NEWSLETTER

Spring 2008

Witness Statement Vs “Good Guy” Reference:               
What’s the difference?
An S/NVQ assessor has to ensure that the evidence presented by a candidate is valid, reliable, safe and manageable, and suitable to the needs of the candidate. The most suitable methods for assessment are generally listed as observation, examination of the candidate’s real work evidence, questioning, professional discussion, and witness statements. I am going to concentrate on witness statements because, as an internal and external verifier, I am frequently faced by so called witness statements that say no more than the candidate is a nice, hard-working person, who turns up for work punctually, in other words “good guy” references.

First of all, why have witness statements? Because an assessor only carries out observations infrequently and therefore cannot be absolutely certain that the candidate performs tasks competently when the assessor is not around; plus, the assessor cannot be absolutely certain that personal statements, answers to written questions, or examples of work product are as a result of the candidate’s own work. For example, I could write a wonderful account of how I can ice a cake competently, and accompany the personal statement with a photograph of an iced cake; after all I did attend a cake icing class at College some years ago. The truth of the matter is that, whilst I know how to ice a cake, I never did master the skills, and the photograph could be of someone else’s cake. And as for working well with colleagues - I could be an idle, “job’s worth” kind of a person who only comes to work and goes home again without contributing any effort at all to liaising with colleagues in order to establish priorities, better ways of working, or areas for improvement in my own practice, although I could write myself a glowing testimony about how wonderful I am as a colleague. So the answer to the first question has to be - in order to authenticate the evidence presented by a candidate. Professional discussion may overcome any issues about authenticity as I could “put my foot in it” and say either too much or too little that would lead the assessor to thinking that I am bluffing my way through things, or I could be an accomplished and believable liar, blessed with a “silver tongue” – so it is not a fool-proof method of assessment (however, I do strongly recommend it as a strategy for developing candidate presentation skills that may come in handy should they need to be interviewed for another job in future).

“Ah but! “ you might say, “that’s all well and good, but how do I as an assessor get witness statements out of witnesses who say they are far too busy to write them?” Well the answer to this second question is actually quite straightforward. Don’t ask them to write witness statements - ask them oral questions and record the answers. Either you could take notes of the conversation and ask the witness to sign them as a true record, or you could use a digital recorder to record your “professional discussion”. Other methods include the candidate asking the witness to add comments to their personal statements after reading them in order to show agreement, or a witness statement pro forma could be devised that sets out the competences being claimed (a tip here is to use the content of Unit Overviews where these exist) and request further comments (tick sheets are of no value at all unless accompanied by significant witness comments - so recommend you avoid that pitfall if you intend going for the witness pro forma method). It should be noted, however, that there are additional benefits to be had by using the witness interview strategy because it enables the assessor to inform the witness, who is ideally a line manager, on the progress of the candidate and to mutually negotiate ways of overcoming any barriers to achievement that may have been identified during planning.

Preparation for Employment                         January2008
Welfare to Work plans have been published by the Tories. One question they answer is, “How long should someone languish on Jobseekers’ Allowance before you offer them a different kind of help?” Their answer is, “Two years.” Most readers in the further education and skills sector would agree that any length of time spent off work is often accompanied by a profound reduction in workplace efficiency and diminished self-confidence on return to work. It is possible, therefore, that there may be something in this idea. The envisaged national network of Welfare to Work providers and community placements could be set up relatively easily. Many providers in the sector already have the personnel, resources and skills to meet the challenge and would be keen to get involved.
David Cameron said: “Those who can work should; those who can’t should be supported.” I am sure a well designed and funded Welfare to Work initiative would see significant reductions in the numbers of those dependent on benefits of various kinds, for example, Incapacity Benefit, where the numbers hover at over two and a half million.
At the same time John Denham has been pushing a third of England’s young people to “Be the First To Go!” i.e. into HE in their family. Why on earth would they want to? Just how many lightweight Film Studies and Peace Studies graduates do we need in a country without sufficient plumbers and electricians?
For a more relevant solution consider the following case history:
50,000 people work in the food and drink manufacturing industry in Scotland, an industry that delivers almost a quarter of the country’s manufacturing turnover. Yet the industry couldn’t muster 100 apprentices on programme. So what’s the answer?
The answer is a new better thought through Modern Apprenticeship that will stop a seven and a half billion pound industry from grinding to a halt. Now separate apprenticeships have been scrapped and replaced with a generic MA in Food Manufacture. The new flexible modular framework with an emphasis on work based assessment has been backed by all the key representative bodies. Employers are confident it will deliver the skills the industry needs because Improve, the SSC, has listened to what employers said they wanted.
Some of the best news to come into the IVA office recently has been the success of the national promotion of Going to Work by those excellent ambassadors for industry the winners of the National Training Awards. Winners have visited their former secondary schools passing on the good news that Going to Work Doesn’t Damage Your Health. The opportunity for young people to meet the very best trainees from industry has done much to raise awareness and has proved inspirational for those tentatively considering entering the world of work but under pressure from many quarters to remain in the academic world.
Generally applicable excellent advice to young people is this:
“Work hard at school, leave school as soon as you are able, get a job with quality vocational training, live happily ever after.”
Lawrence Miles, Chief Officer IVA

Gamekeeper turned poacher
I have been an assessor and verifier in a number of different areas since NVQs started; this has included training and assessing assessors for their D32, D33 and A1. Other than doing my assessor qualifications I have to admit that I have not actually done an NVQ myself and did not know how it felt to be a candidate, although I thought I did. I have recently completed an NVQ and as an assessor turned candidate I have to say that it was a bit of an eye opener.

Firstly, I should give some background into how I came to be doing an NVQ at long last. Over the last two years I have been managing a project funded by the Learning & Skills Council and the European Social Fund to train and assess nurses and managers in care homes for their A1 award. Having found that I liked the care home environment I decided I would like to be able to assess people in health and social care rather than just the assessors.

To do this I needed to gain experience and get the NVQ myself. So I began working towards my Level 3 NVQ in Health and Social Care. I was able to do this through The JGA Group in Ruislip and a Nursing Home in Sutton.

Although I knew what embarking on an NVQ entailed, seeing it from the other side gives a whole new perspective. Since early last year I have been working at the nursing home two days a week. Among many other new experiences I was to come across, the first was the need to get up at 5.30 in the morning; something that as an assessor I have not experienced too often before, other than maybe to go on holiday.

Having taken this new step in my career I have learnt a tremendous amount and it is not an exaggeration to say that it has been a life changing experience caring for the elderly. This experience has also helped me as an assessor and the following points outline some of what I have learned from it.

•     Evidence Record Sheets - this was one of the biggest eye openers for me. Like all assessors, I am aware that most candidates find these difficult. I have spent years teaching and helping candidates to fill them in. But I was unprepared for how difficult I found it when it came down to doing it myself. The tick sheet I used had a column for “location” and I quite often put the nursing home down as this is where I had done the work. What was actually required was to state where the evidence is located e.g. portfolio or filing cabinet in the office. Somehow or other I also managed to put ticks in the wrong places or started logging in the evidence on the wrong sheet for that element. I like to think that I have shown patience with my candidates when they were having difficulties, but I really couldn’t understand why they found it so difficult. Now I can.

•     The NVQ standards – I found it difficult to get to know the standards. When you are doing everything just the once as a candidate (unlike assessors who also have to get to know the standards, but get a chance to go over them again and again), it becomes a big undertaking to keep checking and cross-referring between the documentation because of the sheer amount and level of detail, especially when you are just starting the NVQ. It did seem an awful lot to contend with. Being rather overwhelmed by how much there was to cover I appreciated clear guidance from my assessor as to where I should begin.

I can now understand why candidates don’t remember the unit numbers of all the units they are doing. Again, this is something that I couldn’t understand before. I also now appreciate that the candidate is trying to get to grips with the standards on top of everything else, whereas for the assessor that is their job. This further highlighted for me what a difficult task we are asking candidates to do when we expect them to be able to cross reference evidence for themselves.

Another difficulty I had, because I was not very familiar with the standards, was that although I could remember there were certain performance criteria that needed to be covered and I had just done something that I knew would go towards it, I couldn’t quite remember where the PCs were. This was quite time consuming and would have got tedious without my assessor’s help. As an assessor it made me think that I should spend more time going through the standards with the candidates. I had moved away from this approach because I thought it was boring for the candidate, but I now think that maybe it does help the candidate, especially if you do it in small chunks. In future I shall certainly ask them if they would like me to go through it in a bit more detail.

•     Language – even though I am used to NVQ language, many times I couldn’t work out what some of the performance criteria meant in practice. Once my assessor explained I thought, “Oh, is that all it means!” I’m sure all assessors have experienced this with their candidates and I found that I was no different.

•     Witness Statements – as all assessors will know these can be difficult to obtain. In my case it was easier as my assessor was the matron, and her influence was invaluable in obtaining them. However, again it was highlighted to me how in other circumstances this would be more difficult as the nurses and carers (as well as other people) often don’t know what to say. This can be particularly the case in the care setting where many staff are ‘hands on’ people and not particularly drawn to paperwork. Also it can be very difficult for them to find time to write them or they have to do it in their own time. Taping witness statements might help if people don’t mind subjecting themselves to this or speaking to the witness and recording what they say might help.

•     Order of tackling the units – Following the recommended route of doing the optional units first worked well and saved a lot of duplicated effort. I also found that quite early on I was accumulating a lot of evidence for the mandatory units. As you will have no doubt experienced, many candidates do not like this approach and want to start at Unit 1 and work through in numerical order. Based on this experience I will certainly try harder to convince the candidates of the advantages of doing the optional units first. I didn’t have a problem with having several units on the go but can understand that people might. I did find though, that it was difficult finishing some units off as there were just a few performance criteria to address and this took a while to finalise.

•     Knowledge – it brought home to me how some knowledge can be researched, such as the legislation relevant to a particular aspect of care, whereas some knowledge can only be gained from experience. This was a good reminder to me as an assessor to think carefully about the most appropriate way to assess knowledge and to check that it is being applied.

•     Time spent – I was surprised by how much time outside of work was taken in researching information and writing reflective and personal accounts. Having said that, it was my choice to write some of the knowledge and I did write quite lengthy reflective accounts. The flexibility of the NVQ system and my assessor allowed me to do this. I wasn’t that keen on using the tape method, although I do use it for my own candidates where appropriate, because I wanted time to think about the questions, research answers where necessary and be able to take more time in formulating my answers.

•     Structure of the NVQ – I really enjoyed being able to work at my own pace and liked the amount of choice you have in the units that you take. I needed to do four mandatory units and four optional units. There was plenty of choice so that at no time did I have to work on areas that didn’t interest me, unlike more traditional qualifications. I wanted to complete my NVQ as quickly as I could and my assessor helped me achieve this. As she was an in-house assessor we met up at least once a week to work on my NVQ. This is much more frequent than I could ever manage, or afford to do as a freelance assessor with my own candidates, but I did find that this frequent and regular support was extremely helpful, although it did put the pressure on to get things done sometimes.

Having clear targets that we had both agreed was a good reminder to me of how important this is. As we know, the flexibility of NVQs has its pros and cons, especially when it drags on for various reasons and the candidate loses motivation. What I also realised is that a lot of the time you are working on the NVQ after work when you are tired or at the weekend, which is not always ideal and not everyone can do this.

•     Support from other staff – there were several carers at the nursing home who had recently completed their NVQs and they were tremendously encouraging. Their support really helped me, especially in the early days when there seemed so much to cover. It was also very important to me because they knew what was required; their encouragement was based on reality as they had been through it themselves. This has reminded me how important it is when you have a candidate taking an NVQ on their own to offer to put them in touch with other people doing a similar NVQ. I did know this but find it all too easy to forget when I am busy.

•     Signing off units and the IV process – I had underestimated how rewarding it is to have a unit signed off and how encouraging it can be. Also, when the IV takes your work away to sample, either formatively, or especially, summatively, I can now better appreciate how you want to hear what they think and why candidates chase you up as the assessor to hear whether any more work is needed. I think I will be more patient in future when this happens. Although I expect other assessors will have found, as I have, that it is usually the candidates who have taken forever with their NVQ who then chase you up in no time to hear how they got on.

I have just heard that my evidence portfolio has not only been seen by the internal verifier but by the external verifier as well and that everything has been approved. Given my experience of putting other work forward for internal and external verification I didn’t expect this to happen so quickly. So now I am looking forward to starting off with my own candidates.

I have found taking this NVQ to be a really positive experience and have appreciated the flexibility it gave me, not only in the choice of areas that I could cover, but being able to fit it in around my other work as well. I also liked the assessment procedure in that I could gain experience and be assessed when I was ready; and the fact that there were no exams. The experience has also renewed my commitment to NVQs. It can be disheartening sometimes; I seem to meet so many people who still haven’t heard of them, but this has reminded me of the positive aspects. It was also a good reminder, bearing in mind all the slip ups and problems that I had, that Miss Smarty Pants is really no different from everyone else.

I would like to thank my assessor, Emma Langbridge and my internal verifier, Dorothy Cromwell for all their help and encouragement.

Isabel Chaney MIVA
thechaneypartnership@yahoo.com

Nice NEETS                                        Autumn 2007
We have reared a nation of e-reclusives, adolescents and those in their twenties who only have virtual friends and e-experiences, for whom staying in is the new going out; who spend more time on the Internet than watching television, itself chewing gum for the eyes. This problem is hidden by the capacity of relatively affluent working and middle class parents to put no pressure on these parasitic singles and absorb the costs of supporting their offspring while they dream of unearned celebrity or fail to make a career choice. It is phenomena like this that creates the wasted talent, the untapped potential and unrealised ability referred to in this Summer’s now forgotten Jobs Pledge. The rise of the “Nice NEET” (Not in Employment, Education or Training and not being rowdy in High Street groups) is particularly insidious because the numbers grow without riot or civil commotion; they don’t even need a quick fix cash injection to cosmeticise unemployment figures. They are, however, a drain on our resources and deplete the necessary reserve of talent, ability and energy the UK needs.
Where did we go wrong? In 1950 three workers from the shoe factory in Stone, Staffordshire decided to visit London to see the Festival of Britain. They borrowed a tent, hitchhiked to London via the A34 and Coventry by-pass, pitched camp in Hyde Park, visited the Exhibition on the South Bank, saw the sights and hitched back. Unremarkable until you realise that these resourceful workers were 15 years old!
Where could we go right? Stop giving Big Business so much of the money from the national training budget, they don’t need it, they train anyway and their recruitment levels will not be linked or driven by political pledges. Recognise that dynamic UK is small business: innovative, energetic, optimistic but with tight margins. A formula that could encourage smaller businesses to take on staff linked to the provision of quality training and re-skilling available locally via FE colleges and training providers. Lowering the compulsory school leaving age would probably help too as well as re-establishing the inevitability of Work rather than having it as an avoidable option in a distant future.
Lawrence Miles, Chief Officer IVA