Formative and End Point Assessors are under-represented and need professional recognition
The Assessors Guild is the Professional Membership Body for the assessor and quality assurance practitioner community. Assessors, both formative and End Point are at times under-represented and need professional recognition, particularly as this section of vocational and technical educators are crucial to the success of learners learning a trade or skill.
The Assessors Guild has been built on our desire to ensure that it is the quality mark for strong professional assessment. We have developed our Professional Standards based on industry consultation with lead assessors and EPAOs. The standards along with a robust application procedure are used to assess and award membership grade or to recommend which areas need development in order to be awarded the new flagship status in the assessment marketplace.
Membership Grades
Our range of membership grades range from Member, Registered Practitioner, Managing Practitioner and Fellow and offer something for everyone; we also have Corporate and Accredited Corporate packages so that organisations can ensure that all of their in-house or contracted assessors follow a conduct of behaviour, acting with integrity and consistency to safeguard the interests of the learners.
Continuing Professional Development
Whilst skills shortages continue, the Apprenticeship Reform means that employers and training providers need to be ready and willing to recruit up to 25,000 assessors as well as to upskill and benchmark existing assessors which means that professional recognition from Membership and Continuous Professional Development (CPD) is crucial to this success.
CPD is key to professional credibility which is a main area that The Assessors Guild will be focusing on; providing both a recording system for CPD as well as a marketplace for valid CPD courses and qualifications that meet our strict criteria; we already know for example, that some EPA courses already in the marketplace are not following recommendations for Total Qualification Hours (TQT) risking the quality of the achievement which will create a very spiky profile of assessor ability.
We recognise that CPD can take many forms, opportunistic, planned and developmental, our CPD Framework focuses on all of these areas with clear guidance and criteria. Annual updating of CPD will be dependent on maintaining Member status which we believe will give credibility and recognition to Assessors, inspire confidence and increase the demand for those showing this commitment to professional development.
Why Join?
Assessors and quality assurers work in a diverse range of organisations, from schools, colleges, universities to employers and training providers from entry level to degree. This means that they need to remain highly skilled, adaptable and responsive to changes and challenges posed by policy and decision-making, that they have little say in. Joining The Assessors Guild will provide a professional organisation specific for your needs which will enable you to share, network and support each other as well as to have a collective voice; all channelled and underpinned by us, The Assessors Guild.
We are currently welcoming our first members and the database is fast growing. Our membership portal will be launched in the Autumn and this will offer member profiles, availability for work, booking tools, events, news updates, announcements and vacancies. As we progress into phase two the portal will also have the functionality to upload and record member CPD, feature a document library, knowledge base and other member benefits.
Sam Taylor, Head of Assessors Guild
On the 13thNovember we are holding our main launch event at Westminster with well-known public speakers and industry sponsors. We are also currently running a series of events on what the Assessors Guild is all about, further details and exhibitor’s packs are available by emailing [email protected]. Please visit our website for more details on membership and our Professional Standards.
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