Portfolio of evidence: updated guidelines

For an apprenticeship to be successful, a portfolio of evidence must be submitted and an end-point assessment must be passed. BINDT has recently updated its guidelines and completed a checklist for the contents of the portfolio (https://bit.ly/3kWFQpw).

In following this, the employer and apprentice can ensure they provide the correct evidence, BINDT can check the folder quickly and both sides can reduce administrative burden. Once the portfolio has been approved by two trained assessors at BINDT, the end-point assessment can take place. Here, the apprentice must deliver a presentation detailing their technical project. This is my favourite part of the apprenticeship, as it shows that they can ‘organise a party in a brewery’. They are expected to show they can plan, research and conclude a technical piece of work. Two examples from my own company include a method for inspecting wall thinning under a ‘jubilee’ clip that would be expensive to remove and another comparing metallurgical cut-ups to computed tomography (CT) X-ray and phased array data. In 2021, some of our company apprentices will be in their final year and, as such, I am expecting them to enter our local East Midlands BINDT Branch meeting ‘lecture competition’. When I was 21 years old, my previous manager used to encourage me to enter such activities and I would like to carry on this tradition. It is very important that you can explain NDT in lay-person’s terms and so it is beneficial to have apprentices who can talk to anyone inside and outside their own company. As all Branch meetings are being conducted over media such as Zoom at present, all can come along and watch. Apprentices should not become too flustered about their end-point assessments, however, as it is the culmination of four years of work; you are bound to be nervous and the assessors will be kind.

Please note that the views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not represent the views of Rolls-Royce.

Iain Baillie is with Lead Employer Rolls-Royce and is involved with the NDT apprenticeships scheme. He is also BINDT President Elect.

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