Following the pioneering work of Andrew Stables and Inna Semetsky in educational semiotics, the subject has significantly expanded in recent decades. This intersection between educational philosophy and semiotics is a new open space, offering many potential avenues in which to pursue projects. The author is particularly interested in how semiotics can be applied to the design and analysis of assessments.In this paper, we explore the new Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) exam method, which is part of a work-placed-based assessment for clinical professionals. An EPA “is a unit of professional practice that can be fully entrusted to a trainee, once they have demonstrated the necessary competence to execute the activity at the prescribed level of supervision”. “Unit” signifies a discrete task or bundle of tasks and should be suitable for credentialing. In short, competencies are descriptors of physicians; EPAs are descriptors of work.​The aim of the EPA is to ensure that practitioners, upon training completion, can manage practice unsupervised. ​Critically, the practitioner must be able to recognise limitations and capabilities relating to self-awareness, leadership, confidence, competence, and demonstrating reflectivepractice.In this paper, the author semiotically deconstructs entrustaibiltiy, considering the broader shift towards capacity-based assessment in clinical training. Looking at what it means in semiotics terms for the concepts of learning and the certification of trainees to become “professionals”. Furthermore, this paper will look at how assessments facilitate the transition between liminal “states”, conferring particular legal statuses on clinical practitioners.