Do I need an IQA qualification to quality assure First Aid courses?
Simon Linard • May 11, 2019
Is an IQA qualification needed?
No, there is no requirement to hold an Internal Quality Assurance (IQA)
qualification to enable you to internally quality assure first aid course, at the moment. This could change in the future, so it is worth considering undertaking an IQA qualification.
Many of the first aid Awarding Organisations have agreed and designed a Continuous Professional Development (CPD) one day course for first aid IQAs. It aims to cover the assessment and IQA (half a day for each aspect) of first aid qualifications and then allows you (rightly or wrongly) to assess, but more importantly IQA, off the back of a half day of information sharing event.
So if you have attended or plan to attend one of those CPD days they will enable you to assess and or IQA for that Awarding Organisation.
Good practice would be to undertake an internal quality assurance qualification as you'll only scratch the surface of IQA in a one day workshop. As a minimum, the Level 4 Award in Understanding the Internal Quality Assurance of Assessment Processes and Practice
would be useful.
Do I need to be experienced?
You do need to be experienced in the delivery and assessment of first aid courses and have a good understanding of the assessment requirements for each of the various first aid qualifications.
As an IQA you are required to support Trainers / Assessors, this means you'll be advising them on their assessment practice, answering queries they may have and checking the accuracy of their assessments against the first aid qualification requirements. With that in mind it is vital that you are experienced and able to provide good levels of advice and guidance to the Trainers / Assessors your support.
Future-proof yourself
To future-proof yourself and show your commitment have a look at our range of IQA qualifications and find the right one for you.
The Importance of Assessor Qualifications in Workplace Training In today's fast-evolving business landscape, employers need effective workplace training as it is essential for maintaining a competitive edge. A critical component of this training process is the use of workplace assessment. Workplace Assessors are technical experts and industry professionals responsible for evaluating employees' competencies and ensuring training programmes meet industry standards. To maintain credibility and effectiveness, it is imperative that workplace Assessors possess a recognised assessing qualification .
Using Professional Discussion as an Assessment Method: A Guide for Assessors Professional discussion is an effective and versatile assessment method that allows learners to demonstrate their knowledge, skills, and links to competencies in a structured, yet flexible, manner. This method is widely used across various industries, particularly in vocational and competency-based education, where learners need to showcase practical expertise beyond written work and evidence.
Internal Quality Assurance of Training and Qualifications
The Level 5 Diploma in Education and Training (known as the DET) is the current, up to date Level 5 teaching qualification. This was introduced in 2014 and replaced the Level 5 Diploma in Teaching in the Lifelong Learning Sector (DTLLS). The DET sits within the Education and Training suite of qualifications, alongside the Level 3 Award in Education and Training (AET) and the Level 4 Certificate in Education and Training (CET). The Level 5 Diploma in Education and Training has been and still is a very flexible and valuable qualification for vocational Teachers, Trainers and Tutors to gain, opening up opportunities for employment and linked to QTLS. The structure of the qualification units provides bespoke pathways for learners to follow, based on their own role or how they want to develop.
Now is a great time to become an Assessor , particularly an End Point Assessor for Apprenticeships. Apprenticeships and the assessment of Apprenticeships had a huge overhaul and is currently booming as the transition to end point assessment has lead to huge demand for Assessors.
An update from the Education and Training Foundation has given some clear guidance on the future of the Level 3 Assessor, Level 4 Internal Quality Assurance and Level 4 External Quality Assurance suite of qualifications.
There seems to be a great deal of confusion about the current qualifications available for assessors, with lots of mixed and sometimes inaccurate information provided to people. This post sets out to clarify a few things: What is current? What no longer exists? Do you need to update? How you can upgrade.
An overview of the current qualifications for teaching, training and assessment.
