Assessment Validation and Moderation Policy

Purpose. This policy commits the Institute to systematic validation of assessment practices and judgements so that assessment tools and decisions remain valid, reliable and consistent across trainers, sites and modes.

1.Purpose

Validation is the quality review of the assessment process. The Institute validates both the assessment tools before use and a sample of completed assessments after use, and moderates decisions between assessors to keep judgements consistent. This policy applies to every unit on scope, including units delivered by partners.

2.Schedule

Every training product on scope must be validated at least once in a five-year cycle, with at least half validated within the first three years. Priority will be given to products that are new, high risk, subject to complaints or appeals, or delivered by new assessors. The schedule is held in the validation schedule system and approved by the quality committee each year.

3.Who validates

Validation must be led by a person who holds the training and assessment credential required by the standards, has current industry skills and knowledge relevant to the product and was not involved in delivering or assessing the sample. At least one validator with vocational competency and one with assessment expertise must take part.

• Validation lead: independent of the sample
• Vocational expert: current industry skills
• Assessment expert: current assessor credential
• Industry representative: invited where practicable

4.Method

Validators must review the tool against the unit of competency and the mapping document, review a statistically valid sample of completed assessments against the rules of evidence and the principles of assessment, and record findings, recommendations and actions on the Assessment Validation Report Template.

5.Outcomes and actions

Where validation finds that a tool or a judgement does not meet requirements, the Lead Assessor must assign corrective actions with owners and due dates, and the Learning Design Manager must release a corrected tool version before it is used again. Where a judgement is found to be unsupported, affected learners will be reassessed at no cost.

6.Records

Validation reports, samples, attendance and action closure evidence must be kept for the life of the training product plus two years and made available to the regulator on request.