Do you wish to contribute to the quality of the UK educational system? Assessing vocational achievement could be a fulfilling pathway for you. Here’s how to become an assessor for various vocational achievements.

The basis of assessment is the concept of occupational competence. As an NVQ (National Vocational Qualifications) assessor, you will likely assess an area that you are yourself occupationally competent in. For example, those with several years’ experience and qualifications in healthcare would do well to assess students in Health and Social Care career subjects, while those with a Business Administration degree can assess occupational competence in office environments.

Once you have gained the relevant qualifications and occupational competence in the sector you are interested in, you can then embark upon obtaining your assessor qualifications, which will typically be comprised of a Level 3 Award certification.

When starting out as an NVQ assessor, you’ll need industry experience and a minimum of a Level 3 qualification in the field you wish to assess, as well as an assessing qualification. Entry requirements are not a barrier to entry for most people.

Such courses can be done on a full-time basis, or part time to complement your existing workload. After completing competency and knowledge-based assessments, you will be able to demonstrate that you can assess candidates throughout their entire NVQ.

Alternatively, if you only wish to do classroom-based assessments, you may only need to obtain an AVRA qualification. This qualifies you to assess vocational skills, knowledge and understanding. If you only wish to assess learners in the workplace, the ACWE qualification will suffice. To start your career as an assessor, you will need to determine which assessor courses are relevant to you from the variety offered by training providers in London, other major UK cities and online.

Assessors fulfill an important function and play a special role in career prospects of complete strangers. For this reason, it’s important they possess the right set of skills to help both the companies that employ them and the people they assess.

A qualified assessor will plan and deliver vocational training programmes, observe and assess candidates in their work environment, work to create a culture in which experimentation and learning are embraced, examine candidates’ portfolios and more to ensure that candidates working towards their National Vocational Qualifications meet the occupational standards needed to achieve the NVQ.

Assessor jobs allow you to enjoy flexibility and versatility throughout your career. After gaining enough experience, you could lead an assessor team, become a training manager or move into further education teaching.

You may also choose to work as a verifier, checking the work of assessors and training centres themselves to conduct internal quality assurance.