Apprenticeship Assessment Newsletter: Summer 2026

Welcome to the summer edition of our newsletter, as we enjoy the (hopefully) warmer weather and (whisper it quietly) the World Cup. It’s a shorter one from us this month but we’ve got some great features and key information in here for all training providers.

• Meet Bekki Phillips, Chief Operating Officer at In-Comm Training
• Reminder to all training providers – remember the pathway!
• Delivery of Level 4 Standards
• FREE IMechE Affiliate membership for your apprentices

Meet Bekki Phillips, Chief Operating Officer at In-Comm Training

Our case study for this edition come from Bekki Phillips, Chief Operating Officer at In-Comm Training. In-Comm has recently launched a great initiative, tying in with International Women in Engineering Day (June 23rd) to encourage more women to talk about their roles in the industry and you can read more about it here (link to article) 

Hi Bekki – thanks for joining us as we celebrate International Women in Engineering Day this month. Firstly, could you tell us a bit about yourself and your role at In-Comm?

Sure. I’m Executive Director at In-Comm Training, which I run with my brother Gareth Jones. My role is very much on the operational side, looking after finance, HR and apprenticeship funding and compliance. I have been involved in training since 2000 and I’m deeply passionate about creating the engineers of the future and giving more mature learners the opportunity to retrain and enter into the amazing world of industry.

In-Comm have recently launched the “I’m Included” campaign. How did it come about and what are the main goals of the campaign?

Following the success of our inclusivity and diversity campaign in 2025, we wanted to make ‘women in engineering’ our focus for this year’s initiative. In-Comm Training pulled together more than ten females from industry and asked them what it would take to get more girls into engineering and manufacturing, and the result is ‘I’m Included.

“We don’t want to be seen as the exception, we want to be seen as the rule,” was the clear message we were hearing, and this is what we are trying to do by shining a spotlight on the females behind engineering - showcasing their diverse roles, career paths and life experiences.

The initiative is highlighting stories that often go unseen, celebrate achievements across different stages of an engineer’s journey and demonstrate how inclusion drives innovation and can help bridge industry’s skills gap.

Despite a lot of progress, women currently only make up 16.9% of the UK Engineering workforce. What more do you think can be done?

I think everyone must be more vocal about what a great career it is. We need to promote all the role models we have in the sector, and we need men to champion us as well – that’s slowly starting to happen.

At the heart of the campaign is a rallying call to get everyone involved and we are inviting other businesses, leaders, engineers, apprentices and stakeholders from the sector to share their own stories via social media, personal videos and by spreading the message at roundtables and events. 

Our own launch video, which tells the story of a young girl being inspired by a F1 journey that stays with her throughout her career, has been watched by over 8000 people and that number is growing by 1000 per day.

That shows there is genuine interest in the story we are telling.

To find out more about the “I’m Included” initiative, view our video.

Reminder to all training providers – remember the pathway!

We know you all strive towards getting your apprentices through their assessments at the first time of asking. Please remember a key part of this is to remind the learners of the pathway they are one ahead of their Viva interviews. The assessors will be looking for details and responses associated with the particular pathway so please make sure all of your apprentices are reminded of the pathway they are on and all online details are correct.

Delivery of Level 4 Standards

We are excited to announce that we are now able to deliver the EPA/Apprenticeship Assessment for Level 4 standards – namely Engineering Manufacturing Technician (ST0841) and Lead Engineering Maintenance Technician (ST0999). To find out more, request a proposal or to discuss any of the standards we assess please contact chris.atkins@imeche.org
 

FREE IMechE Affiliate membership for your apprentices

Your apprentices are entitled to join IMechE as Affiliate members for FREE whilst on their apprenticeship. There is no application fee or annual subscription for apprentices and it gives them access to a range of benefits including our world-class engineering library which offers over 75,000 resources.

Find out more and as always, if you would like to arrange one of our FREE support sessions or if there is anything else that we can help with such or you would like to ask the team please get in touch.