General Context of Assessment

General Context of Assessment in Terms of the Principles and Mechanisms of the NQF

The NQF has made assessment a practical experience rather than just those who can afford formal study and formal examination and the expense involved. If a learner can show his/her ability to do a task, then this can be used as evidence to gain competence against an NQF-based programme or Unit Standard.

Seeking Inputs From the Learner

The learner should be actively involved in the assessment process and the planning that leads to it for the assessment to have success. There are many inputs the assessor needs to get from the learner.

Sources of Evidence

Evidence can be gathered in many formats, and with experience, you can plan your assessment by directing the learner in terms of the type of evidence that will be required.

Essentially, all Evidence can be classified into only Three Different Categories

Historical - Evidence from prior learning and skills that are mostly used to establish RPL or initial learning during the diagnostic assessment, such as certified copies of certificates from other skills training courses related to the field of learning.

Direct - Evidence that was observed directly by the assessor during the assessment, and some types of naturally-occurring evidence, for example, work samples and observation checklists.

Indirect - Evidence that was given by a 3rd party witness such as performance appraisal by a 3rd party mentor or coach.

Different Unit Standards Call for Different Types of Evidence

Click here to view a video about unit standards.

The review of different unit standards reveals five distinct categories. The categories reflect factors within the standard that indicate the kind of assessment that would be appropriate. Assessment of each type of unit standard is based on evidence that reflects a range from simple direct observations to more complex inferences. There are probably a number of different ways of categorising the unit standards; it was felt that this approach was the most useful in the current situation.

The categories are as follows:

Unit standards with a strong interactional component – this set of unit standards is simple, with a strong emphasis on procedure, although the unit standard requires a focus on the interactional skills of the learner.

Unit standards with a transactional focus – this refers to service delivery and operationally focused unit standards.

Unit standards require a wide range of knowledge required for effective application – this type of unit standard is common in banking, where an individual is required to apply a wide range of knowledge to carry out a relatively simple procedure.

Unit standards focused on a moderate degree of problem-solving.

Unit standards focused on a high degree of problem-solving.

The assessment of each category of the unit standard is based on the type of evidence required. The evidence required range from simple direct on-the-job observation to more complex inferences of competence from carefully designed assessment tools.

Click here to download Unit Standard 11575

Click here to download Unit Standard 116172

Click here to download Unit Standard 252026

Click here to download Unit Standard 252021

Click here to download Unit Standard 252042

Click here to download Unit Standard 120300

Lecturer Broadcast: Click here to view an explanation of the different unit standards.

Click here to view a video that explains the SAQA credits.