Becoming a Quality Manager
Let’s talk IQA, as it can be quite a confusing topic to get your head around. If you aren’t already aware, there are three different IQA qualifications that you can take; but for today, we will be focusing on the two that qualify you in job roles. An Internal Quality Assurer, and a Quality Manager.
Firstly, there is the Level 4 Award in the Internal Quality Assurance of Assessment Processes and Practices. Then taking a step up the qualification ladder, there is the Level 4 Certificate in Leading the Internal Quality Assurance of Assessment Processes and Practices.
As you can see, the names are extremely similar; the main difference being that one is an award, and the other is a certificate. We are going to go into a bit more detail about each qualification to help you understand the differences between the two.
Level 4 Award
This is the equivalent qualification to the old Internal Verifiers qualification (if you can remember back that far). It consists of two units which are:
- Understanding the Principles and Practices of Internally Assuring the Quality of Assessment
- Internally Assure the Quality of Assessment
As you may notice with these units, they are more knowledge-based and focused on how to plan quality assurance, rather than implementing it. This qualification is perfect if you are wanting to qualify as an Internal Quality Assurer and gain all the skills required to provide quality assurance of assessments. You would not be able to be the centre lead or quality nominee with this qualification though.
Role of an IQA
If you achieve the Level 4 Award in the Internal Quality Assurance of Assessment Processes and Practices, you will be able to progress to an IQA role. What this means is you will be able to evaluate and review the effectiveness of existing assessment processes and policies, but not actually implement changes. You would also be responsible for analysing assessor capabilities and provide them with feedback accordingly.
Level 4 Certificate
This Lead IQA qualification is a step up from the Level 4 Award. This qualifies you to become a Quality Manager. It will allow you to quality assure qualifications, manage other internal quality assurers, develop and write IQA policies and procedures, and also manage EQA visits. As you can see there are lots more job opportunities open to you if you choose this course.
The certificate consists of three units – the first two are the same as those for the award, and the extra unit is ‘Plan, Allocate and Monitor Work in Own Area of Responsibility’. This means that you will be able to plan internal IQA, monitor the progress and quality of work internally, and evaluate the quality of assessment.
Becoming a Quality Manager
A lead IQA has a slightly different role to an Internal Quality Assurer, as this is more of a management role. As lead IQA, you would be responsible for ensuring consistent practices throughout the IQA team, implementing standardisation procedures. You would also monitor, support and coordinate the IQAs within the organisation. As you can see, a lead IQA role involves bringing together all of the work of the individual IQAs to ensure all of the correct procedures are being followed.
If you would like any further information about either of these qualifications, or how you can become an IQA please feel free to contact the team at Brooks and Kirk on 01205 805155.