In demand: Can government grants make assessor training pay?

Asking yourself ‘what next?’ in your career? You are not alone. As the old ‘job for life’ certainties continue to fade, more and more of us are taking different paths in our work lives. But as people come and go, what is not in doubt is the need to retain key skills in the work place.

That is one reason why the government has prioritised funding for NVQ assessor training. Eager not to lose the skills and know-how of those leaving industry, The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) offers redundancy grants for the Level 3 NVQ Assessor Certificate, an accredited QCF assessor qualification.

If you are facing redundancy, this offers both a route into a new career and a way to ‘give something back’. It allows you to make good use of the skills and expertise you have developed, helping to pass on best practice to others. Best of all, there is genuine demand, with assessor jobs available across all industries, and tailored NVQ assessor courses to match.

Once qualified, assessors can work in-house or freelance, with the flexibility to increase their expertise working across different work places. There is also the option to move on to verifier posts, both internal and external, with courses and qualifications available for each. While assessors oversee and accredit work-based training for NVQ qualifications, verifiers ensure assessment is consistent and correct. There are currently loans available for internal and external verifier courses for anyone aged 24 and above.

If you have recently been made redundant and fancy a new start, why not give us a call? We can quickly check to make sure you meet the criteria and advise on opportunities in your industry and area. You can even take the on-line home learning route to our assessor qualification courses.

1st October 2015

Should Assessors Replace Teachers?

davejulie / Uncategorised /

There seems to be a national trend at the moment of teachers being replaced by assessors. Although many schools and colleges are focused on having a mix of assessors and teachers, in recent years, there has been a number of moves to increase the proportion of assessors – especially on the back of an increase in government funding for training them and an increase in the number of industry professionals choosing to take this route. Assessor qualifications are easy to gain via a range of different routes, including home learning. For more on our fast track learning options, read on…

Assessors play a vital role within schools and colleges. This is because their role is primarily to check people can perform skills they’ve already learnt – as opposed to teaching new ones, which teachers are obviously ideally suited to. For this reason, one profession complements the other in order to ensure that students experience comprehensive and integrated learning. One operating without the other can bring about the risk of the education not being complete enough for students to succeed – while teachers focus on equipping students with new skills, assessors provide the essential check points to determine whether these have been successfully learnt or not, and take appropriate action if not.

One cannot substitute the other and it is important that education leaders do not see the situation as an ‘either/or’ if their students are to continue to learn successfully and flourish. There is bedrock of talent out there that can feed into an increase in the number of assessors on the market and this is to be encouraged. What helps is that although typically it can take time to become qualified, our fast track options enable you to qualify in as little as eight weeks. Other assessor courses take longer, but our fast-track option speeds up the process considerably if people are willing to work hard.