What is Internal Quality Assurance?

The function of Internal Quality Assurance is to:

• Monitor the quality of assessment judgements
• Ensure consistent and reliable assessment judgements are made across a provider
• Highlight any problems, trends and development needs of assessors
• Ensure all procedures and policies within a provider are adhered to and maintained by staff.

Internal quality assurance measures learner achievements, assessor judgements, assessor knowledge and the standard of processes and procedures within a provider. This is in order to ensure learners can achieve qualifications, assessors are making the correct assessment judgements and a provider is offering a high quality service. IQA activities also ensure staff working within a provider are qualified and competent.

Internal Quality Assurance Reviews:

• The knowledge, experience and competency of Assessors
• How well learners meet the assessment criteria and learning outcomes of a qualification
• The assessment judgements made by assessors
• The standards of assessment and delivery sessions
• The records and reports kept by a provider, such as IQA Reports, sampling plans etc.

The four main elements related to internal quality assurance include:

• Sampling – Reviewing learner evidence and assessor judgements and feedback
• Standardisation – Ensuring all assessors who deliver and assess on a qualification are doing so to the same standards.
• Observation – Observing assessor practice ensures that delivery and assessment of a qualification or course is done so to the correct standard
• Feedback – Obtaining and analysing learner feedback on their experiences within a provider.

IQA includes monitoring the training and assessment activities and the quality of evidence learners produce. Internal quality assurance helps to ensure that assessments and IQA activities are valid, authentic, sufficient, fair and reliable.

Internal quality assurance measures the quality, delivery, processes, procedures and learner achievements.

Key Concepts and Principles of Internal Quality Assurance of Assessment include:-

• ensuring quality standards throughout the learner journey
• ensuring accuracy and consistency of assessment decisions made by assessors
• identifying issues and trends that develop
• supporting and developing assessors and tutors
• ensuring accountability for assessment decisions and quality standards, awarding body procedures and policies are maintained
• ensuring achievement made by learners and judged by assessors is recognised and meets the grading criteria
• ensuring the correct and appropriate assessment strategies are used by assessors
• ensuring confidently of the learner and provider are maintained at all times
• ensuring sampling both interim and summative is occurring.

Internal quality assurance principles include; ensuring standardisation activities take place, assessment decisions embrace inclusion, equality is promoted with learners and the diversity of learners is valued by all staff. IQA ensures fairness is apparent in all assessment judgements and that clear and auditable records are held securely within a provider.

Other principles of IQA include maintaining health and safety practices, ensuring all centre employees have access to training and CPD activities. IQA must also ensure assessors and staff members are motivated and that clear communication between all provider employees takes place regularly.