What is the role of the assessment centres?
Assessment centres handle registrations and assess the competence of candidates. In principle, any organisation can perform this function. However, a nationally accredited awarding body must approve a centre that wants to offer NVQs in this way. An approved centre must demonstrate that it has in place systems designed to support you and meet a set of national criteria for assessment centres. These criteria are designed to make sure that centres have in place: • a system of assessment which is fair and consistent • a system of internal verification which is robust and guarantees that the national occupational standards are being adhered to when assessors are making assessment decisions. In addition, centres must understand what forecasters and observers are required to do. Therefore, although technically possible, it is unlikely that local colleges of Further Education, who are assessment centres for some NVQs, will have the necessary experience to seek approval for the assessment of NV
