Spotlight on assessment and moderation of
workplace learning
# Introduction
Both the South African Qualifications Authority
Act, 1995, and the Skills Development Act, 1998, requires that
education and training programmes and practices are based on Unit
Standards registered on the NQF, and where appropriate (e.g. in the
case of learnerships) result in national qualifications on the NQF.
Both Acts also require that education and training
practices have internal and external assessment practices built into
a quality assurance system. The purpose of quality assurance is to
ensure that the highest levels of competence and excellence will be
achieved for every Rand collected in the form of the skills
development levy and for every Rand of this income that is invested
in all the practices relating to education and training.
This month’s article seeks to elaborate on the
most fundamental cornerstone of any training and development process
- the assessment and quality control of learner competence against
recognised industry standards.
The tone, and style of this article is factual,
and is presented in point form as ‘notes’ for busy line managers
and Skill Development Forum/Committee members to get to grips with
the basics of these two functions and roles.
# What is assessment?
Assessment is basically a case of learners
demonstrating that they can perform the outcomes, which have been
decided on for the particular competence they are being trained in.
That is why setting accurate standards is so important. The
Standards will determine what the assessment must test for.
# Who is responsible for assessing training?
Assessors are appointed and trained to undertake
the assessment process. An assessor can be internal to the
organisation that does the training, or external. If they are
internally appointed, they must be qualified at, or above the level
of training that they will be assessing, and they must be registered
with their ETQA as an Assessor. Subject matter experts (SME’s)
make ideal assessors as they either knows the job being assessed
well, or have been involved in the design of these jobs. Where
practical, contact retired (old timers) who know the job and the
company well and invite them to become part-time assessors for both
skill, and learnership programmes.
# What are an assessor's tasks?
The following is a list of the critical functions
of an assessor:
1. Get to know the standard being measured as
defined by the Standards Generating Board (SGB) for your industry,
and understand how these link to the various levels of the National
Qualifications Framework (NQF).
2. Plan and design assessment for the various
standard in conjunction with training providers who may be the
company’s internal training and development function, or external
vendors.
3. Collect reliable evidence about the learner's
performance, and evaluate, and judge that evidence to decide whether
the learner is competent, or not yet competent.
4. Regularly review the assessment process and
make changes to it when necessary.
5. Comply with all moderation requirements that
the ETQA function in the relevant SETA for your industry may decide
on from time to time. We strongly recommend that assessors make an
appointment to meet the ETQA Manager at your local SETA to gain
support for the assessment process in your company. Remember that
these officials are paid from the levies collected to be of help to
you!
6. Complete all documentation required by the ETQA
function of the relevant SETA, and forward it to them.
An Assessor will typically have interpersonal
skills (to help learners through the assessment process), subject
matter expertise, and assessment expertise.
# Assuring consistent quality
This is a continuous process, which is the
function of the ETQAs. Quality assurance in the NQF is already
assured through the standards put in place for the accreditation of
training providers, of training courses, and of assessors.
Moderation is an additional means of Quality Assurance.
Moderation ensures that people are being assessed
in a consistent, accurate, and well-designed manner. It ensures that
all assessors who assess a particular unit standard or qualification
are using equivalent assessment methods, and making similar, and
consistent judgements about learners' performance.
Moderation of assessment occurs at both the level
of the training provider (internal moderation), the level of the
ETQA assessing the training (external moderation), and at the level
of SAQA, which moderates the moderation of the ETQAs. Moderation is
even more important in the NQF than it was in the traditional
educational system, since in the NQF there is no longer a major
reliance on mass public exams at all exit points of a qualification.
There is more to moderation than just glancing
over the results of a test. Moderation includes all of the
following:
> Identifying the need to redesign assessments
if required.
> Providing an appeal procedure for
dissatisfied learners.
> Providing a procedure for the reassessment of
learners.
> Evaluating the performance of assessors.
> Providing procedures for the de-registration
of unsatisfactory
assessors.
> Providing feedback to National Standards
Bodies.
> Verifying that assessments are fair, valid,
reliable and practicable.
# What does internal moderation involve?
It involves moderating (checking the quality) of
the following:
> The design of the assessment itself.
> The implementation of the assessment.
> The review of the assessment.
Moderating the design of the assessment involves
making sure that the choice and design of the assessment methods is
appropriate for the standards being measured by the assessment.
Moderating the implementation means checking that
the assessment is carried out in the way that has been specified by
the NQF in the standards for that skill.
Moderating the review of the assessment is
ensuring that assessors are actually learning from mistakes, and/or
observations in the assessment, and using them as feedback to
improve assessment.
# What does external moderation involve?
ETQAs are interested in external moderation as it
enables them to monitor the standard of training provision and the
standard of assessor assessment across different training providers.
The following are the moderator tasks that an ETQA
will perform:
1. Provide advice and guidance to training
providers*.
*EDITOR’S NOTE: WITHIN THE NEXT 18 MONTHS
INTERNAL/IN-COMPANY TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT FUNCTIONS MAY WELL BE
REQUIRED TO REGISTER AS PROVIDERS IF THEY DESIGN AND DEVELOP THEIR
TRAINING IN-HOUSE, AND WISH TO CLAIM GRANTS TO FUND THE DEVELOPMENT
OF SKILL PROGRAMMES (OR ACCESS GRANTS B, C, AND D IN THE FUTURE) SEE
ARTICLE IN LAST MONTHS NEWSLETTER ABOUT TRAINING BECOMING A
REGULATED BUSINESS FUNCTION SUBJECT TO EXTERNAL QUALITY
CONTROL/MODERATION.
2. Maintain an overview of provision across
training providers.
3. Check that all the staff involved in assessment
are appropriately qualified and experienced (which may well be
easier said than done in South Africa which suffers from an acute
shortage of genuinely qualified Training and Development
professionals).
4. Check the credibility of assessment methods and
instruments.
5. Check the internal moderation systems described
above.
6. Sample test results to monitor and observe
assessment processes and the test results.
7. Check assessors' decisions.
There are other ways in which the ETQAs can assure
consistent quality of training and education. One of these is to
maintain a database of all learners that have been indirectly or
directly assessed by the ETQA. This information will eventually
represent a detailed skills "snapshot" or "balance
sheet" of our country, which will be invaluable in managing the
quality of training and education and planning our skills
development strategy for the future.
# Conclusion
This very brief explanation of some of the basic
requirements and functions of testing (assessment in the jargon) and
quality assurance of training and development practices and
procedures used by internal and external providers/practitioners
(moderation) is nothing new to those who are well schooled in the
art and science of training and development.
HOWEVER, AND THIS IS A BIG HOWEVER, the body blow
that many small, and medium (and probably very large) organisations
are feeling at present is an indication of the weak state of
training, development, and educational practice in most companies in
South Africa today.
The means to rigorously design, develop, deliver,
assess, and quality assure training and learning in company have
been around for years. What has not been around for years is taking
these basics seriously.
Our concern as an editorial team is that the well
intentioned, but top heavy system described above, and in previous
editions of this newsletter, have ‘frightened’ the living
daylights out of many experienced, aspiring managers and
practitioners who will simply say ‘to hell with all the
bureaucracy’.
This issue is further explored in the next article
written by Marietta van Rooyen, MD of The Assessment College.
|
Member
Content 
