Newbery’s Audit Guide – Clause 1.9/1.10/1.11
What the clause requires:
1.9 The RTO implements a plan for ongoing systematic validation of assessment practices and judgements that details: a) when assessment validation will occur; b) which training products will be validated; c) who will lead and participate in validation; and d) how the outcomes will be documented and acted upon.
1.10 Each training product is validated at least once every five years, with at least 50% of products validated within the first three years of each five year cycle taking into account the relative risks of all of the training products on the RTO’s scope of registration, including those risks identified by the VET Regulator.
1.11 For the purposes of Clause 1.9, systematic validation of an RTO’s assessment practices and judgements is undertaken by one or more persons who are not directly involved in the particular instance of delivery and assessment of the training product being validated, and who collectively have:
a) vocational competencies and current industry skills relevant to the assessment being validated;
b) current knowledge and skills in vocational teaching and learning; and
c) the training and assessment qualification or assessor skill set referred to in Item 1 or 3 of Schedule 1.
What is this clause about:
These clauses specify the requirement for the conduct of assessment validation. The standards define assessment validation as a quality review process. This is to distinguish it from a quality control process. The difference is important as a quality review process is something that is conducted whilst the item being reviewed is being actually used as opposed to a quality control process which involves undertaking a review on something before it is implemented. So, it is important to identify that the assessment validation under the model specified within these standards is conducted post implementation after the assessment has had an opportunity to be used by assessors with candidates. The standards also specify that assessment validation involves checking that the assessment produces valid, reliable, sufficient, current and authentic evidence. So it focuses the criteria for validating assessment based on the rules of evidence and two principles of assessment (validity and reliability). I personally would recommend that you also consider flexibility and fairness in your validation criteria also. It includes reviewing a statistically valid sample of the assessments. This requires you to determine how many assessments you have completed for the unit of competency being validated and then to calculate a statistically valid sample size. There are numerous sample size calculators available on the web. ASQA provide the following sample size calculator for you convenience: ASQA-validation-sample-size-calculator. Just a tip, leave the margin for error at 15%.
In the conduct of assessment validation, the clause specifies particular competency requirements for the person who is leading the validation activity. Of particular note is the requirement that this person must not have been directly involved in the particular instance of assessment which is being validated. This means that this person does not necessarily need to be external of the organisation but does need to be non-biased and independent of the assessment being validated. Your organisation will obviously need to apply assessment validation process which will result in a systematic approach being applied and the outcomes of assessment validation used to improve future assessment. We strongly recommend the following document as a fantastic model to support your conduct of assessment validation:
Maximising confidence in assessment decision-making: Resource kit for assessors
You must be able to demonstrate that:
You must have an assessment validation plan that identifies when assessment validation for each training product will be validated, what training products are being validated from your scope of registration, who will lead and assist in the assessment validation and how the outcomes of assessment validation will be used to improve the assessment.
You must have an assessment validation plan that complies with the 50% (3 years) – 100% (5 years) requirement.
Key point. The ASQA fact sheet (click) says that: “If you are validating a qualification, at least two units of competency should be sampled when validating a qualification.” ASQA has also provided our clients advice that if the RTO has no delivery in a qualification it has on its scope of registration, then the RTO is unable to undertake the assessment validation and ASQA would not expect assessment validation to have occurred under these circumstances.
You have conducted assessment validation in accordance with your documented plan and can demonstrate how the outcomes of assessment validation have been acted on to improve assessment.
You have only utilised persons to lead assessment validation that our competent in training and assessment and competent in the unit of competency being validated and who were not directly involved in the particular instance of assessment being validated. It should be noted that evidence of these person’s competency should be consistent with that expected of trainers and assessors.
Evidence to prepare:
A plan for assessment validation to ensure that each training product is validated at least once every five years, with at least 50% of products validated within the first three years of each five-year cycle.
Note. This requirement came into effect on first of April 2015. This means that at least 50% of the training products that are on the RTO’s scope of registration must be validated no later than the 1st April 2018 and the remaining items on the RTO’s scope must be validated no later than the 1st April 2020. Get on with it!
Evidence of the assessment validation procedure and the model of assessment validation used by the organisation.
Evidence of completed assessment validation that shows the process being applied, the statistically valid sample selected for the validation activity and the outcomes that were identified and how these are acted on.
Evidence of competency and currency of those persons who are leading assessment validation who are not directly involved in the particular instance of delivery and assessment of the training product being validated, and who has:
- vocational competencies and currency
- current knowledge and skills in vocational teaching and learning
- current competency in training and assessment
You should prepare for these types of questions:
Can you talk me through your assessment validation process? Do you have a policy or procedure?
Do you have an assessment validation plan? How have you determined that you will achieve validation of 50% of your scope of registration within the first three years?
How did you select units of competency for each qualification? Did you apply a risk assessment model to the selection of these units?
Can I see the record of assessment validation that is indicated on the plan as having been completed on this date?
Can we trace these outcomes through to your continuous improvement register or see how these improvements were actually made in the assessments?
Do you have a record of the learner sample you used to undertake this assessment validation?
Can I see the qualifications of this person who is nominated to lead the assessment validation in the validation plan?
Was this person involved in the conduct of this assessment with this cohort of learners? Can we access other learner records from this cohort?
Published by: Joe Newbery, released 2nd May 2017
© Newbery Consulting 2017