Roles and Responsibilities of an Assessor
If you want to become an Assessor, it’s good to know the roles and responsibilities of an Assessor. The main role of an Assessor is to carry out assessments on learners. These assessments are against the criteria set in the qualification specification. Their job is to make sure that their learners gain efficient competence to perform a job role or gain a qualification.
Within the role of an Assessor, they have many responsibilities.
Core Responsibilities of an Assessor
- Planning and delivering training and workshops
- Observing candidates in their workplace
- Examining a candidate’s portfolio of evidence
- Providing well-rounded feedback to the candidate
- Keeping a record of the candidate’s progress
- Keeping your CPD record up to date
- Coaching learners through difficult times
If you’re an End-Point Assessor, only one or two of these responsibilities will be able to relate to you. This is because the role of an End-Point Assessor is vastly different to the role of a traditional NVQ / On-Programme Assessor.
In any Assessor role, you will also need to attend standardisation meetings. These meetings are with other assessors in your workplace and your Internal Quality Assurer. This is so all members of the assessing team can be confident that they are assessing all learners equally.
Assessing Environments
You can work in a variety of assessing environments once you become a qualified assessor. Adult education training centres are a popular route, as are further education colleges.
The type of assessments carried out depends on two things; the assessing environment, and what needs to be evidenced for the criteria. It is the responsibility of the Assessor to select the most appropriate method of assessment. Here are some examples depending on the environment:
- College: methods of assessment usually include essays, multiple-choice tests & presentations.
- Workplace: this often involves observing the learner, questions and internal paperwork.
- Outside environment: practical activities and tasks are usually best for the outdoors.
- Library/home: assessments usually take the form of research projects, assignments and online assessments.
If you wish to become an Assessor, you will need the Level 3 Certificate in Assessing Vocational Achievement (CAVA). This used to be called the A1 assessor course. Before that, it was called the D32 assessor course. With the CAVA qualification, you will be able to assess learners in all of these different environments. You will also need to hold ‘occupational competence‘. To keep it simple, occupational competence is how you prove you are capable of performing in the sector you wish to assess in. This can be demonstrated with a number of years work experience and/or qualifications.
Motivation
You also need to be able to give your learners motivation to do the best that they can too. If you are enthusiastic and passionate about what you do, you are more likely to inspire your learners. Taking the time to understand what motivates each individual is key. Some people are financially motivated (i.e. working towards a pay rise). Others are motivated by progression.
One of the best parts about being an Assessor is the relationships that you build with your learners. You are their main point of contact and should be on hand to guide them through their qualification. For further information on the Assessor qualifications that we provide, please give our team a call on 01205 805 155.
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Steve is a Chartered Manager and a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute.
He provides Educational Consultancy to the 19+ sector as well as being an Assessor, IQA, EPA and Digital Marketing Professional. When not doing any of these he finds time, every now and then, to write blogs and articles.