Quality Assurance Committee

The Quality Assurance Committee will act as an expert adviser to the Board with delegated responsibility to approve or make arrangements for organisations to carry out External Quality Assurance.

Purpose

The Quality Assurance Committee’s purpose is to achieve high-quality standards in assessment and to drive a culture of continuous quality improvement throughout apprenticeships and technical education.

For apprenticeships, the Committee will:

• Consider the findings of the annual External Quality Assurance process.
• Oversee the Route Review element of the triennial review of apprenticeship Standards and Assessment Plans.
• Approve organisations nominated by Trailblazers, to deliver external quality assurance of apprenticeship end-point assessment, and
• Make recommendations on:
• Whether or not to carry out or commission a review where there is a concern about the quality of apprenticeship assessments.
• Whether or not improvements are required to the quality of assessments and who must make these improvements.
• Whether or not reporting to the Secretary of State or other body is necessary.
• Determine whether or not a standard or assessment plan should be withdrawn or amended.

For Technical Education, the Committee will:

• Consider the assessment strategies and exemplification materials submitted by Awarding Organisations during the T Level TQ development and approval phases and provide expert advice to the Institute’s Board and the Technical Education (Technical Qualification) Programme Board. (This function will be supported by a TQ Assessment Group).
• Consider the outputs from the Institute and Ofqual’s joint monitoring activity via a quarterly report and provide expert advice to the Board.

1. Remit

To ensure a culture of continuous improvement the Committee will:

• Monitor that it achieves its ambitions and ensure the consistency of External Quality Assurance (EQA) approach and process
• Monitor the implementation of the quality strategy (as it relates to the Institute’s responsibilities) and receive reports on Quality Alliance activities
• Monitor the process for and consistency of End Point Assessment (EPA) delivery to ensure consistent high-quality delivery
• Monitor the development and delivery of T Level TQ assessment
• Oversee evaluation activities in relation to the Quality Assurance Committee responsibilities
• Communicate proactively, within the overall communications strategy, both internally, with the Institute Board to keep it informed of the work of the Committee, and externally, with key stakeholders where it will be important to recognise and promote good practice.

2. Accountability

The Committee is accountable to the Institute’s Board. 

3. Membership and attendance

The membership will be two Board members and three independent members with significant expertise in assessment. The quorum will be 3 members at least one of which must be a Board member. The Committee will be chaired by a designated Board member.

Members

• Board: Paul Cadman, Jessica Leigh-Jones 

• Independent members: Jim Iley (Professor of Medicinal Chemistry, Open University), Isabel Sutcliffe, Ben Blackledge (WorldSkills UK)

4. Meetings

The Committee will meet at least bi-monthly, aligning with the Institute’s Board meetings. 

In exceptional circumstances, where it becomes clear that there is a need to take urgent action, the Committee will be asked for feedback via email as opposed to waiting for the next meeting.

5. Minutes