The shortage of NVQ assessors has been well-documented in recent months and remains a pressing issue. What's needed, it seems, is not just more assessors but a supply of those who are sufficiently skilled and up-to-speed with the demands of the new national occupational standards which will be officially launched this November.
While examining bodies have been quick to reassure the sector that support and training materials will be available to provide the necessary back-up, the view from the ground is that local strategies must be tightened. The priority is to ensure that assessors work productively and cost-effectively to meet training needs within their catchments. A coherent approach needs to be established to boost their capabilities and retain their services.
But assessing is far from being a streamlined business, and its patchy nature can mean that it is hard to harness. While the majority of assessors are employed on a part-time, freelance basis, others are employed full- or part-time by an NVQ assessment centre, further education college, private training company or a local authority.
Low rates of pay, combined with the insecurities of being self-employed, can result in the best assessors moving into full-time work in related areas with higher rates, such as tutoring in FE colleges.
In its Guide to Recruiting and Retaining NVQ Assessors, Sure Start suggests that assessment centres and LEAs should create more full- and part-time posts as one way of combating these trends. Experienced practitioners need to be encouraged to work as assessors within their own settings.
Strategic approach
Sure Start funding is increasingly providing the impetus for local initiatives. At Croydon College, funding has been used to create a full-time assessor post, shared by two part-time staff. Recently the college has boosted its pool of assessors by encouraging NVQ students to take on the role.
Clare Ingram, programme manager for children and early years courses, says, 'We are fortunate at the moment in that we have enough assessors to handle the large number of NVQ candidates we have studying here. In order to maximise their time we concentrate on assessing within the borough and this is an important part of being cost-effective. Travelling time is a significant factor and affects the number of candidates who can be assessed within a day.'
She also stresses that a collaborative effort with Sure Start is working well. 'A Sure Start member has joined us this term. She is assessing Sure Start candidates who register with us for NVQ courses, and this provides a tailored approach.'
Bedfordshire EYDCP has taken the initiative by setting up its own Training and Assessment Centre (BTAC), with the help of a grant from Sure Start.
BTAC is delivering the assessor A units using occupationally competent trainers and assessors, and new assessor candidates are given full support as they take NVQ students through their qualification. BTAC has also set up satellite centres within the workplace which has increased the number of active assessors working with candidates on site.
According to Sue Saunders, training and development officer for Bedfordshire county council, the need to develop a more dynamic approach to assessing was identified a while ago.
'We could see we were in a position to train people but couldn't do anything about it because we were not linked to an assessment centre,' she says. 'This meant that if we invested in training them up they could not actually do the work.'
For Ms Saunders the answer was to create a virtual training centre, where assessors and internal verifiers get together for regular meetings.
Assessors themselves work alongside their own workforces in nurseries, and are entirely work-based.
'Two of our candidates have just worked through the NVQ from start to finish, and we support them every inch of the way,' she says.
Ready for change
An understanding of the new standards is already important as even those who register for NVQs prior to November must know about them.
At Croydon College, Clare Ingram says that it is going through the new training programme with assessors and highlights that one of the major changes is the emphasis on professional discussion, where there will need to be an evaluation of how well a candidate understands different aspects of practice.
'Although there are fewer units involved, assessors will have to spend more time engaged in dialogue with students, so we estimate that assessing time will probably work out roughly the same,' she says.
However, at the Tidworth Trust's Early Years Assessment Centre in Wiltshire, centre manager Phil Burton is concerned that not enough is being done to ensure a smooth transition to the new standards.
'We are still waiting for further information and guidance,' he says. 'It is becoming difficult to advise prospective candidates who are currently seeking to undertake an NVQ.'
Mr Burton reports that funding is a problem for his small assessment centre, which is part of a Community Trust serving the local garrison town of Tidworth. Currently, its early years assessment team consists of six part-time assessors/verifiers and two part-time early years trainers.
'Very little funding is around at present, with only trickles of returned funding coming through,' he says. 'We have recently been talking to our EYDCP training and recruitment department, who have told us there will be no new funding now until the next financial year.'
While the changes to assessment may not be as dramatic as some fear, investment is needed to address the overall problems and bring all regions into line. Assessment is a basic requirement of workforce reform and without it, progress will not be as swift as some might wish. NW
