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Level 4 Award in the Internal Quality Assurance of Assessment Processes and Practice
The quality assurance qualification. The IQA is the person who checks the assessors rather than the learners: sampling their decisions, standardising their judgements and holding the centre together when the external verifier arrives.
About this course
Every centre that assesses vocational qualifications needs somebody doing internal quality assurance. That is the person who samples what assessors have decided, standardises across them so two assessors reach the same judgement on the same evidence, and puts things right before an external quality assurer finds them.
This is the qualification for that role. Level 4 on the Regulated Qualifications Framework, two units and 12 credits, awarded by GQA Qualifications. It is a step up from assessing rather than a bigger version of it: the subject is the assessment process itself.
It is a portfolio qualification, and the practical unit means you need access to assessors and their assessment decisions while you are doing it. If your centre does not yet have assessors in place, that is worth sorting before you enrol.
We run it live online, at our centres and at your own workplace. Most people take it alongside a job.
- What internal quality assurance is for, and where it sits between the assessor and the external quality assurer
- Planning a sampling strategy that is risk based rather than a fixed percentage
- How to sample assessment decisions across assessors, methods, learners and units
- Standardising assessors so the same evidence gets the same decision
- Giving assessors feedback that improves their practice rather than just flagging errors
- Managing the information, records and audit trail an external quality assurer will want
- Legislation, regulatory requirements and your responsibilities as an IQA
How completing this course helps you
- A Level 4 Award in the Internal Quality Assurance of Assessment Processes and Practice
- The qualification a centre needs in the internal quality assurance role
- A sampling and standardisation approach you can run rather than describe
- A portfolio built on real quality assurance of real assessors
Who should attend?
Internal quality assurers, lead assessors moving into quality assurance, centre managers who carry the role themselves, and anybody an awarding organisation has told needs an IQA qualification. Normally taken by people who already assess.
Entry requirements. No formal entry requirement, and it is aimed at people aged 19 and over. In practice you need to be occupationally competent in the area you are quality assuring, and you need access to assessors and their decisions to sample during the qualification. Most people hold an assessing qualification first, although it is not compulsory.
Ready to take the next step?
Choose a delivery option, compare dates and book with confidence, or ask MB and get an answer straight away.
Assessor, IQA, or both
Where the IQA sits, and whether you need it
An assessor decides whether a learner is competent. An internal quality assurer decides whether the assessors are doing that consistently and correctly. They are different jobs and different qualifications, and one does not include the other.
You need this if you are the person sampling and standardising in a centre, or if an awarding organisation has told you the centre needs a qualified IQA. You do not need it to assess.
There is also a knowledge only award for somebody who needs to understand internal quality assurance without carrying it out, which suits managers who oversee a centre rather than sample it. Ask us if that sounds closer to your role.
Assessing learners
CAVA at Level 3, or one of the shorter assessing awards if you only work in one setting.
Quality assuring assessors
This award. Sampling, standardisation and the audit trail behind them.
Overseeing without sampling
There is a knowledge only version at the same level. Tell us what the role actually involves and we will point you at the right one.
Course content
What you will cover
The qualification is structured around the management of health and safety and the practical application of risk assessment.
Understanding the principles and practices of internally assuring the quality of assessment
- The functions of internal quality assurance in learning and development
- Key concepts and principles, and the regulatory requirements
- Planning, sampling and standardisation in theory
- The knowledge unit
Internally assure the quality of assessment
- Planning and carrying out internal quality assurance of real assessments
- Making quality assurance decisions and recording them
- Giving assessors developmental feedback
- Managing information and maintaining legal and good practice requirements
- The practical unit, and the one that needs access to assessors
Method of assessment
How the Level 4 IQA Award is assessed
A portfolio of evidence, internally assessed and externally quality assured, which is the same process you will be running yourself.
The knowledge unit
Written work covering the principles, practices and regulatory requirements of internal quality assurance. You can make progress on this before you have assessors to sample.
Quality assure real assessors
You plan and carry out internal quality assurance on real assessment decisions, give feedback to the assessors and record it properly.
Portfolio and certification
Your evidence is internally assessed and externally quality assured before the award is issued.
Ways to learn
How you can take this course
Every route covers the same accredited syllabus and the same support. Pick the one that fits how your people work.
Classroom
Tutor-led at one of our centres, with everything provided.
Ask us to open a classroom date →or ask MB nowLive online
The same tutor and the same timetable, joined from anywhere.
Ask us to open a live online date →or ask MB nowDates and locations
Arrange this course
There are no scheduled dates for this course at the moment. It is normally arranged around you.
Tell us roughly when you need it and how many people are going, and we will come back with dates and a price.
Also available
In-company training
We run this one to order, at your place or ours.
Onsite / in-company
Run Level 4 IQA at your site
We deliver anywhere in the UK, on your dates and around your shift patterns. For six or more people it is usually cheaper per head than sending everyone to a centre, and nobody loses a day travelling.
Tell us roughly how many people and when, and we will come back with options and a price, or ask MB and get an answer straight away.
What onsite includes
- The same tutor, materials and certification as our centres
- Your venue or one we arrange near you
- Dates and start times built around your operation
- One invoice and one point of contact for the whole group
- Content examples drawn from your own workplace
Level 4 IQA FAQs
Samples assessment decisions, standardises assessors so the same evidence gets the same judgement, gives assessors feedback, and keeps the records an external quality assurer will ask to see. The subject is the assessment process rather than the learner.
Not formally, and it is not a stated entry requirement. In practice most people assess before they quality assure, because it is hard to sample decisions you have never had to make. Tell us where you are and we will be straight with you about whether to do CAVA first.
Two units and 12 credits. The knowledge unit you can get on with straight away; the practical unit moves at the speed of the assessments you have to sample.
Yes, for the practical unit. You have to quality assure real assessment decisions made by real assessors. If your centre has not got assessors in place yet, sort that first, because it is what stalls people.
Yes, a knowledge only award at the same level, which suits somebody who needs to understand internal quality assurance without carrying it out. It will not satisfy an awarding organisation that wants a qualified IQA in post, so check what is being asked of you before you choose.
The internal quality assurer works inside the centre, sampling its own assessors. The external quality assurer comes from the awarding organisation and checks the centre, including what the IQA has done. This qualification is for the internal role.
Yes, at your own premises, which for a centre team is usually the sensible option because the sampling happens on your own qualifications and your own assessors. Tell us how many and we will come back the same working day.
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