The Vocational Assessor Handbook

Including a Guide to the QCF Units for Assessment and Internal Quality Assurance (IQA)

Ian Greer

• Publisher: Kogan Page
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9780749484750
• Edition: 7
• Topic: Éducation
• Subtopic: Formation professionnelle

Indispensable for anyone involved in vocational education or apprenticeships, The Vocational Assessor Handbook is the only comprehensive guide for assessors and verifiers of vocational qualifications. This fully revised and updated edition includes new guidance on end-point assessment of the new apprenticeship standards and the latest information on regulations and qualifications. Packed with up-to-date, detailed and reliable information, The Vocational Assessor Handbook (previously The NVQ Assessor, Verifier and Candidate Handbook ) contains a detailed guide to the QCF units for assessment and internal quality assurance (verification). Containing the units and practical explanation for each stage of assessment and verification practice.For UK assessors of QCF qualifications and NVQs, verifiers, teachers, providers of training and work-based learning, assessors of apprenticeships and those working towards PTLLS, CTLLS, DTLLS qualifications, this complete guide is essential for qualification and ongoing practice, enabling you to: understand the principles and practices of assessment; assess occupational competence in the work environment; assess vocational skills, knowledge and understanding; understand the principles and practices of internally assuring the quality of assessment; plan, allocate and monitor work in your own area of responsibility.

Section One:

Units for assessors

Unit 1

Understanding the principles and practices of assessment

LEARNING OUTCOMES FOR UNIT 1

1. Understand the principles and requirements of assessment
2. Understand different types of assessment method
3. Understand how to plan assessment
4. Understand how to involve learners and others in assessment
5. Understand how to make assessment decisions
6. Understand own contribution to the quality assurance of assessment
7. Understand how to manage information relating to assessment of occupational competence
8. Understand the legal and good practice requirements in relation to assessment

Unit 1 provides the knowledge and understanding you need to put assessment into practice. Here you will find detailed information about what you need to know to assess QCF qualifications. This unit can also be taken within the level 3 Award in Education and Training which replaced PTLLS.

Work-based assessment is concerned with the assessment of occupational competence, whereas vocational assessment takes place in non-work education and training settings and has a more theoretical and knowledge base. We give practical examples to help you understand some of the key concepts and ideas in assessment generally, and then for work-based (Unit 2) and vocational assessment (Unit 3)

LEARNING OUTCOME 1: UNDERSTAND THE PRINCIPLES AND REQUIREMENTS OF ASSESSMENT

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

1. 1.1.
   Explain the functions of assessment in learning and development.
2. 1.2.
   Define the key concepts and principles of assessment.
3. 1.3.
   Explain the responsibilities of the assessor.
4. 1.4.
   Identify the regulations and requirements relevant to assessment in own area of practice.

1.1 Explain the functions of assessment in learning and development

‘Assessment’ is judging performance against an agreed standard. In this process, a learner gets feedback on learning, and teachers can see where they need to make changes to help learner development. Assessment is used for a number of different purposes, which affect the types and methods of assessment chosen.

Here are some typical functions of assessment:

• to assess whether the learner has met required standards/criteria;
• to assess occupational competence;
• to find out the learner’s current level of knowledge and/or skill in a vocational area;
• to find out what support the learner might need in order to be successful in learning;
• to find out what methods of teaching and learning would be most appropriate for the learner;
• to provide the teacher with information about what the learner is learning during different stages of the course (initial, formative, summative) and how he or she can be helped to improve;
• to provide the learner with information about what he or she is learning and what help the learner thinks he or she needs to improve;
• to motivate the learner to continue/try to do better;
• to motivate the teacher to try different ways of helping the learner learn;
• to provide the teacher and learner with evidence of what the learner has learnt through both formal and informal methods;
• to provide other stakeholders (eg awarding organization, parents, potential or existing employers, universities) with evidence of what the learner has achieved;

and also:

• to provide data that can be used for quality-assurance and improvement purposes;
• measure cohorts of learners’ achievements against standards/performance criteria/assessment criteria;
• measure achievements against national benchmarks or targets.

As an assessor, what you do fits into a far larger picture. The last three points show there are wider purposes of assessment related to quality assurance within an organization and, potentially, to education and training policy in the UK.

Many skills are involved in the assessment process. You need to be able to plan assessment, make judgements against assessment criteria on the evidence produced by the candidate and record decisions accurately and unambiguously, using the documentation required by your organization or the awarding organization. All of this needs to take into account relevant legislation, regulations and procedures. Having an awareness of these functions and processes can help make sense of some of the detailed record keeping and paperwork that is required of today’s assessors.

Categories of assessment

From the list of functions of assessment, the main functions of assessment can be categorized in three ways – initial, formative and summative assessment. Each of these categories has a different purpose (see Table 3.4).

Table 3.4 Three categories of assessment

Assessment category	Purpose
Initial assessment	Finding out about the individual learner at the beginning of a course or unit
Formative assessment	Helping the learner towards his or her learning goals by providing ongoing feedback on their performance (see also Table 3.17)
Summative assessment	Measuring what the learner has achieved at the end of a course, unit or period of study

Initial assessment

The idea of initial assessment is based on the following:

• In order to help someone to learn more, both teacher and the learner need to be aware of what the learner knows and can do already, and what he or she still needs to learn. This will also help in deciding when the learner is ready for formal assessment.
• Both teacher and learner need to be aware of how the learner likes to learn. In other words, people learn by building on the knowledge and skills they already possess, and people like to learn in different ways. Initial assessment can provide important information in both these areas.

The term ‘initial assessment’ means what it says – that is, assessment at the beginning of something – but the term can be used to reflect different situations, and this can sometimes be confusing for the new teacher/assessor. It is important that you know the various ways the term is used, and are clear how it is being used in your own work context.

Examples of initial assessment:

• A candidate in the workplace goes through an initial assessment process with an adviser to determine what level they are working at and whether any RPL might be appropriate.
• A learner is guided onto a course by a specialist adviser at an FE college, having taken an initial assessment which included information about the learner’s interests and abilities as well as identifying any general issues of support necessary for this learner. As the learner already knew they were dyslexic, then this was recorded straight away and taken into account during the guidance and discussion on what extra support the learner might need.
• A learner takes an entry test designed to test this applicant’s ability to deal with a plumbing course. As the course requires the ability to solve problems, the initial assessment was designed to represent situations and problems that would be met in the work for the actual course and tested the learner’s potential to deal with these.
• A group of learners are given an initial assessment exercise at the start of their health and social care course, to help them and the teacher identify their current level of knowledge and skills in that vocational area and also to identify any additional support needs.

In vocational education and training, a key aspect of initial assessment includes assessing the functional s...