All of the qualifications are assessed by coursework assignments – there are no exams. For our distance learning courses, there is one assignment for each unit. These are usually in essay format but with prompts or questions to help address each of the assessment criteria (it’s not just a case of ‘write 3000 words about procurement’, it’s more structured).
As they are working through their assignments, students can submit them to us for interim feedback to make sure they are on the right lines and demonstrating understanding of the learning objectives. We won’t give them the answers of course, but we will highlight areas that may need clarification or further explanation.
Once you have acquired enough credits, you will have achieved the qualification.
While this style of assessment suits the vast majority of people, for those who may struggle with the format we can offer alternative forms of assessment. For example, if someone suffers from dyslexia and finds it difficult to write large texts, we can offer the chance to provide audio or video recordings or alternatively facilitate a professional discussion with one of our tutors, where they will be asked a series of questions in a face-to-face interview in order to demonstrate their understanding of the material.
The only exception to this is the Qual-in-a-Week intensive course. This is only available for the Level 4 Award. On this course, the assessment is built into the format of the course and so is undertaken over the course of the week. This can include multiple choice tests, short written answers, presentations and culminates in a professional discussion on the last day, which aims to both test any areas not yet covered as well as give students the opportunity to address any shortcomings they may have had earlier in the course.
The idea behind the intensive course is that all tuition and assessment is completed with the 5-day period. Often on these kind of courses it’s a week of tuition and then students have to go away and complete the assessments in their own time, but the Qual-in-a-Week has been designed so that people complete everything in just a week.
