Communications to centres: Ofqual’s Extended Extraordinary Regulatory Framework (Update 1)
Assessments in 2020/21
We hope that you and your learners have settled into the new academic year, and you are keeping safe and well. You are probably thinking about how to manage your assessments over the next months and we at ESB International (Ltd). are working on how we can ensure that assessments can go ahead, if local or national conditions prevent our assessors from coming to your centre.
Our priority is to offer face-to-face assessments, so that your learners can have the experience of demonstrating all the skills they have developed to an ESB International assessor who is in the room with them. We have protocols to keep the learners, teachers and assessors as safe as possible, and will follow all your centre’s procedures as well.
However, we must also prepare for times when the local or national situation prevents assessors from coming to centres.
How your assessments can continue if the local or national situation prevents assessors from coming to centres
The great news is most ESB assessments can go ahead with synchronous live assessment using video conferencing tools. Ofqual, our regulator, has released the Extended Extraordinary Regulatory Framework (read more here: EERF), which permits Awarding Organisations to offer adapted assessments when they are required, for example if you cannot have an assessor in your centre, or the assessor cannot travel, and so for most qualifications, we will be offering synchronous (live), online assessment when it is needed, using the video-conferencing software that your learners are used to. We have already offered this adaptation in the summer, and the learners, assessors and teachers found it to be valid, reliable and a very positive experience. For some qualifications, asynchronous, recorded assessment may also be possible if it is required. There are a few qualifications that cannot be adapted using asynchronous digital assessments, which can only be assessed synchronously.
When can I have the list of qualifications that can be adapted and the detail of what will happen with my learners?
Detailed information about each qualification, how we are adapting it, and what centres and learners need to do to prepare are in the guidance documents that we will be releasing on Monday 2nd November.
If you have any questions about assessments in the meantime, please email product@esbuk.org. We wish you all a restful and healthy half-term, and are very much looking forward to working with you in 2020 and 2021.