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How can you demonstrate your competence to us and employers


Competence and knowledge are assessed through a range of methods, including:



Once you are ready to start assessment for a unit, or group of units, your Training Co-ordinator (or work-based assessor) will agree an Assessment Plan with you.


The plan will provide details of how your competence will be assessed and the specific evidence that will need be collected. The plan will be individual to you and will take into consideration any particular access to assessment requirements that you may (see Access to Assessment Policy for further information).


Your Assessor will provide feedback and an assessment decision on each assessment. A number of assessments may be required to collect sufficient evidence for some units.


Assessment hints and tips

Observation:

  • Review the standards for the unit(s) to be assessed and remind yourself about the range of specific competencies that you will need to demonstrate.

  • Clarify anything that is unclear before the assessment.


    • Witness testimony

  • Must be provided by a competent witness, such as your manager, supervisor or an experienced colleague.

  • Will need to refer to specific examples of how you have demonstrated competence against the standards being assessed.

  • Should not be a re-working of the standards or a more general statement of competence.

  • Your witness will need to sign the ‘Contributor List’ in the front of your portfolio. The witness will need to indicate their relationship to you, their job role and their contact details should a Verifier wish to contact them to discuss the content of the testimony that is provided.


    • Planned professional discussion

  • Review the standards for the unit(s) to be assessed and to remind yourself about the range of specific competencies that you will need to demonstrate during the discussion.

  • Make notes on the specific examples of competence that you plan to discuss. Be prepared to discuss what you did, when you did it, how you did it, why you made the decisions that you did and the outcome. Reflect on what went well and what went less well.

  • Collect any documentary evidence that is available to support the examples of competence that you plan to discuss.

  • Ensure that the evidence that you provide in your discussion can be authenticated by someone in an appropriate position at work.


    • Product evidence:

  • Make sure any product evidence, such as completed records, forms, letters, emails, are your own work.

  • Blank forms should not be presented as evidence, as they do not demonstrate that you are competent at completing them.

  • Ask your manager, supervisor or a witness to authenticate your evidence, to confirm that you produced the evidence on your own, on time and to the required standard. Any contribution from other people should be clearly indicated on the evidence.


    • Reports, projects and assignments:

  • Check the spelling, grammar and punctuation in your document.

  • Ensure your work is presented appropriately and professionally.

  • Acknowledge the contributions of other people.

  • Ensure that you have not plagiarised, or copied, from another person’s work.


    • Case studies:

  • Ensure that case studies accurately describe specific examples of your competence.

  • Explain what you did, how, why, where and when and what the outcome was.

  • Provide product evidence, where this is available, to support your case study.

  • Ask a witness to authenticate your case study, to confirm that it is accurate and that the work you refer to met your employer’s requirements and was completed within agreed timescales.

  • The witness must sign the Contributor list at the front of your portfolio.

    • Tests:

  • Make sure you are clear on the date, time and venue for the test.

  • Prepare a revision plan to make sure you are fully prepared by the date of your test.

  • Complete a mock test to become familiar with the format of the test.

  • Ask for additional support if you think that you need it.


    • Projects or assignments:

  • Check that you understand the instructions and the timescale allowed for completing an assignment.

  • Ensure that the work submitted is your own.