Centre/Academy Agreement
The purpose of these agreements is to support quality assurance in the issuing of certificates in relation to the qualifications that are awarded by The Learning Machine Ltd. They serve to highlight accountability and therefore contribute to awarness raising in relation to maintaining standards and eradicating malpractice.
{$academy.name} appoints {$USER.name} as Principal Assessor who will be the single point of contact with The Learning Machine Ltd. The Principal Assessor will ensure that the Academy/Centre complies with all the quality assurance requirements specified by The Learning Machine Ltd detailed in the handbook which can be downloaded from the Website. The Principal Assessor will normally be an accredited Assessor Trainer at the highest level of certification that the Academy/Centre is authorised to assess. The Principal Assessor will ensure that local procedures are sufficient to provide consistent outcomes in assessor judgements against the criteria and that these fully conform to the requirements laid out in the handbook. This will include keeping samples of work in digital formats for moderation purposes and overseeing the work of assessors and assessor trainers in the Academy/Centre.
The Principal Assessor should fill in the form below with brief details of the procedures they have adopted for internal quality assurance. The Principal Assessor will be expected to provide evidence of the internal procedures adopted to their Account Manager at the annual visit. As a minimum these should require a standardising meeting at least annually to ensure all the assessors are up to date and to disseminate any feedback from the Account Manager. The Principal Assessor will contact their named Account Manager should any evidence or suspicion of malpractice be discovered and will co-operate fully in any investigation arising from this. The Principal Assessor will also ensure that assessors in the Academy/Centre attend training courses to improve their performance if evidence arises that there are inconsistencies in the work of any individual. The Principal Assessor will ensure that the Academy/Centre's policies on equality of opportunity, access to buildings and relevant legislation. The Academy/Centre will provide The Learning Machine Ltd and the Regulatory Authorities access to the premises, people and records for the purpose of quality assurance should these be required.
Example Centre Quality Assurance statement signed by all Principal Assessors
The Principal Assessor will formally observe the work of each assessor trainer in the Centre on a minimum of one occasion each year. Each assessor will have their work formally observed by an assessor trainer on a minimum of one occasion per year in keeping with the Centre’s existing internal quality assurance procedures. The outcomes of the observation will be recorded in summary together with any specific points of action. Where points of action are related directly to maintaining assessment standards, the action points will be evaluated by a specific date and the outcomes summarised in writing. In the first instance, the Principal Assessor will arrange further training for any assessor that provides any cause for concern in meeting the requirements for consistency. The Principal Assessor will review any action points and outcomes and will inform the Account Manager at The Learning Machine Ltd in any cases where there is a risk that standards could be inconsistent or uncertain. In such cases the Principal Assessor will keep samples of work or written commentary on observation as evidence of the issues involved.
The Principal Assessor will convene an annual meeting of assessors within the centre to share ideas related to assessment and to ensure consistency in making judgements about levels. A summary of the findings and any action points will be shared with the Account Manger from the Learning Machine at the annual moderation meeting.
The Centre will keep evidence from its quality assurance to monitor its own standards over time and will provide evidence on request to The Learning Machine to contribute to the monitoring of standards over time for the whole programme. The Principal Assessor will take responsibility for this work. The Centre will keep basic statistical evidence such as the number of candidates each year achieving each of the levels and the number of candidates each year progressing between levels. This will inform judgements about institutional performance and improvement in line with existing policies across subjects.
Principal Assessor Agreement Signed by all Principal Assessors
The Principal Assessor will formally observe the work of each assessor trainer in the Centre on a minimum of one occasion each year. Each assessor will have their work formally observed by an assessor trainer on a minimum of one occasion per year in keeping with the Centre’s existing internal quality assurance procedures. The outcomes of the observation will be recorded in summary together with any specific points of action. Where points of action are related directly to maintaining assessment standards, the action points will be evaluated by a specific date and the outcomes summarised in writing. In the first instance, the Principal Assessor will arrange further training for any assessor that provides any cause for concern in meeting the requirements for consistency. The Principal Assessor will review any action points and outcomes and will inform the Account Manager at The Learning Machine Ltd in any cases where there is a risk that standards could be inconsistent or uncertain. In such cases the Principal Assessor will keep samples of work or written commentary on observation as evidence of the issues involved.
The Principal Assessor will convene an annual meeting of assessors within the centre to share ideas related to assessment and to ensure consistency in making judgements about levels. A summary of the findings and any action points will be shared with the Account Manger from the Learning Machine at the annual moderation meeting. The Centre will keep evidence from its quality assurance to monitor its own standards over time and will provide evidence on request to The Learning Machine to contribute to the monitoring of standards over time for the whole programme. The Principal Assessor will take responsibility for this work. The Centre will keep basic statistical evidence such as the number of candidates each year achieving each of the levels and the number of candidates each year progressing between levels. This will inform judgements about institutional performance and improvement in line with existing policies across subjects.
Assessor Trainer Agreement Signed by all Assessor Trainers
I agree to confer assessor status only to colleagues that I judge to have the experience and competence to make sound judgements at the appropriate level. I will support those that I make assessors particularly in their first year of assessing to ensure that judgements are consistent.
Assessor Agreement Signed by all Assessors
I agree to uphold standards in all aspects of assessment related to the criteria presented on this site. I confirm that any assessment grades entered into this on-line mark book are accurate and are based on evidence that I have witnessed. I confirm that the grades are a fair reflection of the candidate's attainment levels based on the assessment criteria and the support for their interpretation given in the assessors' guides and the general descriptions of attainment at this level. I agree to co-operating fully with the Principal Assessor at my centre and Account Manager at The Learning Machine Ltd in maintaining standards and improving the consistency of assessment judgements including such meetings as are required to compare and maintain standards. I will ensure that a selection of evidence of the candidate's work is available in web pages and other formats to underpin quality assurance. I agree that I will only use the official certificate templates supplied by The Learning Machine Ltd to print certificates and I will only do so when authorised by The Learning Machine when the learners' assessment records are complete. I will not use the certificate templates for any purpose other than to award certificates related to TLM qualifications as supported on this web site. I will make available a means of electronic communication, e-mail or SMS text messaging so that I can be contacted by the Account Manager at The Learning Machine Ltd and I will respond to such contacts within 2 working days. (If you have not arranged a means of contact please use our contacts page at https://tlm.org.uk/contact-us/.)
The statements signed by assessors are available to them in their account profile on the Awards site.
