Building Engineering Services Training (BEST) has announced plans to develop a national network of assessors to help fill the gap in availability of technically competent on-site assessors.
Following consultation with employer groups, trade associations and Sector Skills Council, SummitSkills, BEST’s provision of assessor services will support vocational training within the sector through the introduction of S/NVQ delivery and management, site assessments and adult worker programmes.
“Discussions with leading colleges and training centres supports the view that they would prefer BEST to manage and deliver site based assessments and S/NVQ portfolios, seeing this as highly valuable in the light of the limited availability of qualified college assessors,“ explained John Evans, College Contracts Manager at BEST. “Colleges will continue to provide the classroom training for the Technical Certificate and Key Skills required by apprentices; however, as the S/NVQ element requires evidence of knowledge and competence in the workplace, it makes sense to assess this separately.”
BEST has assessment centre accreditation and has applied to City & Guilds for scheme approval to cover all HVACR S/NVQ apprentices. It will evaluate existing BEST staff assessor qualifications and discuss with employers the development of on-site assessor training, to create a national network of seconded staff assessors. Future plans also include the delivery of adult S/NVQ assessments that will allow employed adults to gain a professional qualification to level two and above.