Assessment Policy and Procedure

In line with Standards for RTO (SRTO) 2015 and ESOS National Code 2018 Vocational Training Institute (VTI) outlines the procedures for planning, conducting and reviewing assessments to ensure that the integrity and academic standards are maintained and safeguarded. VTI will ensure that all assessments of competencies comply with the current and relevant training packages and are consistent with the SRTO 2015 and VET Quality Framework. The purpose of this procedure is to ensure that the VTI meets the requirements under the SRTO 2015 for conducting assessments and to ensure that the assessment of competencies is conducted with integrity, honesty and fairness, via the establishment of a system of preparing, marking and recording the assessment of learning outcome.

This policy applies to all student and associated staff. This policy addresses the VTI’s preparation of assessments, administering/conducting, marking assessments, and re-assessment opportunities. Assessment is conducted using a range of instruments comprising written knowledge tests, reports, projects, demonstration, role play, observation etc.

Academic Misconduct: A breach of rules in relation to impeding the integrity of the assessment/examination and enabling unfair advantage or deceiving the assessor.

Assessment: The process of collecting evidence and formulating a judgment as to whether competency has been achieved at a satisfactory level.

Assessor Requirements: All assessments are undertaken by suitable qualified Assessors who have both assessor competencies and vocational competencies at least to the level being assessed.

AQF: Australian Quality Framework.

AQF Level: AQF levels are an indication of the relative complexity and/or depth of achievement and the autonomy required to demonstrate that achievement. AQF level 1 has the lowest complexity and AQF level 10 has the highest complexity

Competent: A student is deemed Competent when they have satisfactorily met all the requirements of the unit of competency.

COE: Confirmation of Enrolment.

Intervention Strategies: A range of specialised teaching and learning strategies to facilitate learning for those students considered ‘at risk’.

Moderation: The process of establishing comparability in standards of student performance in order to ensure that assessment evidence collected is sufficient, valid, fair and reliable.

Not Yet Competent (NYC): A student is deemed as Not Yet Competent when they have not met all the requirements of the unit of competency to the specified standard.

Plagiarism: Intellectual theft, either deliberate or unintentional, where a student uses or copies from another person’s work or ideas, without due care to appropriately reference and acknowledge the original source.

All cases of plagiarism, cheating and collusion are treated as a serious matter. Depending on severity and circumstances, penalties of plagiarism, cheating and collusion may include one or more of the following:

Unit of Competency: It is the smallest component of a Training Package that can be assessed and recognised. It gives a description of the skills and knowledge required to perform effectively to a specific standard in a particular workplace role or function.

Unit of Competency Academic Integrity Checklist: It’s a tool to ensure the integrity of the assessment records and the assessment completed by students and assessed by the assessors and the assessment submitted by the student must meet Rules of Evidence.

Validation: The act of reviewing, comparing and evaluating the assessment processes, tools and evidence contributing to judgments made by a range of assessors against the same competency standards.

4.1 Student Rights

Students have the right to:

4.2 Student Responsibilities

Students are expected to:

Fairness: the individual student’s needs are considered in the assessment process; where appropriate, reasonable adjustments are applied by VTI to consider the individual student’s needs. VTI informs the student about the assessment process, and provides the student with the opportunity to challenge the result of the assessment and be re-assessed if necessary.

Flexibility: assessment is flexible to the individual student by reflecting the student’s needs, assessing competencies held by the student no matter how or where they have been acquired, and drawing from a range of assessment methods and using those that are appropriate to the context, the unit of competency and associated assessment requirements and the individual.

Reliability: evidence presented for assessment is consistently interpreted and assessment results are comparable irrespective of the assessor conducting the assessment.

Validity: the assessment decision is justified based on the evidence of performance of the individual student. This principle requires:

The Academic Coordinator (or delegate) will provide the appropriate support and instruction to Trainers and Assessors regarding the design, implementation and evaluation of assessments. Assessment in VET courses is conducted in accordance with the Principles of Assessment and the Rules of Evidence.

6.1 Rules of Evidence

Validity: the assessor is assured that the student has the skills, knowledge and attributes as described in the task or unit of competency and associated assessment requirements.

Sufficiency: the assessor is assured that the quality, quantity and relevance of the assessment evidence enable a judgement to be made of a student’s competency.

Currency: the assessor is assured that the assessment evidence demonstrates current competency. This requires assessment evidence to be from the present or the very recent past.

Authenticity: the assessor is assured that the evidence presented for assessment is the student’s own work.

6.2 Forms of Evidence

A range of assessment methods will be used to accommodate the diversity in the learning styles of students and preferences. These assessment methods may include but not limited to:

VTI’sassessment areconsistent with the standards outlined in the relevant training package and satisfies the principles of validity, reliability, flexibility and fairness and includes assessor marking guide. All moderation processes will be developed collaboratively with Trainers and Assessors and all students will receive Competency outlined consistently as per the training package.

The competency outline addresses the following:

All Trainer and Assessor must advise students of the following aspects of assessment prior to commencement of the unit of competency:

VTI ensures to engage fully qualified trainers and assessors meeting all the requirements and must have current knowledge and skills in the relevant industry area and at least to the level being delivered. (Ref: Trainers and Assessors Policy)

Reasonable adjustment will be provided for students with special learning needs (such as a disability or learning difficulty) according to the nature of the learning need. Evidence collection can be adjusted to suit individual student needs if required and agreed by the student. Reasonable adjustments are made to ensure that the participant is not presented with artificial barriers to demonstrating achievement in the program of study. Reasonable adjustments may include the use of adaptive technology, educational support, and alternative methods of assessment such as oral assessment. All students will be given review of current competencies including literacy and numeracy prior to commencement of the course. The learning need identified from this review will form the basis of any adjustment to the train program and assessment strategies will be agreed with the student. Any adjustments will be recorded in the student file and will not compromise the competency standard.

Knowledge questions are designed to help to demonstrate the knowledge acquired during the unit. These questions can be completed in a variety of ways including:

The specified way (open or closed), mode (handwritten or typed), timing, location (own time or classroom) to conduct knowledge test has been described in assessment instructions for both student and assessor.

For the knowledge test, all the questions need to be answered correctly and all the responses must demonstrate the required breadth and depth of knowledge at the required AQF level of the qualification in order to achieve satisfactory outcome.

Where student has submitted any incorrect response, student must resubmit incorrect answers as per resubmission opportunities after feedback in agreed given timeframe.

Appropriate documentation is mandatory in case of any reasonable adjustment made by assessor (For e.g.: if assessor has received any verbal response of any incorrect answer or handwritten rectification/correction of answer where the original submission was typed etc.) in order to meet the principles of assessment and rules of evidences.

Role plays are used to assess student’s knowledge and skills where they don’t have the benefit of a workplace or where it would be inappropriate to assess the particular skill in their workplace. Role play are usually carried out in a simulated workplace environment. 

Assessors must use appropriate strategies in order to conduct role play in such a manner not to breach the principle of assessment and gather valid, reliable, fair and flexible evidences. 

When conducted and assessing role plays and simulations, it is recommended that Assessor must:

In cases where a student is unable to attend a practical examination at the scheduled time, they must advise their Trainer as soon as they are aware of this so that an alternate time can be scheduled. Any missed practical examination time (whether the Trainer is advised or otherwise) will count as an attempt and will result in a grade of NS for that attempt. Any rescheduled practical examination time will count as a resit. If a student then receives a result of NS for their first resit, they will be afforded one final resit (3 attempts in total). It is the responsibility of the student to make themselves available at the time that the trainer reschedules their practical examination – rescheduling is not a negotiation process between trainer and student.

Students are required to submit the assessment by the due date as advised by trainer and assessor prior to the unit commencement. In general, VTI’s mode of submission is hard copy submission (handwritten for written/knowledge test and observation tasks and typed for all other tasks) unless advised in limited circumstances (COVID-19, compelling compassionate circumstances upon approval where email submission is acceptable). Assessment must be submitted by the due date, and the results finalised by the trainer/assessor. Students who would have a Course Progress below<50% in their any term, will receive “Risk Intervention” Letter/Email and Students who would have a Course Progress below <50% in the 2 consecutive terms, will receive “Intention to Report (ITR)” Letter/Email. If the students are not able to complete the assessment within the term, they may require to re-enrol in the unit of competency or may apply for reassessment. Please refer to the reassessment section (Section 20) in this policy for more.

If a student fails to meet the assessment timeline, the student will be asked to provide reason for his/her late submission. If the student has any compassionate/compelling reasons, appropriate evidence is to be received by the Trainer/Assessor before the assignment can be accepted. Compassionate or compelling circumstances may include:

Each assessment item outlines the specified standard that a student must achieve to receive a satisfactory outcome. This will vary between assessment items dependent on the most appropriate method of assessing skills and knowledge described in student assessment task and assessor marking guide for assessor reference. For instance, knowledge test requires student to response all the questions correctly (100%) in order to achieve satisfactory outcome in the task whereas a practical assessment may require demonstration of a technique that the assessor will judge against a set of steps/outcomes.

The recognised training and assessment approach in the VET sector is competency-based. This means there is an emphasis on what a person can do in the workplace as a result of completing a course of training. The following table identifies the results awarded for VET students at VTI (as per assessments):

On completion of each unit, all assessments and results must be finalised by Trainer and Assessor; all supporting evidence collated, common and agreed assessment record sheets compiled. Trainers and Assessor must get approval in advance from the AcademicManager/ delegate if any extension is required to finalise the assessment outcome. Trainers and Assessors are responsible for maintaining their course progress register and providing it to administration staff for updating in Student Management System - (VETtrak) in a scheduled and timely manner as advised. Marked assessments are to be kept in student academic folder placed in locked and secured cabinet. Assessment deemed ‘competent’ at the time of review (during internal auditing) by Academic Manager to ensure that the assessments meet Rules of Evidence. Where the Academic Manager finds the assessment not meeting the Rules of Evidence, he/she has the right to alter the outcome, recall the SoA(‘s) / certificate(s) and request for the learner to be reassessed. The final outcome determined by Academic Manager shall be the official result entered onto Student Management System. Students will not be deemed competence just by submitting Assessment.

The assessor must provide advice the student about the outcomes of the assessment process. This includes providing the student with:

Feedback may be provided in a variety of ways includingWritten and/or verbal comments assessment tasks, class or group discussion on critical aspects of assessment, Individual, face-to-face discussion with the assessor, identification of opportunities for improvement, Email communication. Students are entitled to see their results and received feedback for all the assessment tasks.

i. Students who are deemed NYC may choose to apply for reassessment by submitting a new assignment to their trainer and assessor. They need to make the reassessment request in writing.

ii. VTI will allow students 3 attempts at assessment, i.e. the original assessment and 2 reassessments, to provide sufficient evidence of competency for each unit. The first two attempts incur no cost whereas the third attempt may be chargeable to the Student (AUD $150 per unit).

iii. If student fail to secure competency in the 3rd attempt, there will NOT be a 4th attempt and student will need to reenrol into that particular unit of competency again depending on availability in future intakes for the course as VTI’s schedule. The CoE may be extended if applicable and re enrolment fee will occurs as pro rata basis (refer to Fees and Charges Policy).

iv. If the student does not submit the assessment by the due date the first time and has been awarded NYC, they will be allowed a reassessment opportunity (subject to Academic Manager/delegate approval).

v. All reassessments are subject to following conditions:

1. the learner is being reassessed for the first time for a particular Unit of Competency

2. the reassessment is being conducted as a result of an appeal

1. If the learner is being reassessed for the second time for the same Unit of Competency (refer to Fees and Charges Policy)

2. If the learner was granted NYC as a result of non-attendance or academic misconduct (refer to plagiarism and cheating policy).

Students will not have to pay reassessment fees if the student provides evidence that compassionate or compelling circumstances precluded them from completing an assessment within the period the unit was originally scheduled. Compassionate or compelling circumstances may include:

VTI retains all the completed student assessment items hard copies for a period of six months from the date on which the judgement of competence for the student was made in a fully secured manner. After six months, the shredding of the assessment items, once approved by Academic Managerwill be done in confidential manner and the final result sheet of each assessment will be retained for a period of thirty years.

If a student has not attended any scheduled classes for a unit, the student must redo the unit. The student will not be permitted to do reassessments by simply paying reassessment fees. To redo a unit, the fee will be calculated as full price of the unit (pro rata to course fees) and CoE may be extended if applicable.

The objective of VTI’s quality assurance of academic standards and outcomes is achieved through systematic, established internal processes like regular internal auditing for quality assurance and the maintenance and improvement of academic standards and academic integrity.

Effective governance process and robust internal capability to monitor and continuously improvement of courses of study includes:

Validation: VTI systematically implements ongoing validation of assessment practices and judgements in each course to evaluate quality and drive continuous improvement, it involves checking that assessment practices are in accordance with the Principles of Assessment and judgements are made in accordance with the Rules of Evidence. For more details, please refer to Validation Policy.

This section defines the procedure used for conducting all assessments.

Step 1: Establish the assessment context

The Assessor establishes the context and purpose of the assessment by identifying the relevant competency standards, assessment guidelines and qualification framework and accesses the VTI’s support materials that have been developed to facilitate the learning and assessment process.

Step 2: Prepare the student

The Assessor meets the candidate to:

Step 3: Plan and prepare the evidence gathering process

The Assessor must:

Step 4: Collect evidence and make the assessment decision

The Assessor must:

Step 5: Ensure integrity and quality assurance of assessment

Step 6: Provide feedback on the assessment

The Assessor must provide advice to the student about the outcome of the assessment process. This includes providing the student with:

Step 7: Record and report the result

The Assessor must:

The Administration Staff must:

Step 8: Review and validation of the assessment process

VTI’s Trainers and Assessors are expected to act as internal validators/moderators and follow organisational procedures. Validation checklist is provided to trainers and assessor to assist them in the validation process. Trainers and Assessors must undertake validation of assessment tool/s as directed by the Academic Manager, complete a validation report, and submit it to the Academic Manager.

As requested by VTI, the Trainer and Assessor must be willing to:

Step 9: Participate in reassessment and appeals process

The Assessor must:

Students are encouraged to discuss with Trainer/Assessor their performance in assessment items during a course. Where a student believes that an error has been made or an injustice done in respect of the competency awarded, the student may request a review. This request must:

A student who is dissatisfied with the outcome of the review may lodge a formal complaint through the Complaints and Appeals process.