Guide to maintaining an apprentice development record

Introduction

A Portfolio of Evidence contains the proof that you have attained the Knowledge, Skills, and Behaviours to show your competence in your apprenticeship.

This guidance will help you build the Portfolio of Evidence needed for your end-point assessment. It will help you work out what to put in your Portfolio and how to organise the evidence.

What should I put in my portfolio of evidence?

The portfolio is made up of two types of evidence

• Your best work

• Your account of your learning and development journey

Your best work

The apprenticeship framework allows you to have the space and time needed to learn and develop your skills. You do not need to start putting evidence together straight away. When you are ready and can start to apply what has been learned in the workplace, then you will be ready to start building your Portfolio of Evidence.

Your best work will:

• Demonstrate your attainment of the knowledge, skills and behaviours identified in the apprenticeship standard

• Show that you are applying your learning and skills

• Contain real work tasks that you have completed

Types of evidence to consider using to demonstrate your abilities:

• Details of tasks completed

• Presentations you make

• Your contributions to wider teamwork

• Improvements you have suggested

You must be conscious of the following principles when you build your Portfolio of Evidence, to make sure it adequately demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and behaviours:

Valid evidence

The evidence presented should be an appropriate way of demonstrating the abilities you want to show. So, if you want to demonstrate that you can apply knowledge to consistently deliver high quality work in a timely fashion, the evidence presented should be of you doing this.

Authentic evidence

The evidence must be your own work. When you provide a personal statement as evidence of an achievement, you will need to have your manager/supervisor sign it as an accurate reflection of events. Where workplace evidence is used in your Portfolio of Evidence, this must be your own work.

Current evidence

The evidence should be recent enough to be a current indication of your knowledge, skills and behaviours.

Sufficient evidence

You need to have enough of the right kind of evidence in your Portfolio of Evidence (more than 1 example.

Evidence of your learning and skills development journey

Your Portfolio of Evidence must include more than just indicators of achievement or demonstrations of competence. It should also capture evidence of the learning and skills development journey you have been on, as well as your reflections on your learning journey.

This is delivered through your Training Log.

Training Log

What is a Training Log?

It is a record of your work and the evidence you are generating. It also indicates which parts of the apprenticeship standard you have learned and applied at work. It records how you are developing your knowledge and skills and builds up over time as you learn and develop more and more skills and competencies.

What is it designed to do?

The Training Log will show whether you are developing the knowledge, skills and behaviours required to meet the apprenticeship standard. Your Training Log will chart your progress.

Use it to identify and record examples of your work that demonstrate that you have applied what you have learned. You can use your Training Log as the basis for your progress review discussions. Aim to include the following to support evidence of the Knowledge, Skills and Behaviours required.

• samples of writing

• photographs

• videos

• research projects

• observations by managers, supervisors, assessors, or mentors

• reflective thinking about all these