Can Becoming an IQA Help My Career?

This week we are focusing on the role of an IQA and what this involves. Becoming an IQA is a natural progression in the career of an Assessor, and we have already looked at what the role of an IQA is. Today we want to delve a little deeper into how becoming an IQA can help your career. Let’s start with a quick recap on what an IQA is. An Internal Quality Assurer (IQA) is responsible for monitoring the activities of Assessors within an organisation, to ensure assessments are carried out fairly and consistently.

What New Skills Will I Gain?

By completing an IQA qualification you will be adding to your Assessor skill set, and will also become a more appealing candidate for employers. Not only will you be able to assess learners within their workplace or their work environment, but you will also be able to quality assure other Assessors too. By being able to carry out several job roles, this would make you an attractive candidate.

The skills that you will achieve from an IQA qualification include:

1. An understanding of quality assurance within organisations.
2. An understanding of how assessments should be carried out within an organisation.
3. The ability to monitor, review and evaluate others.

Becoming an IQA will give you lots of new responsibilities and opportunities to excel within your career. The role of an IQA differs between organisations, but some of the key things you will be responsible for include:

• Checking that Assessors meet the requirements for their role.
• Plan and prepare monitoring activities.
• Working alongside Assessors, trainers and employers to ensure the standardisation of assessment practices.

Career Progression

There are 3 different IQA qualifications that you can take, depending on the level of responsibility you are working towards:

1. The Level 4 Award in the Internal Quality Assurance of Assessment Processes and Practice
2. The Level 4 Award in Understanding the Internal Quality Assurance of Assessment Processes & Practice
3. Level 4 Certificate in Leading The Internal Quality Assurance of Assessment Processes & Practices

Feel free to have a look through the individual qualification pages in order to find out more about the differences between each course.

One of the great things about completing an IQA qualification is that it will give you skills that are transferable to other, non-related roles too. If you are looking to become a supervisor, or a teacher for example, having an insight into how assessments are quality assured would really help within either of those roles. An IQA qualification is great if you are looking to become any of the following:

• Supervisor
• Manager
• Teacher
• Teaching Assistant

An increased salary is also a benefit of becoming a qualified Internal Quality Assessor. You will be able to carry out more tasks within your current role, so you will become a better asset for the company. In theory, this should translate to a better salary too! If that isn’t the case, having the qualification will certainly open up more doors for you.

If you would like any further information on the IQA courses that we offer, please give our friendly team a call on 01205 805155.