Hi,
I am considering doing the NVQ assessor award called A1 or something like that. I would like to assess people doing vocational qualifications in Health and Social Care or Child care. Is it worth it? Are there any jobs out there? Are organisations like Bright assessors or Great Height (on line courses and awards) any good or are they a waste of time?

Does anyone have any advice for me?

Hi Pippi7,

The A1 Assessor award has been replaced by "LEVEL 3 CERTIFICATE IN ASSESSING
VOCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT"

Although I cannot comment on the above courses you mention I wouldn't personally do this type of course as an online course.

Firstly you to have access to at least two candidates who are completing
a vocational course. You have to learn how to assess these candidates to the required standard and produce a portfolio of evidence.

There are 3 units to complete, Understanding the principles
and practices of assessment, Assess occupational competence in the work
environment and Assess vocational skills, knowledge and understanding. Each unit has a credit rating and y0u need 15 credits to achieve the award.

If this is something you are passionate about I would definantly do the course. Even in the present climate there are Assessor Jobs available, a lot of private training companies have vacancies for assessors and with the slow trickle of funding which is slowly appearing again for HSC level 2 & 3 diplomas the need for assessors will grow. A lot of assessors i know set up as self-employed working alongside private companies who have the access to funding and do pretty well.

Hope this helps and good luck.

Dave

Hi Pippa, firstly there are lots of assessor jobs. Especially in Health and Social Care and Child Care.

I completed my assessor award with Bright Assessing and was very satisfied with the course. Yes the learning is online but you still have to complete detailed assignments and they provide you with candidates for the practical parts so you do reach the required standards and get the experience of assessing two candidates.

They do things properly too, if you do not reach the required standards then they will ask you to redo elements and will make sure you are fully competent before signing you off. I have not heard of Great Height so cannot comment on them.

The only downside is that by completing this sort of course you do not have a lot of assessing experience and companies often prefer this. But if you have a good occupational background, you shouldn't struggle to find a job as there are also many training providers who will happily employ a newly qualified assessor.

Towards the end of completing my qualification with Bright I made sure I had an amazing cv and then I literally emailed it to every recruitment agency who dealt with assessing posts, I emailed it to local FE colleges and I searched the internet for all the local training companies and emailed it to them. I also applied to jobs on the jobcentre website. I was amazed at the response I got and had three interviews organised within a week. It definitely pays to be proactive and I had more success going to training providers directly rather than recruitment agencies and a lot of that was because all the recruitment agencies had jobs advertised but they were for the same job!

I need help! ...I live in Telford Shropshire and work as a Learning support assistant in a local college. I completed a PTLLS course in the summer 2015 and already have an Hons degree in health and social care. I have been searching my local colleges and googled to death various unknown?? companies to try and enrol on an Assessor course. Eventually i got some very useful advice from a lady at Dudley college who informed me that they run the courses and that i needed to shadow an active working h&S care assessor for approx 1 month before i enrol on the course. This means that someone has to take you on as a volenteer with eventually letting me have 2 of their learners to acess as my own as part of my own assessement. I was told that very few people are even given this opportunity! So my question is how are you supposed to qualify if no one will give you the opportuninty to achieve the qualification?? Ive also been told by a member of staff at my own college that i should get a part time job as an assessor and they will train me?? ALL assessor job specs i have looked at say you need a Assessor qualification......sheesh i give up! Anyone got any useful advice?? I just want to better myself I have also considered the DTLLS course but yet again i need 100 hours of teaching over the 2 year course and where do i get that from?? I have 1.5 days off a week so i am ready and can commit without it effecting my current employment. Thanks in advance x

Hello,
I think a lot of assessors get a job with a training provider as trainee assessor and are trained while doing job.
This is how I started. I was occupationally competent having worked in H & SC for many years, as carer, senior carer, team leader and duty manager, picking up a level 3 qualification in I forget what along the way. I shadowed a qualified assessor for a few weeks so I could get understanding of assessing, planning and such forth, then went out alone. Everything I assessed was 'second line assessed' until I qualified.
You have a degree in H & SC so you're fine on qualification front, PTLLS good too. You will also need to have Functional Skills at level 2. If you have practical experience of working in care sector then I think your best chance would be to answer ad from a training provider and see what happens. Or send them an e mail enquiry, providers are always looking for assessors, it's quite a turbulent industry.
Good luck
Steadysue