How to Assess Your Learner’s Competence in the Workplace

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Assessments are a way of measuring the competence of a learner working towards an accredited qualification. We have talked about occupational competence as an Assessor, but let’s have a look into assessing competence in the workplace.

Pre-Assessments

As an Assessor, you will need to spend the time planning the visit to your learner’s place of work. It is important to carry out the most relevant assessment based on the environment in which they are working. You don’t want to turn up ready for a Q&A session when they are working on something that day which would be better suited for an observation. Planning your visit makes the process nice and clear for your learner.

Criteria For Assessments

You are probably already aware of this, but awarding bodies have a set of criteria that the learner needs to meet in order to obtain their qualification. The assessment plan will include all the details you need – here is how to find the assessment plan if you are struggling. It is a good idea to run through this with your learner too, so that they know exactly what is expected of them when it comes to assessing their competence.

A good practice of planning any assessment is to ensure the evidence produced will be authentic, reliable and valid. By taking the time to run through the assessment plan with the learner you will soon identify tasks within their role which will fit the criteria required.

Time For The Assessment

So the pre-assessment is done, and you have gathered all of the materials you require for the assessment. One final thing to check off your list is whether there are any awarding body protocols that you need to be aware of. Again, these should all be included within the assessment plan. When carrying out the competence assessment itself, here are a few things to think about:

  1. Notify everyone involved when the assessment will take place. This includes your learner, their employer and any managers involved.
  2. Make sure that the time you arrange with the learner is suitable for them, particularly if they work on shifts.
  3. Ensure all assessment methods are in place before you arrive at the workplace.

Benefits of Competency-Based Training

Before we round this blog off, we wanted to take a look at some of the benefits of competency-based training. Assessing learners knowledge is fine, but how do you know that they can apply this to a particular situation within their role?

By using a competency-based approach to training and assessment, employers are able to group together teams which have complementary skills. This relies on organisations recording employee’s acquisition of skills, knowledge and other procedures. Once the data is recorded, this can be used to identify and training and assessment necessary.

Therefore assessing learners in the workplace is a great way to identify any gaps in their skills or knowledge. If an assessment was being carried out online, the learner may not perform their tasks in the same way.

If you are interested in assessing learners in their place of work, the qualification you need to complete is the Level 3 Award In Assessing Competence in a Work Environment (ACWE). For more information on this course please give our team a call on 01205 805 155.