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Assessment Strategies and SVQs

SQA and QCA have been working with SSBs to develop assessment strategies for all SVQs and NVQs. All SVQS coming through the reaccredidation process which are subject to different assessment and quality assurance systems. This is because SSBs must now provide an assessment strategy which encompasses the following:

• Recommends how external quality control of assessment will be achieved. This will normally be through the use of independent assessment. Where independent assessment is not recommended, other equally effective measures must be given.


• Defines which aspects of the national occupational standards (NOS) must always be assessed in the workplace.


• Defines the extent to which simulated working conditions may be used to assess competence and any characteristics that simulation should have, including definitions of what would constitute a \'realistic working environment\' for the qualifications concerned.


• Defines the occupational expertise requirements for assessors and verifiers.

The Project and Standards Approval Group (PSAG) approves the outcomes of this work. Following this, an awarding body must \'submit detailed proposals for assessments and guidance for each SVQ which must adopt the general principles for assessment and external quality control specified by the relevant Standards-Setting Body, and approved by the regulatory bodies\'. In addition to the four bullet points above, an awarding body is required to specify:

• How knowledge and understanding, skills and outcomes are to be assessed in a specific occupation to the standard required in the workplace.


• The amount and type of evidence to be collected.

The methods used to assess competence must always be valid, reliable and practicable, so that assessments are made accurately against the NOS, and do not add irrelevant requirements. Assessments have to be rigorous, but flexible enough that evidence requirements can be met cost effectively and in different ways which suit individual circumstances. Assessments should be suggested by, and draw on, the working and management arrangements of the organisations in which they are used.

Access to assessment for an SVQ or a Unit must be available to all who have the potential to reach the standards required. Methods must allow credit accumulation and assessment on a Unit-by-Unit basis. Alternative forms of assessment must be provided where reasonable, and where it will help to increase access to the qualification, including for candidates who have special requirements. However, care must be taken not to compromise the NOS or the validity of the assessment against them.

An awarding body is therefore required to include in its submission to SQA the relevant assessment guidance for the particular Unit or SVQ qualification or suite of SVQs qualifications, which takes into account all of the above points. This may be submitted in final draft format, given that a decision to accredit cannot be guaranteed.

Since one of the main reasons for introducing the assessment strategy is to ensure that there is consistency in assessment across assessment locations, SQA in reviewing an awarding body\'s assessment guidance seeks to ensure that:

• The awarding body has adopted the general principles specified by the SSB in its assessment strategy.


• The assessment demands are consistent with the requirements of the NOS.


• The awarding body has a means of communicating the requirements of the assessment strategy to centres.

With respect to the last bullet point above, SQA needs to confirm that the awarding body has made sufficiently clear the requirements of the assessment strategy. This is particularly important now that the SSB has responsibility of determining the occupational expertise of assessors and verifiers, and that SVQs will be subject to some form of external quality control.

Given that centres may offer a range of SVQs, the awarding body must provide clear and specific information on any action centres may be required to take, for example:

• If the external quality control requires enhanced external verification of a specific Unit (or group of Units) then the submission needs to include information for the centre on how this will be conducted and what evidence will need to be retained.


• If the external quality control is through independent assessment where there is a requirement for candidates to sit an externally devised but locally assessed test, the submission will need to include a sample test and assessment criteria. It will also need to show how information will be provided to the centre and provide information for the centre on how to obtain copies of the test and the procedures associated with the test delivery.

NB This is based on a copy of an SQA document

Nov 2004

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