Assessment College

Why has there been so little uptake on the Verifier unit standard? And why has the SGB declined to renew this particular standard? Marietta van Rooyen believes that a Verifier plays an important role in the NQF system and proposes that the decision to discontinue it should be debated further.

The vision of the White Paper is a single, integrated post-school system with
a focus on collaboration between the institutions. Artisan training will become
the centre of South Africa?s post-school training plan.

The Quality Council for Trades and Occupations is planning to make use of Communities of Expert Practice, or CEPs, to develop qualifications and to perform certain quality assurance functions. Marietta van Rooyen looks at their role in more detail.

"It seems to me", writes Marietta van Rooyen, "that the role of trainers in the development of skills in South Africa is grossly underestimated. When the NQF was set up the word 'Trainer' was somehow discredited and replaced by the rather ambiguous name of ETD Practitioner". So how can trainers raise their status?

"In the process of assessment we often expect candidates to gather and display evidence of their competence for assessment purposes. This turns out to be one of the most difficult things to do in the outcomes-based education and training system," explains Marietta van Rooyen. "I am convinced that we are doing our learners and providers a disservice by not providing them with evidence guides."

At the recent Appetd conference, Professor Merlyn Mehl raised some concerns about the quality of training and used the example of the assessor unit standard. Marietta Van Rooyen from Assessment College looks into the details of Assessor training and the compilation of Portfolios of Evidence.