Centre improvements update - November 2021

The IMI is continually working hard to develop new and improved ways to enhance our products and services to meet the needs of our valued centre members.

Our new Centre improvements update will highlight the changes we have made based on the feedback you have given us, as well as inform you of developments we will be making soon.

What we have learnt

You have told us that we have improved in some areas, but you have also told us that there is still more we need to do.

Throughout the year, our centres have provided us with a lot of feedback which has included the fact that having multiple logins is problematic. You’ve also told us that our End Point Assessment (EPA) booking system is hard to use and that more support is needed to help with MOT annual assessments.

What we have done

We have taken steps to overcome some of the operational issues that members and centres have experienced which have impacted the ease of doing business with us. In addition to increasing staff training within the customer services team to be better able to support queries, we have also made some product and service-specific changes which are highlighted below.

20/21 MOT Annual Assessment

After receiving feedback that some of the questions in our MOT Annual Assessment were difficult to understand we have reviewed our complete question bank with industry experts and are in the process of collating recommended updates, which will be implemented by the end of November.

We have also created a guide for how to access the MOT Annual Assessment. Centres will receive this when purchasing bulk codes for testers or alternatively, you can view it here.

IMI Connect

In response to centres telling us that there were too many systems to access with different passwords and that information was not centralised, we have launched a new website area specifically for centres where you can access everything you need from one central place. This website area known as IMI Connect also comes with the introduction of single sign-on across five of our operating systems, significantly reducing the need to have multiple logins.

The systems that can be accessed via the IMI Connect dashboard include:

• ePortfolio
• Web Portal (Registration and Certifications)
• Awarding Website
• Online Assessment (+ Online Assessment Reports)
• IMI Connect Community Forum

Centres hub can be accessed via IMI Connect, but for now you will still need your login as this isn’t fully integrated, yet. If you haven’t already tried it, activate your account in IMI Connect here.

End Point Assessment

After learning that the experience of engaging with our End Point Assessment products could be better, we have reviewed many of our operating policies. Taking on board the feedback provided to us, we focused on improving the areas that would have the most positive impact for our centres and apprentices. So far, we have:

• Reduced the EPA booking notice period from 90 days to 35 days
• Reduced the chargeable EPA cancellation period from 30 days to 10 days
• Introduced a notification system direct from SEPA that will let you know when a grade has been applied for, removing the need to use the Egress system
• Introduced a more flexible approach to making changes to EPA bookings and swapping apprentices within 48 hours (in special circumstances)
• Created marketing material to support your engagement with employers of apprentices, to help the understanding of Apprenticeship Standards and EPA. You can find this here
• Worked with centres to review and update knowledge test banks for light vehicle and heavy vehicle EPA, which has shown a positive result in pass rates since July

What we will do next

We will continue to invest in staff, systems and digital transformation. Our commitments to you between now and the end of the calendar year are captured below.

MOT 

• We will make the recommended changes to the MOT assessment questions
• We will attend meetings with the DVSA, who set the standards for MOT qualification, CPD and annual assessments, to ensure they hear your feedback and agree improvements that can be made to MOT qualifications and annual assessments for 2022/23

IMI Connect

• We will introduce sign on for the certificate ordering system
• Continue to update and improve IMI Connect based on your feedback, tell us what you think and help us drive the changes you want! We have added a feedback survey into IMI Connect to make it easy for you to have your say

End Point Assessment

• We will deliver an improved process that gives the apprentice a greater level of feedback when receiving pass or fail results, to enhance the experience for centres and candidates
• We will deliver a system improvement that gives centre staff access to greater detail on apprentice performance with EPA knowledge tests
• We will deliver an improved booking process with enhanced system flexibility to make it as easy as possible for you to book End Point Assessments with us
• We will schedule and deliver webinars to IMI Centres sharing best practice, including a focus on ensuring apprentices are well prepared for EPA success

We hope these changes positively impact your experience of working with us and we will be back in touch ahead of Christmas with another update. We would love to hear what you think; you can share any feedback with us by speaking to your dedicated IMI contact or filling in our short survey here.