Assessment & Validation

Main areas of non compliance for Standard 1 - Clauses 1.8-1.12 Conduct effective assessment - SRTOs and AQTF Essential Conditions and Standards Element 1.5 Assessment including Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) as follows:

1. Assessment tools do not meet the Principle of Assessment - Validity as not all requirements of the unit of competency have been addressed by the assessment tools i.e., not all knowledge evidence is addressed and quite often the assessment conditions have not been addressed.  

2. Assessment tools do not meet do not meet the Principle of Assessment -  Reliability as 

• insufficient instruction/information is provided to the trainers and assessors about the context of assessment and how to set up and conduct assessment
• Observation checklists used for demonstration of skills in either a practical or simulated environment do not include sufficient observable behaviours to enable an assessor to make an informed judgement of a student's competency
• Model answers are incorrect and are poorly worded.  Quite often there is insufficient guidance provided for questions that may result in a variance in student answers.

3. Assessment tools do not meet the requirements of Principles of Assessment - Fairness as insufficient information is provided to students in assessment tools about how, when what and why they are required to do to achieve a competent result. Quite often the following is missing:

• performance expectations for each assessment task to be undertaken
• insufficient instructions on how to answer knowledge questions particularly those requiring a written response
• lack of or no information  provided about complaints and appeals and RPL ( if applicable)

4. Rule of Evidence - Sufficiency and Validity

As the assessment tasks do not meet the Principle of Assessment - Validity, they do not meet the Rules of Evidence - Validity and Sufficiency.  Not enough evidence is gathered to demonstrate how the assessor arrived at their assessment judgement. 

5. Other findings

• Trainers and Assessors not using provided marking guides.  This results in inconsistency of assessment judgements.  Quite often student answers marked as correct are incorrect and vice versa.
• Assessment tasks are not written to the required AQF standard
• Errors in mapping documents used to map assessment tools

6. Validations

• Validation schedules are not being followed if in place.
• Validation reports are not sufficiently rigorous as audits find non compliances with assessment tools
• Findings documented on validation reports are not actioned as per policies and procedures i.e., not logged as an Opportunity for Improvement as part of the Continuous Improvement Process