Which IQA Qualification is Suitable for Me?

Are you looking to become an Internal Quality Assurer (IQA) to help ensure assessment is consistent, fair and accurate for all learners? With salaries reaching around £35,000 there is a lot of competition when applying for an IQA role. Let’s have a look at the qualifications you can take to get you on the right path.

Level 4 Certificate

The first qualification you can take is the Level 4 Certificate in Leading the Internal Quality Assurance of Assessment Processes & Practice. These qualifications do have quite long-winded names so be sure not to get them mixed up! This course is often referred to as the Lead IQA course. Is the most highly regarded of all of the IQA qualifications, which is why we have listed it first. Not only will it give you the skills to quality assure qualifications, if you complete this course you will be able to manage the entire quality assurance process.

A bit like the CAVA, this Level 4 Certificate consists of both of the Units 1, 2 and 3 (so both the award units and an extra one). However, you may remember that in order to become a fully-qualified Assessor, you have to undertake the CAVA qualification. With the Lead IQA course this is not quite the case. You don’t have to complete it in order to be fully qualified; the IQA Award alone will qualify you to be an Internal Quality Assurer within a company.

The benefit of taking the Lead IQA is that you will be qualified to an even higher standard; allowing you to take on a role as a quality manager for a training centre. Therefore, if you are looking to set up your own training company, ideally you should have the Lead IQA qualification. You then have the potential to become the Quality Manager within your own training organisation. Alternatively, you could or hire someone who can fulfill the skills for this role.

Level 4 Award – Two Units

Let’s take a look at the units that you can take in order to become an IQA. First up is the Level 4 Award in the Internal Quality Assurance of Assessment Processes and Practices (we did warn you about the long title names!). This qualification is the one most closely aligned to the old Internal Verifier qualification. It will give you all of the skills and knowledge required to provide quality assurance of assessments, as well as assessment decisions. This award consists of the following two units:

Unit 1 – Understanding the Principles and Practices of Internally Assuring the Quality of Assessment

Unit 2 – Internally Assure the Quality of Assessment

One thing to be aware of with this qualification is that it will not qualify you to be the centre lead or quality nominee. For either of these roles, you will need the Level 4 Certificate in Leading the Internal Quality Assurance of Assessment Processes and Practice.

We have started to notice that End-Point Assessment Organisations (EPAOs) are requiring End-Point Assessors to have this IQA Award, in addition to the Level 3 CAVA. EPAOs do carry out their own internal quality assurance in order to ensure consistent grading across their End-Point Assessments; so it does make sense that these Assessors should hold a relevant IQA qualification. Some apprenticeships, such as the Business Admin and Adult Care ones actually state that the End-Point Assessors need to be qualified IQAs. It is important that you take the time to research this fully, to ensure you gain the right qualifications for your role.

Level 4 Award – Single Unit

Finally, we have the Level 4 Award in Understanding the Internal Quality Assurance of Assessment Processes and Practice. This is the most basic IQA course, and does not qualify you to internally quality assure assessment. It is the perfect CPD course for managers as it provides you with the theory behind IQA. The unit this qualification covers is Understanding the Principles and Practices of Internally Assuring the Quality of Assessment. The course is delivered entirely online and is a great way to keep your CPD record up to date.

We hope this has helped to clearly explain the different types of IQA qualifications; and more importantly, which one would be most suited for you. If you would like any further assistance please give our team a call on 01205 805 155 and they will be more than happy to run through this with you.