Building trust in assessor training

Ever since the infamous Bright Assessing scandal a few years ago, trust has been a big issue for anybody looking into training to become an assessor in the Further Education industry. There are thousands of organisations delivering assessor training courses. But just like any industry, there are some good ones and some bad ones out there. It’s just a matter of picking out the good from the bad.

A dangerous combination of bad experiences and inaccurate or misleading information on the internet has made it incredibly difficult for people to pick out the good from the bad. So, how can training providers and colleges prove to these people looking to start a new career as an assessor that they can trust them to get the qualification they need? Well…

I was reading Hilary Read’s ‘gaining an assessor/IQA/EQA qualification‘ article on LinkedIn (which is definitely worth a read if you are looking into becoming an assessor) when the idea hit me. At first I thought ‘surely there must be organisations offering this?’ So I cracked on with my research and scanning the internet for assessor training providers and what they were offering. After a lot of sifting through websites, I realised that not one single college or training provider was offering it. It is of course…

A free trial!

It’s just about turning the whole thing on its head. Whilst Ms Read’s article certainly helps people to establish who they can trust for their assessor training, why should it be their responsibility? It should be us, the learning providers, making the effort to prove that we can be trusted.

If you were buying a new car then you would want to take it for a test drive. If you were buying a new set of golf clubs, you would want to have a feel of the clubs before buying them. So, why are we forcing people to fork out hundreds of pounds to do the course without giving them the opportunity to trial it? It is all well and good sending perspective trainee assessors course information packs and course specifications, but they still aren’t going to know if the course is really going to suit their learning styles until they have already enrolled and committed.

Brooks and Kirk is an independent training provider that has been delivering assessor courses for over 20 years. We are now offering a 10 Day Free Trial of our assessor course, which includes both the Level 3 Certificate in Assessing Vocational Achievement (CAVA) and the Level 3 Award in Education and Training (AET). The Free Trial was launched today (18 Jun 2015).

As part of the new unique free trial, learners get access to tasks from both the CAVA and the AET on Brooks and Kirk’s bespoke online learning system. They will also receive feedback from a dedicated online assessor and have the opportunity to re-submit work in accordance with the feedback received. All of us at Brooks and Kirk are hoping that this will help to build a level of trust that everyone should have before starting their course to become an assessor.

Maybe this could even be the start of even more free trials in assessor training!

Sam Sleight, Head of Marketing, Brooks and Kirk (Assessor  Training) Ltd

About Sam Sleight: Sam is the Marketing Manager at Brooks and Kirk. Whenever he’s not working away on websites, managing advertising campaigns or creating new content, he’s probably watching football. But aside from his passion for football and Chelsea in particular, he is also passionate about helping those that are eager to start a new career in the FE industry to receive the best advice, guidance and support possible.

About Brooks and Kirk: Brooks and Kirk are an independent training provider with over 20 years’ experience in delivering assessor and internal quality assurance qualifications. They have loads of great content on their assessor training website for anyone that is interested in becoming an assessor. If you are interested in finding out more here is a link to the Brooks and Kirk assessor training website.