Unit standard assessment
Unit standards specify what a candidate for assessment needs to know, do, and understand. They are not lesson plans or programmes but specify outcomes to be achieved.
- The title is the main outcome
- The elements identify the more detailed outcomes against which candidates are actually assessed
- Everything else in the unit standard is intended to help the assessor make a quality judgement about whether a person achieves the required standard.
The following document includes definitions and explanations of the various parts of a unit standard that provide important information for assessors.
Definitions and explanations - view in Word 
or PDF 
If you are a teacher, tutor or trainer as well as an assessor, you need to distinguish between what is to be covered in the learning programme and what is to be assessed by the unit standard. You need to make your own judgement about what you need to cover, based on the needs of your learners. The emphasis in a unit standard is on what is required to make a valid assessment judgement rather than what is required to be learnt, or how work must be done in detail.
Candidates are assessed against the outcomes as expressed in the elements. Performance criteria do not express outcomes. They and any range statements collectively indicate the evidence that an assessor must consider when making a judgement as to whether a candidate has achieved the desired outcome.
This is consistent with current best practice assessment where the element, rather than the performance criteria, is the basis of assessment judgements. Undue focus on the performance criteria often leads to over-assessment.
Assessment therefore involves:
- collecting evidence (as indicated by performance criteria and range statements) and making judgements (at element level) about a candidate's performance
- assessing against specific standards
It's useful to distinguish between task assessment and evidence assessment. As an assessor, you can provide candidates with a specific task to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in relation to the elements of a unit standard, or you can provide them with an evidence guide so they can sift through work they've already done to find something (or a range of things) they've done that matches all the criteria specified. Usually, a task is provided to a 'learner', whereas an evidence guide may be given to a more experienced candidate. Both types of assessment can be used in provider and workplace settings.
Whether it's by task or evidence, assessment can involve using a variety of methods and approaches (appropriate to the candidate and the context) that give the candidate the opportunity to show competence. Examples of possible methods are given in the following document.
Possible assessment tools and approaches for gathering evidence - view in Word or PDF
This section includes assessment ideas for unit standards 2781 and 2791, and information about portfolio and integrated assessment. Don't forget to take account of evidence that occurs naturally, as part of a classroom or workplace situation.
- Best Practice in the Assessment of Unit Standards
- Appendix 1 of Learning and Assessment: A Guide to Assessment for the National Qualifications Framework - useful source for the principles of good assessment - also has a good section on sources of evidence.
Page updated: 17 May 2004