The high quality of our apprenticeship’s rely heavily on the hard work of our VQ Assessors. But what exactly does their job involve? Alex* and Janet* share their story of a ‘Day in the Life of a VQ Assessor’

Janet’s* story

I have been an assessor for over 15 years and have worked at Voyage Care for five years. My day as an assessor is varied and no two days are the same.

My role is to support learners through apprenticeships in adult care work and lead adult care work (level 2 and 3). I feel my role is an important part of Voyage Care’s commitment to training and developing staff, which in turn leads to improved support for the people we support.

Staff undertaking qualifications in their workplace enables them to learn new skills and increase their knowledge of the job they do, the sector they work in and results in a nationally recognised qualification.
It helps to ensure staff can progress in their chosen career and shows they are valued by the company. I go out to see learners in their workplaces and usually spend two to three hours with a learner. I will do observations of them performing their job role to assess competence. I assess written assignments they have completed and we do discussions around their job role and practice. I also spend time supporting staff with maths and English progression to enable them to achieve functional skills, which is part of the apprenticeship.

My role is very rewarding because I get to see the sense of achievement when someone has worked hard all year and the result is a completed nationally recognised qualification. I also am privileged to see the fantastic work that staff do with the people we support! The individuals let me into their homes and lives and usually like getting involved in supporting the staff member to achieve their qualification.

Another extremely rewarding aspect of my job is when I see staff progression – I have seen learners I have supported through a level 2, progress to a level 3 and achieve promotions from support workers, to senior support workers to deputy managers and managers!

I feel learning and development is so important for a company and the individual staff members and I am proud to be a part of that!

Alex’s* story

Well what can I say, as an assessor it can be crazy, busy, frustrating, changeable, amazing, satisfying, and challenging. But most of all it can be rewarding. What makes it worthwhile is seeing the smiles and joy on a learner’s face when they get their certificates.

These learners have worked so hard and you have seen them progress in knowledge and confidence over the last 12 months. You have see them have up’s and downs as they pass test, or be confused with wording on the criteria but then you see 100% on their file and in most houses getting the promotion they have worked so hard for – it’s that, that makes it worthwhile.

As a VQ Assessor you can see a learner putting into practice their new found knowledge and confidence with the people they support. They can understand conditions and behaviours better to support people to have a much more enjoyable lifestyle – it is very rewarding. Every day is different. Each day you are supporting learning in different houses and the day comes with their own different challenges.

One of the best things about being an assessor is that I meet different people every day, I look forward to going to see not only the learners but also the people we support so I can hear their latest news. I love hearing about how they have completed a new task or been to the disco.  It’s always about how much we can support other, to not only help the learners but to learn ourselves each day too.

*Names have been changed for confidentiality