For the purposes of this policy, a conflict of interest may be defined as an individual having conflicting interests or loyalties. In the case of an individual, a conflict of interest could compromise their decisions if they were not to be properly managed.
An example of a potential conflict of interest scenario can be found below.
| Relates to: | Potential conflict of interest scenario: | Permitted: | Not permitted: |
| Assessors or IET trainers | Conducting workshops | During workshops, the IET representative may only give general contextualised advice. | The deliverer of the workshop is not permitted to dictate what the apprentice should write in their submission or say during a viva. |
As required by the assessor contract on recruitment and during the course of employment, all individuals working within the delivery of end-point assessment are required to disclose any actual or potential conflicts of interest via submission of the Conflict of Interest Disclosure Form (FOR-COI-0005A) to the EPA Operations Manager via email at epa@theiet.org.
When a disclosure form is received by the EPA Operations Manager, they will review the form and decide if any further information is required. Once any additional information has been collected, the Apprenticeship Assessment Manager will then decide on the action to be taken.
In instances, where a conflict of interest has not been disclosed during the EPA delivery, this will be investigated by the EPA Operations Manager with a view to resolving the conflict. If the conflict of interest is not able to be resolved by the EPA Operations Manager, this will then be escalated to the Apprenticeship Assessment Manager for further advice and a decision to be taken on the next steps.
Failure to declare actual or perceived conflicts of interest or to comply with this policy for managing the disclosed conflict will be considered a serious matter and may lead to disciplinary action being taken against the individual(s) concerned.