Internal Verification - Quality Assurance

IQA Quality Assurance

What is Quality Assurance?

Quality assurance refers to a continuous process that is embedded in the design and delivery of a qualification to ensure its validity, integrity and value.

What is internal verification?

Internal Verification (IV) also known as Internal Quality Assurance (IQA), is the process for planning, sampling, monitoring, evaluating and keeping detailed records of training and assessment. Internal verification happens at regular intervals and continues throughout the learner’s training journey.

What is the purpose of internal verification?

Training centres have the responsibility of ensuring that their system of quality assurance is an effective and well documented one.  They should also ensure that the system is based on the principles of assessment, which state that assessments carried out during the course of training should produce outcomes that are:

• Valid – evidence produced must meet all learning outcomes and assessment criteria.
• Authentic – work produced by the learner.
• Reliable – assessment tools should produce consistent results.
• Current – assessment evidence is up-to-date.
• Sufficient – the learner produced enough evidence on which the assessor can make a judgement.
• Fair – the design of a program does not limit or stop a learner from completing it irrespective of their characteristics. For example; gender, ethnicity, age etc.

Benefits of internal verification

Having an effective internal verification system brings many benefits to centres. These may include:

• Enables and ensures fair, accurate and consistent assessment judgements across all centres.
•  Ensures that all staff understand standards and can apply them.
•  Ensures that any quality concern is captured.
•  Facilitates collaboration with external colleagues.
•  Help protects assessors from decision challenges to their professional decisions.
• Ensuring the record-keeping and assessment decisions are right.

Who is an internal verifier?

This is the person that monitor and support both the tutor and assessor.

Roles of the Internal Verifier (IV)

• Develop, monitor and evaluate the internal quality assurance processes.
• Assist in the development of programs of learning.
• Monitor the quality of tutors/assessor’s performance.
• Ensure the standardization of assessment
• Ensuring compliance with awarding body requirements
• Provide support, give feedback and report on the performance of  tutors/assessors. 
• Ensure the completion, filing and safe storage of evidence.  
• Assist in the development of marketing and promotional materials for training programs.