Recruitment Consultant

Predominantly employed within the recruitment sector, the recruitment consultant’s role is to identify and secure job opportunities within client organisations. They attract candidates and successfully place them in jobs in return for a fee. A recruitment consultant may focus on the supply of flexible workers, permanent placements or a combination of both. Typical responsibilities for a recruitment consultant are:

• Identifying, qualifying and securing client recruitment opportunities
• Identifying, assessing and placing suitable candidates to meet client requirements in order to achieve revenue
• Developing and managing client/candidate relationships to ensure high levels of customer satisfaction and quality standards
• Meeting all procedures and carrying out relevant processes to ensure industry codes of ethics and relevant legislation are adhered to

Gateway Requirements

The decision to take an apprentice through gateway is made between the employer, training provider and apprentice, typically after 12 and 18 months on-programme. The apprentice must have completed all on-programme elements before they enter gateway, including the requirement to complete both a Level 3 knowledge and competency qualification.  Apprentices without Level 2 English and Maths will need to achieve this prior to taking the end-point assessment (EPA).

End-point Assessment

EPA consists of two discrete assessment methods.  These can be delivered in any order – via remote assessment – and are weighted equally in their contribution to the overall EPA grade.

Assessment Method	Weighting	Duration	Minimum grade ≥ 55% – ≤ 79%	MaximumGrade> 79%
Project Assignment	40%	Up to 5 weeks from PA issue date	Pass	Distinction
Professional Discussion	60%	45 – 60 minutes	Pass	Distinction

Project Assignment (PA)

The PA is an assessment that will be sent to the apprentice within 72 hours of gateway confirmation. It has been designed to assess the apprentice’s knowledge, skills and behaviours in candidate management and compliance as outlined in the assessment plan.

The project title will be accompanied by a brief, enabling the apprentice to demonstrate their ability to research, organise and deliver a written assignment

The PA has a word count of 3000 (+/- 10%) and should be completed within five weeks of issue.

Professional Discussion (PD)

The PD is a structured interview between the apprentice and IEA, it is made up of a series of questions and is an opportunity for the apprentice to demonstrate their competence, knowledge, skills and behaviours in business development and consultancy as outlined in the assessment plan.

The PD takes place after the completion and marking of the PA and must be completed within 12 weeks of gateway confirmation as outlined in the assessment plan.

Grading

To achieve a pass, the apprentice must achieve at least 40% in each assessment and 55% overall. Employers feel that this will demonstrate a minimum requirement in each assessment method whilst still achieving competence as a Recruitment Consultant.

There is no restriction on the grade that can be awarded to an apprentice if a resit has taken place.

Feedback

The IEA will not provide the apprentice (or their manager) with a preliminary grade, as it will be subject to Skillsfirst internal quality assurance processes.  Skillsfirst will aim to confirm the apprentice’s final and overall grade approximately 10 working days after the last assessment.

Certification

Once moderation is complete and the apprentice has successfully completed all EPA methods, Skillsfirst will activate certification through the Apprenticeship assessment service.  Certificates will be sent directly to the employer.    

You can download a copy of the information on this page here

A link to the Recruitment Consultant standards page can be found here