout England.
The FAB (Federation of Awarding Bodies) Awards recognise the contributions made by awarding organisations and their employees to education and skills over the past year.
Now in its 6th year, the FAB 2021 Awards dinner, sponsored by Creatio, is being held at the end of the first day of the FAB Conference, on 11 November at the Marriott Hotel in Leicester.
Tom Bewick, FAB Chief Executive, said “This year we received an abundance of excellent nominations for the FAB Awards, all of which were of a very high standard and demonstrated the commitment of our members to learners and the sector. I am immensely proud of how our industry has risen to the challenges of the last two years and I have heard and seen so many examples of excellence demonstrated by individuals and teams pulling together to support one another as well as centres, employers and of course learners. We look forward to celebrating as an industry on 11 November.”
The team at SFJ Awards are amongst five other leading EPAOs nominated for End-Point Assessment Organisation of the Year, and we wish all finalists the best of luck for the awards.
About SFJ Awards as an EPA Organisation
SFJ Awards (SFJA) is a small, specialist AO and EPAO, dedicated to assuring employers, learners and the public of the expertise of those delivering protective services, including policing, fire and rescue, community justice, secure estates and emergency response teams. We conduct EPAs for apprentices in those front-line services, all of which have partnered with the NHS throughout the pandemic, delivering food parcels and staffing vaccination centres, alongside performing their ‘normal’ responsibilities of protecting people and property from the crime, fire and community safety concerns which did not stop just because of Covid-19.
Making a social impact in vocational education and assessments
SFJ Awards is deeply trusted as an AO and EPAO in the sectors we serve and customers look to us to work with the ESFA, IfATE, EQA providers and Ofqual on their behalf. Our sectors are relatively recent adopters of apprenticeships, with multiple tranches of apprentices only reaching gateway just as the pandemic struck. We take seriously our role as ambassadors for the whole AO sector and are proud that the work we have done to enable apprentices to keep on progressing into fully-fledged members of the front-line workforce has been instrumental in sustaining provider, employer and learner confidence in the apprenticeship system, demonstrating the value the AO sector brings to the whole skills ecosystem.
We have worked in partnership with SFJ Awards for over a year to provide the End-Point Assessment for our custody and detention officers. SFJ Awards have worked closely with us throughout the process, providing useful resources and delivering a number of support sessions for our learning and development teams in the workplace. They have a highly experienced team whose flexibility has been outstanding, particularly during the last few months when we had a large number of EPAs to be carried out. They worked with us to ensure the EPAs could be changed from face-to-face to virtual delivery at short notice, the impact of which has meant that we have been able to keep on target with our EPA completions. In our view, SFJ Awards are a trusted EPAO and we have total confidence in their ability to deliver a first-rate service to our organisation and our apprentices.
Sue Davison – Head of Apprenticeships Sodexo
Candace Miller, Managing Director at SFJ Awards added:
“It’s an incredible honour to be shortlisted amongst such a high calibre of awarding and EPA organisations, and we’re thrilled to receive this incredible recognition for our contributions to apprenticeships and quality assured assessment of knowledge, skills and behaviours. Whilst we of course hope to place first for the awards, we’re delighted to just be acknowledged for the work we’ve carried out throughout the pandemic, and beyond. SFJ Awards are proud to have delivered over 1,000 End-Point Assessments for organisations that have played such a crucial part in supporting the nation throughout the pandemic, as specialists in public sector apprenticeships including firefighting, emergency services and policing. Over 1,000 EPAs represents a 69% annual increase assessments, with no EPA stopped or postponed during the exceptional circumstances of lockdown, other than at the request of an apprentice, or an employer.
“As we moved out of lockdown this summer, we are also proud that the innovations we brought in are now very much seen as business as usual and embraced by apprentices, employers and training providers alike for the flexibility, convenience and accessibility that they provide. Whilst we of course hope to place first for the awards, we’re delighted to just be acknowledged for the work we’ve carried out throughout the pandemic, and beyond.”
Winners of the FAB Awards will be announced at a prestigious ceremony, taking place during the conference on 11 November 2021.
