Trainer development

I ran a session yesterday for a group of assessors in one of the public sector organisations.
A wonderful and dedicated group who participated fully in the day and had a refresher on some of their assessment skills, discussed challenges that are coming up for them in terms of the assessment they do and also spent some time validating their practices.
Some key learnings that came out of the session were:
1. The extent of a robust assessment system. If you take the time to draw who is involved in your assessment system and how many stakeholders there are, I think it is surprising how wide the net goes.
2. In validation, look at all aspects of an assessment system including all pillars in the temple of quality - policies around assessment; systems and processes; human and physical resources.
3. Communication issues came out as being a major hurdle to effective roll-out of assessment - involve the supervisor; give them a briefing on why assessment is so important and also de-brief them on the assessment result. Keep a constant stream of communication going as this adds to building a robust assessment system.
4. Remind ourselves of what it is like to be a candidate and have empathy for candidates - develop a strong code of conduct for assessors that includes confidentiality as well as providing support and being patient as candidates might not have English as a first language.
My hat off to this group of assessors - a true example of what assessors can achieve if they work as a team and support each other in the process.