Health and Social Care NVQ Made Simple | NVQ Assessors Resources.

I have been working as an NVQ assessor for a few years, assessing NVQs in Health and Social Care. Recently I was getting tired of the amount of paper work I had to deal with and the time spent with candidates was increasing because of the need to reference their evidence appropriately and meet up with funding requirements and organizational procedures.

Being a Health and Social Care worker in the past and a trainer at present, I can understand the burden the paper based NVQ places on candidates who are hands on individuals rather than academicians. Some learners are finding the NVQs difficult to produce written evidence.

My targets for completing cohorts of learners were becoming incredibly impossible to meet; therefore I knew I had to adopt another strategy as quickly as possible. I attended a training session that introduced me to a number of ways to improve assessment methods and behold it was the one thing I thought was going to be difficult to adopt that was presented as a simpler method – Electronic Assessment.

The outcome of the training I attended was really advantageous; presently as an NVQ Assessor I mix both kinds together, I mean paper and electronic assessment. I capture as much evidence as possible on digital Dictaphone and my Blackberry phone. I find this method very effective for witness testimonies, observations, professional discussions, reflective accounts and Questions and Answers. I find using electronic methods brings so many different and positive advantages to the assessment process, for example:

Witness testimonials, Professional Discussion, Reflective Accounts and Questions & Answers – I am able to capture quality evidence as I interview the witnesses; this could be the manager or other key people. The learner finds it time saving to sit down with me and have a conversation recorded on my Dictaphone as a professional discussion, reflective account or oral questioning session. I can steer a conversation in the direction I need to capture the maximum amount of evidence. Within a short time I have implemented this method; I’ve noticed witnesses are much more likely to provide a testimonial if they think their involvement will be a brief interview. When you ask witnesses to write long reports you will be putting them off and this can often make them feel that this is not their NVQ award so why are they been made to write reports. As it is not a witness or learner’s role to know the assessment process, there is a risk that their evidence would not fully cover performance or knowledge criteria the testimony was aimed at. This can lead to de-motivation and reluctance of learners gathering evidence using witness testimonies or reluctance to complete the qualification because of the writing involved.

Observations – I electronically record observations when I can and where confidentiality will allow. This allows the observation to be viewed/ heard by all involved in the process and reduces issues that could arise around assessor interpretation. In health and social care we do have a lot to keep confidential however some aspects can be either voice recordings or video recordings.

Work products – I reference all work products to the portfolio rather than being printed and put in the portfolio. This reduces the amount of paper used in the process and allows evidence to remain in its natural environment of the work place. For example policies and procedures followed by learners at work, supervision records, care plans, accident reports etc

A learner could either be using an e-portfolio or the traditional paper based portfolio and would still be able to produce evidence using these kinds of electronic methods. Capturing electronic evidence reduces the amount of time I need to spend working on evidence. Assessing the learner’s written work and dealing with insufficient evidence due to the learner not being able to express themselves in writing can wastes a lot of time. Using electronic evidence means I can spend more time making assessment decisions and capturing evidence rather than spending time typing or writing it into a report. It is also very important to reduce our carbon footprint and paper portfolios can contain a vast amount of paper.

Using electronic methods reduces paper usage and promotes an environmentally friendly image. This has filtered through to the NVQ assessment process as electronic evidence reduces the need for storage space in the office or in your home if you are a freelance Assessor. As an assessor this is an advantage to me as I do not have to transport heavy and large portfolios anymore which you agree with me is not a healthy exercise over a long period of time.

Capturing evidence electronically also enhances the quality assurance processes. All those involved in the process are able to validate and authenticate evidence as they are able to see and/or hear the live evidence which reduces potential issues; for example concerns regarding assessor assumptions.

At the beginning of this process of change I was not very sure it would work but as the days rolled into weeks and weeks into months, I’m sure getting better at it and my learners are very happy at the thought of a reduction in writing because they can provide evidence verbally.

At NVQMadeSimple.com we want to encourage verifiers, assessors and learners to embrace electronic assessments as it has definite advantages for us all in the coming years. If you would like to share with us your personal experience and opinions about electronic assessments for NVQ, please leave your comments below.