What’s The Difference Between CAVA and TAQA?
Understanding what’s the difference between CAVA and TAQA is essential for making an informed decision about your career development. Choosing the right qualification can significantly impact your progression in assessing and quality assurance roles. Whether you’re aiming to become an Assessor, Tutor or Internal Quality Assurer, selecting the right course can ensure you have the skills and qualifications needed to advance in your career.
If you’re just starting out, it can be pretty confusing to start with. That’s why we’re here to give you the answers to all your hard-hitting questions! You may have come across these two acronyms: CAVA and TAQA. You’re also probably thinking, what do they mean? Don’t worry, we’re going to take you through the differences and what each one means.
What is TAQA?
Let’s start with TAQA, as this is one you’ll probably see quite a lot to start off with. TAQA is just basically an umbrella term for a list of qualifications. These are training, assessment, and quality assurance. You have a few other qualifications for each one. Let’s break it down!
Training:
You have a few qualifications in the training aspect; these are the Level 3 Award in Education and Training (AET). The Level 4 Certificate in Education and Training (CET) and the Level 5 Diploma in Education and Training (DET).
Assessing:
Within assessing, similarly to training, there are a few qualifications. First, there is the Level 3 Award in Understanding the Principles and Practices of Assessment (UPPA), the Level 3 Award in Assessing Competence in a Work Environment (ACWE), and the Level 3 Award in Vocationally Related Achievement (AVRA). Finally, you have the Level 3 Certificate in Assessing Vocational Achievement (CAVA). We’ll come back to this one shortly!
Quality Assurance:
Finally, you have the quality assurance section. Again, like the others you have a few to choose from. Starting with the Level 4 Award in Understanding the Internal Quality Assurance of Assessment Processes and Practice. As well as the Level 4 Award in the Internal Quality Assurance of Assessment Processes and Practice.
You also have a qualification that goes a step further. Which is the Level 4 Certificate in Leading the Internal Quality Assurance of Assessment Processes and Practice. Also known as the Lead IQA.
So, if you see someone referring to the TAQA course or qualification, they mean one of these! Nine times out of ten, the person or employer will want you to hold the CAVA qualification, as TAQA isn’t a qualification nor a course.
What is CAVA?
As we just briefly touched on, the CAVA course is part of the assessing aspect of the acronym TAQA. The CAVA course allows you to become a fully qualified assessor in your area of occupational competence. As an assessor, you can take apprentices through their NVQ qualifications. For example, if you’re a dental nurse assessor, you can take learners through their dental nursing qualifications.
The course is made up of 3 units. The first unit is understanding the principles and practices of assessment. This is all theory-based. You learn the mechanics of being an assessor and the fundamentals of it.
Unit 2 is to assess occupational competence in the work environment. This focuses on assessing learners in their work environment. Finally, unit 3 is to assess vocational skills, knowledge and understanding. The final unit focuses on assessing learners’ vocational skills, knowledge and understanding within a learning environment.
What’s the Difference Between CAVA and TAQA?
TAQA isn’t a qualification or a course; it’s an acronym for a set of qualifications. One which includes the CAVA course. Once you get your head around the different acronyms and qualifications, everything becomes a lot easier!
How Brooks and Kirk Can Help You
At Brooks and Kirk, we provide the majority of these qualifications. Let’s take the CAVA course; we provide this! We make sure you have everything you need to complete the course successfully. So this includes learners for you to assess during the course and a team of fully qualified assessors to help you along the way. All of our courses are provided online, so you can dip in and out when you need to. Everything is also completed via our Virtual Learning Environment with assignments to complete, alongside videos and resources to help you.
If you have any questions about TAQA, CAVA or the courses we provide, please get in touch with our team! We have two ways of contacting us, you can call us on 01205 805 155 or send an email to training@brooksandkirk.ac.uk and we’d be happy to help.