Overview

The gateway confirmation process within epaPRO has been enhanced to allow Provider users the opportunity to confirm (and change, if necessary) key pieces of information before confirming an apprentice. This should provide an easier way for Provider users to update the apprentice details at the point of confirmation, and provide EPAO users with more accurate information.

Changes to Functionality

🆕 The Provider screen has been updated to have a new “Settings” tab - this is only visible to Awarding Organisation users. A new setting has been added to this screen called “Uses Gateway Verification Method” - this new setting enables the new gateway process outlined in this release.

This will require training for your Providers and other users if you opt to enable it using the settings shown above.

Enrolled Gateway

The enrolled screen within the gateway menu has been updated to now provide a “Verify” button, instead of the “Confirm” button previously offered. Clicking this new button now opens a modal window where users must accept (and change, if necessary) the following key pieces of information prior to submission:

Standard/Specialism
Estimated Gateway Date
Assessment Plan Number (a.k.a., Assessment schema)

Any information relating to the above can be amended prior to submission - changing this information will update the apprentice record with the new details automatically.

Note that the frontend of epaPRO has been updated during this development to show the “Expected ready for EPA date” as “Expected Gateway Date”, to make this field’s functionality clearer to providers.

Bulk upload and API have not been changed, meaning no changes to external systems need to be made to cater for these changes.

Steps

The screens can be broken down to three steps:-

Standard & Version

Below you will see an example of the 3 steps that a provider will need to complete before the gateway is verified if this setting is enabled.

On the first step the Standard and Specialism can be selected, the provider can then confirm this using the toggle at the end of the page or they can skip to step 2 and review that, before making any confirmations.

Gateway & Components

On step 2 you will see the estimated gateway date and the components associated with that Standard, the date can be changed at this point and again these can be confirmed at this stage, or the provider can move to step 3 and then confirm everything at the end once satisfied the options are all correct.

Assessment Plan

Finally on step 3 the Assessment Plan can be set, epaPRO will automatically enter what we believe the assessment plan would be based on the apprentices start date, but this can be adjusted.

Note that all 3 steps must be confirmed, before the gateway can be verified

If the provider forgets to do this, then a warning will appear, likewise if the estimated gateway date is insufficient or a date in the past, an alert will show for that too.

If Providers amend the Estimated Gateway Date, then the Expected Completion Date will also update in line, based upon the Max Assessment Duration.

Test Example
Expected Start Date	23/03/2022
Expected Date Ready for EPA	24/03/2023
Original Expected Completion Date	25/03/2023
Max Assessment Duration	30 days
Estimated Gateway Date	Amended from 23/03/2022 → 24/04/23
New Expected Completion Date	24/05/23

Once an apprentice has been confirmed for gateway, the standard and estimated gateway (expected ready for EPA) date become locked - the gateway must be unconfirmed before changes can be made.

Unconfirming an apprentice follows the previous flow (pressing the “Unconfirm” button within the confirm screen within the gateway menu).

Note that once an apprentices details have been updated via the verification process, unconfirming the details will not revert the apprentice to the previous standard / estimated gateway date against that apprentice. If these details are submitted incorrectly, they can be changed after the unconfirming process via the normal methods (API, apprentice screen, update apprentice bulk upload).

The rest of the gateway process has not been changed as part of this development.

New Feature - EP-3658 Gateway Confirmation of Pre-requisites